THEATRE OF DEAF ARRIVES

“All I ask,” said David Hays, artistic director of the National Theatre of the Deaf, “is that you don’t refer to us as the theater for the deaf.”

Hays’ concern is understandable. Since founding the Tony-winning company 20 years ago, he’s continually faced with the misconception that his brand of theater is not accessible to hearing audiences.

“But it is accessible, because we speak--plain, old spoken English--and also do the visual (sign) language. So you can see and hear at the same time. You know, sign language is a great language for emotion, because it comes from the actor’s middle. The voice and body are the same; the body is the voice of the signing action.”

And in the case of their current 12-person touring production, Carson McCullers’ “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” Hays feels the material actually compliments the signing: “The advantage of a book is that we can bring so much of the author’s own words. Their color, the visual language itself brings the words to beautiful stage life.”

The theatre’s California dates include Pepperdine University (Monday), UC Santa Barbara (Tuesday and Wednesday), Citrus College (Thursday), UC Riverside (Friday), El Camino College (Saturday), Merced College (Oct. 26) and the L.J. Williams Theatre in Visalia (Oct. 27).

“It’s not just serious and plodding,” warned actress Barbara Bain of Samuel Beckett’s “Happy Days” (opening Thursday at the Los Angeles Theatre Center). “There’s humor in it, deep amusement. I wouldn’t necessarily call it fall-about comedy, but there’s a lot of very funny, recognizable stuff we can all identify with.”

The unusual feature here is that her character, Winnie (a role she alternates with Angela Paton), spends the play buried waist-deep.

“It might be that one is always up to their whatever in life--or what one has collected around them, the life one has led. It’s a metaphor, certainly, the condition in which I find myself. But I manage to get through the day, make the day happen for me. So it’s about her life and her relationship with her husband--also on stage but not very responsive.”

As for her own physical restraints, Bain (who won a Drama-Logue and L.A. Weekly Award last year for “Wings”) noted: “Movement is one of my pleasures, and--with my dance background--I’m used to using my body. So the limitation is fascinating. It calls for a different kind of work.”

In the memory department as well: “It’s an unbelievable amount of dialogue. Sometimes when material’s thin, you’ve got to fill it in. But this is very strong. So if I’m coming in, I better bring something more than what’s on the page. Otherwise you could stay home and read it.”

There are lots of goings-on in and around the Wallenboyd this month. The lineup includes:

Friday’s debut of Rob Sullivan’s “Flower Ladies and Pistol Kids” and John Fleck’s “I Got the He-Be-She-Be’s” (which artistic director Scott Kelman describes as “having sort of a Halloween feel about it. It deals with subjects like sex, love and punishment”).

Just back is Kedric Robin Wolfe in “Warren’s Story,” which runs to Nov. 27 at Theatre III.

Opening Saturday at the Saxon-Lee Gallery (for three nights only) is “The Humor Conspiracy,” featuring individual entries by Paul Krassner, Peter Bergman, Darryl Henriques and Jan Munroe.

And opening today at the Wallenboyd, following a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, is “Burke Byrnes: America’s Finest,” a semi-stylized autobiographical piece, which Kelman confesses “is one of the few realistic pieces that’s ever turned me on.”