North Texas Performing Arts (NTPA) kicked off its first production designed to be accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members on Friday.
Billed as “Deaf Theatre Showcase: A Union of Hands and Voices,” the show starred performers who were deaf or hard of hearing. Written by Karen Snapp, the show put a spotlight on “the diverse culture of the Deaf [and] styles of Deaf theater.”
The showcase was part of NTPA’s Deaf Theatre Production Camp, which seeks to introduce children with hearing loss to acting and stagecraft.
“We wanted to make theater as accessible as possible to lots of kids and people of different skills and different capabilities,” said Darrell Rodenbaugh, NTPA’s CEO, speaking with CBS Texas.
The show ran from June 30 to July 1 and was held at the Willow Bend Centers of the Arts in Plano, where NTPA is headquartered.
“I’ve been watching and hearing people act for such a long time over the years growing up. Now, I’m finally involved in something like that. It really gives me a sense of pride and a sense of accessibility,” said performer Alley Farley, according to NBC 5.
The production featured a cast of 33 deaf and hard-of-hearing performers, some of whom were as young as eight.
“To us, this was really an extension into a community that didn’t have theatre,” Rodenbaugh told CBS Texas. “We’ve done that before. Our Starcatchers’ troupe is a special needs theatre troupe for students with disabilities. So, this is part of our accessible theatre concept that we have to try to reach out to new communities that otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.”
According to Forbes, roughly two to four out of every 1,000 people in the United States are “functionally deaf,” and approximately 38.3 million Americans have hearing loss ranging from “mild” to “profound.”
“Unfortunately, society isn’t very accepting of or accommodating to hearing loss and deafness,” said Dr. Martine Fenstermacher, an audiologist at the Houston Hearing Center, Forbes reported.
Still, NTPA’s showcase played a part in changing that over the weekend. The theater camp’s director, who is also deaf, said as much to NBC 5.
“For deaf and hard of hearing students, oftentimes they feel separated or isolated like they’re part of a different world and they’re not part of the hearing world,” said Daymond Sands. “This camp is really designed to help expose them to the idea that they’re not alone and that they can do anything but hear.”
