Deaf Theater a Sign of Things to Come for the Hearing-Impaired

Everyone talks to themselves when no one’s around, so have you ever wondered if deaf people talk to themselves in sign language?

With a hearty laugh, deaf actress Freda Norman admits: “Yeah. Yeah, I do sometimes. Just a few little signs, like ‘Oh, did I finish this?’ or ‘Who left this here?’ Not big, clear signing, but I just mumble in sign language.”

Director Ed Waterstreet, who is also deaf, nods in agreement. He directs Norman in the title role in Willy Russell’s contemporary hit play about a British housewife who goes on a Grecian fling. Called “Shirley Valentine,” it was later made into a successful film. This staging of the one-woman play is the second American Sign Language production of Deaf West, a resident company of hearing-impaired theater artists at the Fountain Theatre. Their first production was last year’s “Gin Game.”

“It’s a new deaf theater here,” Norman says, “and wow, that’s really something. We put the emphasis on American Sign Language, which is the natural language for deaf people. They can sit and relax, and enjoy a production in their own language. We had a wonderful response to ‘Gin Game’ last year. People just enjoyed themselves and watched the play, just like hearing people go to plays.”

Actually, Waterstreet says, “Gin Game” drew a larger hearing audience than a deaf one. “It’s going to take time for the word to spread,” Waterstreet says. “And hearing people are more and more fascinated with sign language now. The interest has really grown in just a short number of years. They’ve come to see it as an art form. And, because we have the headsets for them, they’re more interested.”

Waterstreet is referring to the infrared headsets that carry a vocal interpretation of the signing to hearing audience members. Stephen Sachs, the Fountain Theatre’s managing artistic director, who is not hearing-impaired, says: “It’s a truer experience of the play, because you get the beauty of sign language, and it seems as if someone is whispering in your ear giving you the interpretation. It’s not an interruption of what’s happening on stage, it’s a support system.” Sachs directs the hearing actress who will be interpreting on the headsets.

In the past, hearing actors have usually been used for this purpose. “With hearing actors on stage, we feel as though we’re being upstaged. Now it’s all us,” Norman said.

“Seeing a Deaf West production,” Sachs says, “the shoe is on the other foot. The hearing audience members come in and wear the hearing devices, and not the deaf. The natural language in the theater when Deaf West is performing is American Sign Language. The hearing are the ones who have to understand their language.”

Norman has been an actress for many years, beginning in high school. She later went to the National Theatre for the Deaf summer school program, and stayed as an actress with NTD for nine years. After that she was involved with Deaf Media Inc.’s television show, “Rainbow’s End,” then toured in the leading role in the international company of the Broadway success, “Children of a Lesser God.”

Waterstreet was involved with National Theatre for the Deaf for 15 years, directing such productions as “Parsifal” and “Iliad, Play by Play” and acting on Broadway in “Under Milkwood” and “Gianni Schicchi.”

Waterstreet and Sachs had initially wanted to do a signed production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” but postponed it because it’s a large, complicated show. Sachs suggested “Valentine” because it’s a one-woman play and could be done quickly.

Waterstreet thought it was “perfect for Freda. The play is universal. I don’t think deaf or hearing makes any difference. It’s about a woman’s feelings, and liberty.”

Norman agrees wholeheartedly. “Today, a lot of women are still searching for their own identity, especially for our own (deaf) world,” she says. “We’re hoping it will be of benefit for the deaf community, in terms of their identity. It’s in their own language. When deaf people go to see an ordinary production of ‘Shirley Valentine,’ they may have an interpreter, and they may enjoy that. But if the play is translated into ASL, that includes deaf culture, and that’s a big challenge for both of us. That will help the deaf community feel more attached, they’ll identify. It will help them really look inside themselves, and at the same time enjoy a play too.”

Stephen Sachs has always had a powerful interest in what he calls “theater that you can only see in a theater, something you can’t see on television or in film. That may seem obvious to a lot of people, but what’s happening more and more, film and television are influencing what’s happening on theater stages. What I’m trying to do is fight that influence and bring in the kind of magic in language and design that can only happen in a live theater space, that heightened sense of reality or awareness that makes theater unique.

“I’ve been most stirred in the theater when I’ve felt that I’ve been swept away into another world of some kind. It’s exciting for me to help produce theater for a cultural group that has thus far had a limited access to theater. That’s very exciting, seeing their faces light up, experiencing theater in their own language for the first time. It makes it all worthwhile.”

Not that getting “Shirley Valentine” on stage has not had its unexpected dilemmas. The play has been translated from its British vernacular to British Sign Language, which is an entity unto itself, and then into American Sign Language. At one point Shirley Valentine mentions Greece. “I know what that is,” she says, “that’s what I cook my chips and eggs in.”

Sachs chuckles, remembering that hurdle. “Having to explain puns to a deaf person,” he says with a wide grin, “is an interesting experience, to say the least.”

“Shirley Valentine” plays at the Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Hollywood. Performances begin at 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday matinees. Through March 22. Tickets: $12 to $15. Call (213) 663-1525; TDD (213) 660-8826.