“Sign language, like spoken language, has opportunities for poetry and play,” said Naomi Ekperigin ’05.
Ekperigin, Pinky Aiello, and Chris DeSouza are actors in the Little Theatre of the Deaf, the children’s branch of the National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD). They performed snippets from their current show, “Fingers Around the World,” and brought information about deaf culture and theatre to the World Music Hall this past Saturday as part of the 2006 World Arts Family Series.
Their show focused on deaf culture education and play by utilizing signs to tell stories. After introducing themselves, Aiello and DeSouza demonstrated a game played by young deaf children. Using only the letter symbols in the word, Aiello acted out a story around the word golf. DeSouza used the “B” letter symbol as a base to act out an entire story about a pirate ship sinking.
The performance was interactive, allowing the audience to participate frequently. Ekperigin invited audience members to volunteer their names for Aiello and DeSouza to make a story about. DeSouza used one young audience member’s name to act out shooting a hockey puck. Aiello created a story about a baseball game using another’s.
The National Theatre of the Deaf was started in Waterford, Conn. with support by grants provided by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1965. In NTD’s thirty-nine year history, it has received one Grammy nomination, one Tony award, and performed over 8,000 performances.
Both Epkerigin and DeSouza responded to open audition calls for the 2005-2006 season of LTD. Aiello has been a deaf performer for quite some time, known as the first professional deaf woman juggler.
Snippets from their current show were used to show the differences between Mexican and American (ASL) sign language. Many of the symbols were the same, but some varied greatly. Different scenes were also utilized to explore the importance of body movement and facial expression when signing.
To illustrate this point, Aiello and DeSouza performed the act of baking a cake with no words or sounds. DeSouza provided facial expressions while Aiello provided the arm and foot motions from behind DeSouza.
Kaneza Schaal ’06 and Jesse Young ’06 were picked from the audience to try the same activity. They had to drive to a party while writing a birthday card. Schaal provided the arms to Young’s facial expressions and body movement.
“It’s tough to know what the other person is doing because you have no way of communicating with each other,” Young said.
The actors allowed time for audience members to ask questions. Most people wanted to know more about deaf culture and different audience responses to the show. Many members of Saturday’s audience were young school children and college students, many of whom were friends with Ekperigin.
“It was really exciting to see Naomi perform and to watch her interact with the kids,” said Gianna Sobol ’06. “They loved her, and she did a great job of entertaining them while keeping the adults interested.”
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