Staging Deaf and Hearing Theatre Productions

This book explores an unacknowledged gap in theatre study and praxis, and establishes an inceptive model for transforming a playscript into a theatrical production involving deaf and hearing artists. The book stipulates that theatrical productions of this nature should strive to go beyond accessibility towards inclusivity by considering deaf perspectives at every stage of the process: When deaf actors are cast in roles assumed to be hearing, how does this change the world of the play? How does the inclusion of a visual language affect staging decisions? How can truly equal access to two different language modalities be achieved for diverse production teams and audiences? Because deaf artists should be involved in the leadership and creative decision making throughout the process, this book is co-written by a deaf and hearing team. The main topics of the book include pre-production preparation, the rehearsal process, and performance. As deaf theatre artists move increasingly into the foreground, it’s time for the hearing theatre world to learn how to undertake productions that successfully bridge the deaf and hearing worlds. By including the perspective of directors, actors, designers, and audience members, this guide lays out an ideal process towards achieving that goal. Andy Head (hearing) is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. He completed his MFA in Acting at Michigan State University and directs integrated deaf/hearing productions for RIT/NTID. Recent directing credits include Cabaret (2018), I and You (2019), She Kills Monsters: Virtual Realms (2021), Angels in America: Millennium Approaches (2021), Everybody (2022), and Thy Name is Woman (2023). His articles, “Equal Prominence: Directing a Deaf and Hearing Production of I and You” and “The Compositor: How Hybrid Productions Will Create a New Job Title in Theatre” both appeared in the scholarly, peer-reviewed journal Theatre/Practice. Head’s research interests lie in creating productions that offer equal accessibility to deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing actors and audience members, as well as in the emerging field of digital theatre. Jill Marie Bradbury (deaf) is Professor in the Department of Performing Arts at NTID, USA. She received her PhD in English from Brown University. Dr. Bradbury is a five-time National Endowment for the Arts grant-winner, including $25,000 for a DeafBlind Theater Institute. This project resulted in the documentary video, Protactile Romeo and Juliet: Theater by/for the DeafBlind and the collaborative essay “Protactile Romeo and Juliet: Theater by/for the DeafBlind” (Shakespeare Studies 47, 2019). Other relevant publications include “Deaf Theater” (Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature, 2024), “Disability Embodiment and Inclusive Aesthetics” (Inclusive Shakespeares: Identity, Pedagogy, Performance, 2023) and “Audiences, American Sign Language, and Deafness in Shakespeare Performance” (Shakespeare Bulletin 40.1, 2022).