Sound advice on issues of the deaf

Deaf actress Linda Bove played Linda the Librarian on the landmark children’s television series “Sesame Street” for 32 years before she ran up against the same problem so many women in the industry face in their middle decades. “As a person grows older, roles become more limited as an actress,” she says, speaking through a sign language translator. “And so we made the decision to change my scope of work and make a transition into consulting.”

Born in 1945 in New Jersey to deaf parents, Bove began learning to sign shortly after birth. (“I’ve never really understood the concept of sound because I’ve never heard it,” she says.) After attending schools for the deaf in New York and New Jersey, she studied theater at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., and joined the National Theatre of the Deaf upon graduation. In 1991, she became one of the founding members of the Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles.

Throughout her career, the Studio City-based actress has played an instrumental role in teaching people about deaf and hard-of-hearing culture.

She has continued to share her expertise as an American Sign Language and deaf culture consultant on “Sweet Nothing in My Ear.” The telefilm, based on Stephen Sachs’ play about parents coming to terms with their young son’s hearing loss, stars Jeff Daniels and Marlee Matlin and premieres on CBS on April 20.

Show her a sign: In his role as the husband of a deaf woman and the father of a deaf son, Daniels was tasked with learning all of his lines in American Sign Language. “The project was given the green light 2 1/2 weeks prior to the actual shooting,” says Bove. “So we had a very short time for Jeff and me to come together and make sure we had everything covered. Jeff had a very challenging job to learn sign in that amount of time. I would say it took about three weeks in all. I was on set every day of shooting. Jeff used to tease me, and he’d call me ‘The Sign Cop.’ I thought that was funny. But Jeff was a hard worker.”

A different angle: Filming actors who are signing poses specific challenges. “If a signing actor fumbled their signs, or if their hands were out of frame in a shot so that the signing wasn’t readable, I would call the director’s attention to that,” says Bove. “I watched all the takes of every scene, and then would let the director know which take was best, as far as the signing was concerned.”

Cultural literacy: On “Sweet Nothing in My Ear,” Bove also consulted on a wide array of issues pertaining to deaf culture. “They asked me if a deaf person can sign in rubber gloves while they were washing dishes,” says Bove with a chuckle. “And I said, ‘Sure.’ I was happy they were sensitive enough to ask a question like that. I thought that was very sweet. Another example is you had three deaf people who were fighting. And, of course, there was overlap, and they asked if that was OK. I said, ‘Yes, it’s the same with an argument that’s vocal.’ Let me think of another one. There was a husband and wife who were in an argument. And they were, like, ‘Can a wife turn their lights off so she can’t see what he’s signing?’ And I said, ‘Absolutely, she can do that. Sure.’ ”

The crying game: The production of “Sweet Nothing in My Ear” impressed Bove with its respect and attention to detail. “The director called me in last week to dub my voice for crying,” she says. “I thought it was really cool, because he wanted a deaf voice. What did it sound like to cry? They did that for authenticity. I was very shocked, very pleased. And I’m happy that I was able to do that as an actress, you know. [It’s] a very nice touch.”