Deaf Defying Performance

The mission of this senior project is to see how being deaf can create new and out of the box methods ideas and ways to perform that being able to hear stops me from doing. I would also like to help the deaf and see how I can create an easier performance environment for them by using singing acting and comedic techniques that don't necessarily rely on the ability to hear.

Goals- To learn about deafness and the pros and cons of performing while being deaf, helping deaf people perform and express themselves, learning what the limits to music and deafness are.

Pros and Cons of Being Deaf

Pros- can't hear bad singing, not distracted by notes, better ability to feel, your ears can lie to you

Cons- You can't hear yourself sing or speak, feedback is confined to sight (not able to hear audience/clapping/laughing), can't hear accompaniment, the idea of sound and music is more abstract and would be difficult to understand if somebody has never heard before.

Food for Thought. Can you teach somebody who is deaf to sing more or less accurately? The obvious problem is a large part of singing is hearing yourself and shifting and sliding off of notes that sound incorrect. Is it possible to have someone who is deaf learn notes by how they feel in there throat or through vibration instead of by sound? If you can teach someone how to sing a note more or less on pitch then you can theoretically teach someone more and more notes by feel until they have learned a scale. After tons and tons of practice theoretically singing would become a matter of accurately hitting the notes learned in the scale by how they feel not by how they sound.

If you are deaf then acting and miming are the same thing. Silent movies Commedia Dell'arte Gromalot

I have emailed the Sign Language Teacher questions on my project.

First, what are some advantages to being deaf in a performance sense? I can think of disadvantages like not being able to hear a band or not hearing the rise and fall of applause but what are some things that deaf performers have that people who can hear do not.

Second, does using ASL help learning lines because it gives actors another realm to remember their lines? If they verbally forget their lines the muscle memory of ASL could help the feel and visualize their lines for better memorization.

I emailed the National Theatre of the Deaf (ntd.org) to see what information or ideas i can get from them.

I emailed Laura Martin with more questions and i am now waiting for a response. As of now the ball is not in my court so I will use this time to watch the documentary and other helpful films.

Reached out to a CODA comedian named Keith Wann. I asked him specific questions about being a deaf comedian and he helped a ton.

I have highlighted and colored coded the jokes that work better in sign language, work best speaking and work fine both ways.