#this is also a problem in ASL/spoken language interpretation too!!

[ijustwantagoodurl]

English is an inherently colonial language. Everytime it is spoken in place of a native language, it weeps the blood of cultures and peoples that were killed to make space for English traditions, customs, and class hierarchies. Why? Because England is one of the primary colonizing forces of the world we navigate today.

The act of colonialism continues when English is the primary and dominant language that adapts and evolves into "internet speak". English MUST be known, fluently, to navigate not only the internet but much of the world off the internet as well, since both America and the UK refuse to not be colonial jackasses in the 20th century as well.

It is vital to every country and culture across the world to be able to navigate the English speaking world because the politics of the colonial states currently known as the U.S.A and the UK directly impact every other part of the world as well. (Due to the many countries who have had their independence and democracy genuinely sabotaged by the CIA and those bought by oil corporations, economics are GREATLY impacted by the whims and choices of colonizing and English speaking countries.)

Language is a tool too, and we all deserve to see one where an american like me simply MUST learn and know the grammars, politics, social customs and slang of other languages and cultures across the world, the same way non-Americans must do now.

English is so pervasive online that it will convince you your mother's tongue is a foreign language

[deafaq]

Hi! I took asl in college and the teacher had us translate a song into asl as a project, I've continued to do that as a way to increase vocabulary and practice during quarantine. I was wondering if, as a hearing person, it would be ok to post these online or not?

Hello,

oh, translating songs. This is very controversial area when it comes to sign language learning.

If you want to share it with your classmates or get feedback on your signing, I suppose you can. But I would advise against posting it online if you just want to show the world how you translated these songs.

Not that translating songs is wrong, but... I am kinda side-eyeing your teacher here. Unless you were in a very advanced class (like, already interpreting advanced), I don’t think its a good exercise. Translating songs is notoriously difficult, requires a good knowledge of sign language grammar, but also a certain “feel” for rhythm. Not even all professional interpreters do it. 

I know lot of hearing students of sign language loves translating songs, but majority of results I have seen online are... bad. That’s because its hard following the grammar/word order of sign language. Lot of these translated songs are basically signs in English word order (or whatever is the spoken language used in the song.)

Which, by itself, wouldn’t be that much of a problem. We all have to learn. Its a problem when all these bad translations are shared by other hearing people without context, used as learning tools or presented as a good representations of sign language. 

And there is another angle - it happened several times that authors of these translations gained popularity and it left bitter taste in the mouth of deaf people. Its hard to put into words, but its like... too often, deaf people are and were punished and opressed for usage of their own languages. So seeing a hearing person who doesn’t even use it properly get spotlight/money/fame for it, it grates.

I am not saying its offensive to post translation videos, but just think about it before you post it and consider what do you want to get out of it. And if you really feel the need to post it, make sure to note you are still a student and that this is not accurate/fluent representation of ASL.

Mod T

[awkwardpenguinproductions]

Sorry if you get asked this question a bunch. How did you find your beta?

So, funny story here.

I don’t usually use betas.

I’m 28 years old. I’ve been writing since I was 10 years old. I self edit as I go, because that’s 18 years of ADHD-fueled perfectionism at work. I’m aware of the flaws in my writing (too many commas, long rambling sentences, tense switching at awkward times), but for the most part I’ve accepted some of them as just my writing style (I’m working on the tense issues, though, because those ANNOY THE FUCK OUT OF ME). If I’m stuck on a plot or general artistic issue, I talk to my sister, who’s also a writer, or my friends, who are all also writers. I also have some control issues over my writing, and I’m a bit of an anxious little ball of feathers who has a hard time asking for help. So I don’t usually use betas, unless I send something to my sister or my friends for their opinion.

THAT BEING SAID

Education involved a language that I personally have no experience with, and could not simply run to Google Translate for what I needed. American Sign Language is a visual language, not a verbal or written one, and the grammar and syntax are entirely different from both written and spoken English. I researched my tail feathers off, watched hours of YouTube videos, but as the fic progressed, I realized that I needed someone to check my work, because I have an absolute horror of offending people who hadn’t offended me first, and simply assuming that I knew what I was doing simply because I was “doing the research” is a quick and surefire way to offend people who ACTUALLY know what’s up. So I needed a beta reader, someone who was studying or fluent in ASL, to check my work and kick my ass if it was terrible.

I actually lucked out here, because I remembered a wonderful comment that had been left on Reconnaissance that mentioned that the reader was studying to become an ASL interpreter, and had been delighted with my (then barely researched) depiction of Zuko signing with the Gaang. I found the comment, cringed as I apologized for not replying sooner, and asked if the commenter would be interested in looking over the current WIP in the Dragon ‘verse. The commenter, one OwlWaterLogged (@optionalwarninglabels here on Tumblr), replied back promptly, and we had a delightful conversation over chat which resulted in me sharing the GDoc of Education and biting my nails down to the quick as she went over it. (I did mention the control issues, minor anxiety, and fear of offending/disappointing people, no?)

To my relief, the problems she pointed out to me were easily fixed, and I did so with delight and alacrity. The entire experience was a wonderful exercise for me in networking and asking for assistance from strangers, and I will be forever grateful and indebted to OwlWaterLogged for her expertise, patience, and kindness during the process. Her comments really helped me understand ASL grammar in a way my independent research hadn’t.

TL;DR-- I don’t usually use betas, but when I needed one, I found her in the comments of one of my fics, and she is a wonderful person to whom I am quite indebted, because the fic she helped me with would’ve been absolute trash without her knowledge. Thank you again, @optionalwarninglabels!

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/12/la-times-deaf-west-sets-out-to-tame-edward-albees-at-home-at-the-zoo-6/

La Times: Deaf West sets out to tame 'Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo'

Deaf West Theatre is back at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts after the company’s heralded revival of “Spring Awakening,” which catapulted itself to Broadway after its Beverly Hills triumph.

After proving once again that a musical can be reinvented by a troupe of deaf and hearing actors blending American Sign Language with the original spoken and sung text, Deaf West might seem to be lowering the bar in taking on two one-act plays in which no dancing or crooning is required.

But “Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo,” which combines the playwright’s 1959 breakthrough drama “The Zoo Story” with “Homelife,” the prequel he wrote more than four decades later, turns out to be a formidable challenge for a company that has to work around Albee’s most salient gift — his astringent language.

The production, directed by Coy Middlebrook, begins with “Homelife.” The order makes sense narratively but raises other issues. Albee felt that Peter, the polite book publisher whose Central Park bench is invaded by Jerry, a frothing-at-the-mouth lost soul, needed some fleshing out. To right what he felt was the imbalance between the two characters, he wrote an accompanying one-act, set in Peter’s Upper East Side home just prior to the fateful Central Park outing, in which a tense exchange between Peter and his wife, Ann, clarifies the extent to which the animal has been bred out of this all-too-respectable husband.

The problem is that “The Zoo Story,” one of Albee’s greatest plays, doesn’t need elaboration. The battle between Peter and Jerry is strengthened by the enigmatic nature of the confrontation. Albee has been grouped in the Theatre of the Absurd, and one of the characteristics of this otherwise disparate confederate of playwrights that includes Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco and Harold Pinter is that the stage metaphors around which their plays are built aren’t reducible to single interpretations.

“Homelife” narrows our understanding of “The Zoo Story.” By heightening our awareness of Peter’s overly domesticated nature, Albee transforms his classic into a much more straightforward clash between genteel repression and marginalized discontent.

If “Homelife” is the more satisfying of the two dramas in this Deaf West-Wallis co-production, it may have something to do with our curiosity about Ann, whose tantalizing psychology we have to work out for ourselves. Of course it helps that the strongest performance in the cast is by Amber Zion, who portrays this frustrated wife living with her politely distracted husband, two daughters and menagerie of pets in enviable Manhattan comfort.

The play begins with Peter (Troy Kotsur) poring over a manuscript of “probably the most important boring book” his company has ever published. His concentration is a fortress that initially blocks out Ann’s out-of-nowhere remark, “We should talk” — a sign if ever there was one that all is not well in this upper-middle-class paradise.

Or is it a prison? The set by Karyl Newman (who also designed the costumes) bookends the living room with bars to create the effect of a kind of high-end zoo. Outside this deluxe pen, Jake Eberle and Paige Lindsey White provide the voices of Peter and Ann. They speak as Kotsur and Zion play and sign the roles, in a division of labor that fails to find the synergy between listening and seeing that was achieved in “Spring Awakening.”

Kotsur lends Peter a middle-aged preppy distinctiveness, but his acting isn’t able to preserve the subtlety of Albee’s writing. Peter and Ann, like the great majority of Albee’s characters, are fussbudgets when it comes to language. Kotsur’s body language and facial expressions seem at times too large for such a self-editing character. The general outline is right but the fine points of Peter get lost in translation, especially for those in the audience not conversant with ASL.

Zion’s portrayal builds in emotional power as she reveals the desperation Ann feels for a marriage that grown stale and safe. She has no reason to complain about her cozy cage, but she can no longer ignore the longing for sexual abandon. When Zion screams, the sound is that of an animal crying out for the wilderness. Her performance rescues “Homelife” with its feral intensity.

SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter »

“The Zoo Story” picks up the action after Peter has left the apartment to read for pleasure in the park. His confrontation with Jerry, however, makes the standoff with Ann seem relatively tame. Early Albee is even harder on a character who willingly sacrifices his animal ferocity for the security and comfort of conventional routine.

The casting of Russell Harvard as Jerry sets up difficulties. (Tyrone Giordano takes over the role on March 16.) Harvard’s Jerry seems substantially younger than Kotsur’s Peter, creating an odd dynamic between the characters. Jerry’s relative youthfulness lends an Oedipal current to his antagonism toward Peter, undermining the class resentment that Albee stresses and banishing the subtle homoeroticism between them.

But the bigger issue is the flailing theatricality of Harvard’s performance. Jerry may be dangerous but Albee retains a tight grip on his words and deeds. Harvard plays the dramatic situation at the expense of the character. Kotsur’s meek Peter isn’t so much accosted by a stranger as overwhelmed by a cast member determined to leave a daredevil impression.

It doesn’t help that the voices of Peter and Jerry are performed by actors (Eberle and Jeff Alan-Lee) who might as well be portraying other characters hanging around Central Park that afternoon. Their physical distinctiveness from their counterparts and their close proximity (they’re stationed at a nearby bench) blur the stage picture.

“At Home at the Zoo” makes “The Zoo Story” seem as though it isn’t the main attraction when in fact it’s one of Albee’s unequivocal masterpieces. Deaf West has made a valiant attempt, but the production sheds only sporadic light on these most eloquent of bestial plays.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

‘Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo’

Where: Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Lovelace Studio Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 26

Tickets: $50-$60 (subject to change)

Information: (310) 746-4000 or www.TheWallis.org

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnulty

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[kitemist]

my opinion on the deaf related stuff I see on netflix

note: I am hearing, and I am watching the American version of Netflix. Spoilers.

Hush

Contains violence and gore.

A deaf author retreats from city life to live peacefully in the middle of nowhere and suddenly a murderer shows up. You have the director of oculus, a hearing actress who plays a deaf character, and lots of nothingness. The director was good in suspense, but lacking in everything else, which was also in Oculus. There is a moment in the beginning where there is only a way for a hearing person to hear a certain noise, it doesn’t give vibrations on the ground or wall. She is in a wooden cabin but doesn’t feel her friend calling for help slamming the windows and wall and ends up dying. If the deaf character could feel vibrations, why could she not feel her smoke alarm, which is part flashlight, and the size of a basketball? The part where she is SPEAKING her thoughts I understand is just for the audience’s sake, but could just be in complete sign with burned in captions instead, and threw me off when she started TALKING after spending rest of the movie in silence. The only good part? The cat didn’t die. 

1/5, do not recommend.

Listen To Your Heart

Stupid sappy love story. A hearing waiter and a deaf girl meet at the former’s work and start communicating to each other, while she has a hard life as the only deaf girl around and a controlling mother. Hearing actress plays deaf character and even talks verbally, which miraculously frees her. No one can’t not mention how deaf the girl is, whether they know her personally or not. No consistent use of sign. And the girl memorized how to play a guitar song from seeing it played ONCE and reiterates it perfectly. Her love interest, a hearing musician, only pays attention to her in the first place because of her deafness, and dies right as she gets a surgery to hear again for his sake. So this is unsatisfactory in terms of a story in general, or looking for something good that’s deaf related. 

0/5, do not recommend.

Marie’s Story

A long journey of learning communication. A deafblind girl’s parents put her in a school for deaf girls and only one woman is patient enough to help her. Deaf actress plays the deafblind protagonist, and commented in an interview on how easy it was to act deaf. Primarily in French and French sign, where ASL came from. Both are used consistently, neither of them are used more than the other. Some moments are hard to watch, such as her sensory breakdowns, but otherwise worth it. Very heartwarming and heartwrenching.

4/5, would recommend.

Beyond Silence

The protagonist is a CODA. Primarily in German and German sign. Deaf parents are played by deaf actors, and their child constantly has to interpret for them, whether at the bank or watching movies. Deafness is not the central theme or message, but holds the story together, sort of like a Vito Russo. Moments here and there emphasize what living in a deaf household is like, such as TTY or knocking on doorframes. Lastly, the protagonist is pursuing music. 

3/5, would recommend.

Switched at Birth

Contains violence and mentions of rape.

Okay, you got a mix here as the most prominent deaf related media that’s on Netflix and in the public. Two girls realize they’re switched at birth(roll credits), a deaf girl from a lower class family and a hearing girl from a high class family, when the latter finds something suspicious in her class’s DNA test. The two meet each other, and once realizing the new world they have to deal with, drama ensues. Daphne’s actress was born hearing, but now HoH, and can play the hearing version of herself well this way in the episode where Daphne and Bay are a different kind of “switched”. Her mother Regina stopped signing, the injury and strain on her wrists is a real life event. You have your share of deaf played by deaf, such as Melody, Emmett, Travis, Matthew, Natalie, Cameron, Robin, and Garrett. Emmett and Bay getting together started a “trend” as gross as yellow fever. LGBT characters and romances are treated as if they’re normal occurrences, just slight surprises. Romance seems to be the only thing that these writers can think of that causes drama and comes up too often and too fast and gets old and bland just as quick as the relationships in them. The ASL episode was nicely done, but the camera angles do not focus on the signs as well as they should be, even though they offer burned in captions. Daphne and Bay are the main characters but they barely communicate with each other, sign or otherwise, about whatever is going on with them. SimCom is NOT real ASL. And perfect lipreading for whatever reason, only two times are there mishaps in reading lips and they are not major mistakes that would cause something to happen in the plot or something. I’d like to trust that the deaf cast are using ASL grammar towards each other, I caught some of those moments when I took up ASL class for two semesters. It’s not perfect, but it is something. I will be watching the final season for closure. 

2/5, do not recommend.

The Tribe 

Contains nudity, gang activity, gore, murder, violence, rape, and sex.

A movie without a single trace of any spoken dialogue and the subtitle track treats it as such. A deaf boy joins a deaf boarding school and finds an unexpected obstacle in the way of his living. In Ukrainian sign language, and with the director having to get help from interpreters to make sure actors stayed true to the script, the only words that the movie offers, in its trailer, are “Love and hate need no translation.” To those who do know Ukrainian sign, the signing is clearly seen. The lack of subtitles are intentional. Slow paced but will catch your attention one time or another. Would dispel some stereotypes about deaf people’s personalities. Unique way of storytelling but that doesn’t save it if it’s hard to understand. It did leave some sort of impact on me though. I had to read some summaries online to understand after I watched it. Would require a lot of speculation. 

3/5, semi recommend.

No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Movie 

One of the best movies I’ve seen to date. A deaf boy and a deaf man struggle to fit in the hearing world, and face similar problems despite their age difference. Deaf characters played by deaf actors and actresses, and there’s even some parts that are muted or not translated to give a sense of what it’s like to not understand either language, ASL or English. Stars include Marlee Matlin, John Maucere, and some returning faces from Switched at Birth. Heartwarming and will change your view on the deaf community. 

5/5, would recommend.

Anyway, that is all that I found that was directly deaf related when I put “deaf” in the netflix search. I wish they put more, or that more are made that get attention. The deaf community has left an impact on me since those few sign language classes and has never left my mind, so I want to see more of them in media, like how Nyle won two reality shows.

[deafaq]

Hi, I'm a hearing person who just found out my 8 month old son is deaf. I've read about how cochlear implants sometimes do more harm than good, so I'm not sure if this is the route I want to take. Any advice on this, how either choice would impact his life? I want him to succeed and be comfortable in both the hearing and deaf communities. My older children are already being raised bilingual, so would it be beneficial to use both ASL and LSF in our home? Or would this possibly confuse him?

Hello,

overall I recommend reaching out to a local nonprofit which works with Deaf people. I am not sure where you live, but lot of countries have organizations which help hearing parents who have deaf children and they have more resources and info than I do and they can usually provide help. 

As for cochlear implants:

- not every child is a candidate for the operation (it depends on the  state of cochlea, if the child has any additional disabilities/illnesses, etc) so I would check with your doctors whether there is even a conversation about this

- CIs of modern times are usually reliable and work well from technical standpoint, but they still require lot of rehabilitation and speech therapy. We are often talking years. 

- People with CIs aren’t hearing, they are deaf with CIs. They still need accomodation and consideration. Depending on the child, they might still need a special school for deaf. (some implanted children do well in intergation in a normal school, some don’t.) On the other hand, deaf child without CI will definitely fare better in school for deaf. Is there some near the place you live? How good is education for disabled people handled in your country?

- Depending on where you live, a choice to NOT give your offspring a CI might be... very controversial and you will get lot of shit for it.

- Most deaf children grow up to be bilingual but its rarely two sign languages. To be able to function in a hearing world, they need to learn to read a spoken language. So for example most deaf children in america should be able to read in English and use ASL. I assume you speak French and English with your hearings kids? In that case, that would require your deaf child to know 4 languages, which is... too much, imo. I would stick with the language of the country you are staying at, if possible. (for example, if you live in France, I would teach your deaf child French and LFS)

- If you want to use sign language at home, question is, can you speak it? There is a difference between acquisition of language from a native speaker and from someone who is also learning the language. If you want your child to learn sign language, they need to be in presence of adults who speak it. (Deaf communities are usually happy to help out with this, I also heard use of Deaf nanny)

- To be a fully deaf person in a modern hearing world is a very difficult life sometimes, even if you are fluent in sign language. Deaf people face a lot of discrimination especially in job market, but also in hospitals, schools... There is often lack of interpreters to consider as well.

- To be a person with CI, it means you are still a deaf person with CI, but you can communicate with hearing world more sucessfully. However, there is the problem of identity, being stuck between two worlds. (though honestly, this very much depends on local deaf community and whether your child will be able to use sign language. Signing people with CIs are usually accepted amongst Deaf people) The most common issue is when parents only insist on the child learning to speak and if the child struggles with speech and hearing, they have no effective way of communicating. 

I cant tell you whats the best decision here. But if at this point of time I gave birth to a deaf child, I would probably give them CI and taught him sign language both. That way, when they are adult, they can choose whats best for them. In recent years, giving a child CI is getting less controversial among the Deaf community and I even know few Deaf families who chose this route to their children.

There are some cases where CIs can be actively harmful (for example, I have met an autistic deaf child who hated his CI to the point of bashing his head into wall and it had to be removed) but if you give your child access to Deaf culture and community and language, you should be fine. Most Deaf people who dislike CIs do so because hearing parents force their implanted children to only speak and cut them off from Deaf culture. 

(also, some books about CIs are tad outdated at this point. As much as I love the book Mask of Benevolence by Harlan Lane, and it still raises lot of good points, the technical info there about the success and usage of CIs is vastly outdated at this point - the book was published in 1992 and technology made vast leaps since then.)

What do other people think? Especially opinions from people with CIs are wanted!

Mod T

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/12/la-times-deaf-west-sets-out-to-tame-edward-albees-at-home-at-the-zoo-5/

La Times: Deaf West sets out to tame 'Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo'

Deaf West Theatre is back at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts after the company’s heralded revival of “Spring Awakening,” which catapulted itself to Broadway after its Beverly Hills triumph.

After proving once again that a musical can be reinvented by a troupe of deaf and hearing actors blending American Sign Language with the original spoken and sung text, Deaf West might seem to be lowering the bar in taking on two one-act plays in which no dancing or crooning is required.

But “Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo,” which combines the playwright’s 1959 breakthrough drama “The Zoo Story” with “Homelife,” the prequel he wrote more than four decades later, turns out to be a formidable challenge for a company that has to work around Albee’s most salient gift — his astringent language.

The production, directed by Coy Middlebrook, begins with “Homelife.” The order makes sense narratively but raises other issues. Albee felt that Peter, the polite book publisher whose Central Park bench is invaded by Jerry, a frothing-at-the-mouth lost soul, needed some fleshing out. To right what he felt was the imbalance between the two characters, he wrote an accompanying one-act, set in Peter’s Upper East Side home just prior to the fateful Central Park outing, in which a tense exchange between Peter and his wife, Ann, clarifies the extent to which the animal has been bred out of this all-too-respectable husband.

The problem is that “The Zoo Story,” one of Albee’s greatest plays, doesn’t need elaboration. The battle between Peter and Jerry is strengthened by the enigmatic nature of the confrontation. Albee has been grouped in the Theatre of the Absurd, and one of the characteristics of this otherwise disparate confederate of playwrights that includes Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco and Harold Pinter is that the stage metaphors around which their plays are built aren’t reducible to single interpretations.

“Homelife” narrows our understanding of “The Zoo Story.” By heightening our awareness of Peter’s overly domesticated nature, Albee transforms his classic into a much more straightforward clash between genteel repression and marginalized discontent.

If “Homelife” is the more satisfying of the two dramas in this Deaf West-Wallis co-production, it may have something to do with our curiosity about Ann, whose tantalizing psychology we have to work out for ourselves. Of course it helps that the strongest performance in the cast is by Amber Zion, who portrays this frustrated wife living with her politely distracted husband, two daughters and menagerie of pets in enviable Manhattan comfort.

The play begins with Peter (Troy Kotsur) poring over a manuscript of “probably the most important boring book” his company has ever published. His concentration is a fortress that initially blocks out Ann’s out-of-nowhere remark, “We should talk” — a sign if ever there was one that all is not well in this upper-middle-class paradise.

Or is it a prison? The set by Karyl Newman (who also designed the costumes) bookends the living room with bars to create the effect of a kind of high-end zoo. Outside this deluxe pen, Jake Eberle and Paige Lindsey White provide the voices of Peter and Ann. They speak as Kotsur and Zion play and sign the roles, in a division of labor that fails to find the synergy between listening and seeing that was achieved in “Spring Awakening.”

Kotsur lends Peter a middle-aged preppy distinctiveness, but his acting isn’t able to preserve the subtlety of Albee’s writing. Peter and Ann, like the great majority of Albee’s characters, are fussbudgets when it comes to language. Kotsur’s body language and facial expressions seem at times too large for such a self-editing character. The general outline is right but the fine points of Peter get lost in translation, especially for those in the audience not conversant with ASL.

Zion’s portrayal builds in emotional power as she reveals the desperation Ann feels for a marriage that grown stale and safe. She has no reason to complain about her cozy cage, but she can no longer ignore the longing for sexual abandon. When Zion screams, the sound is that of an animal crying out for the wilderness. Her performance rescues “Homelife” with its feral intensity.

SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter »

“The Zoo Story” picks up the action after Peter has left the apartment to read for pleasure in the park. His confrontation with Jerry, however, makes the standoff with Ann seem relatively tame. Early Albee is even harder on a character who willingly sacrifices his animal ferocity for the security and comfort of conventional routine.

The casting of Russell Harvard as Jerry sets up difficulties. (Tyrone Giordano takes over the role on March 16.) Harvard’s Jerry seems substantially younger than Kotsur’s Peter, creating an odd dynamic between the characters. Jerry’s relative youthfulness lends an Oedipal current to his antagonism toward Peter, undermining the class resentment that Albee stresses and banishing the subtle homoeroticism between them.

But the bigger issue is the flailing theatricality of Harvard’s performance. Jerry may be dangerous but Albee retains a tight grip on his words and deeds. Harvard plays the dramatic situation at the expense of the character. Kotsur’s meek Peter isn’t so much accosted by a stranger as overwhelmed by a cast member determined to leave a daredevil impression.

It doesn’t help that the voices of Peter and Jerry are performed by actors (Eberle and Jeff Alan-Lee) who might as well be portraying other characters hanging around Central Park that afternoon. Their physical distinctiveness from their counterparts and their close proximity (they’re stationed at a nearby bench) blur the stage picture.

“At Home at the Zoo” makes “The Zoo Story” seem as though it isn’t the main attraction when in fact it’s one of Albee’s unequivocal masterpieces. Deaf West has made a valiant attempt, but the production sheds only sporadic light on these most eloquent of bestial plays.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

‘Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo’

Where: Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Lovelace Studio Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 26

Tickets: $50-$60 (subject to change)

Information: (310) 746-4000 or www.TheWallis.org

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnulty

ALSO

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

[newstwitter-blog]

New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/12/la-times-deaf-west-sets-out-to-tame-edward-albees-at-home-at-the-zoo-4/

La Times: Deaf West sets out to tame 'Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo'

Deaf West Theatre is back at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts after the company’s heralded revival of “Spring Awakening,” which catapulted itself to Broadway after its Beverly Hills triumph.

After proving once again that a musical can be reinvented by a troupe of deaf and hearing actors blending American Sign Language with the original spoken and sung text, Deaf West might seem to be lowering the bar in taking on two one-act plays in which no dancing or crooning is required.

But “Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo,” which combines the playwright’s 1959 breakthrough drama “The Zoo Story” with “Homelife,” the prequel he wrote more than four decades later, turns out to be a formidable challenge for a company that has to work around Albee’s most salient gift — his astringent language.

The production, directed by Coy Middlebrook, begins with “Homelife.” The order makes sense narratively but raises other issues. Albee felt that Peter, the polite book publisher whose Central Park bench is invaded by Jerry, a frothing-at-the-mouth lost soul, needed some fleshing out. To right what he felt was the imbalance between the two characters, he wrote an accompanying one-act, set in Peter’s Upper East Side home just prior to the fateful Central Park outing, in which a tense exchange between Peter and his wife, Ann, clarifies the extent to which the animal has been bred out of this all-too-respectable husband.

The problem is that “The Zoo Story,” one of Albee’s greatest plays, doesn’t need elaboration. The battle between Peter and Jerry is strengthened by the enigmatic nature of the confrontation. Albee has been grouped in the Theatre of the Absurd, and one of the characteristics of this otherwise disparate confederate of playwrights that includes Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco and Harold Pinter is that the stage metaphors around which their plays are built aren’t reducible to single interpretations.

“Homelife” narrows our understanding of “The Zoo Story.” By heightening our awareness of Peter’s overly domesticated nature, Albee transforms his classic into a much more straightforward clash between genteel repression and marginalized discontent.

If “Homelife” is the more satisfying of the two dramas in this Deaf West-Wallis co-production, it may have something to do with our curiosity about Ann, whose tantalizing psychology we have to work out for ourselves. Of course it helps that the strongest performance in the cast is by Amber Zion, who portrays this frustrated wife living with her politely distracted husband, two daughters and menagerie of pets in enviable Manhattan comfort.

The play begins with Peter (Troy Kotsur) poring over a manuscript of “probably the most important boring book” his company has ever published. His concentration is a fortress that initially blocks out Ann’s out-of-nowhere remark, “We should talk” — a sign if ever there was one that all is not well in this upper-middle-class paradise.

Or is it a prison? The set by Karyl Newman (who also designed the costumes) bookends the living room with bars to create the effect of a kind of high-end zoo. Outside this deluxe pen, Jake Eberle and Paige Lindsey White provide the voices of Peter and Ann. They speak as Kotsur and Zion play and sign the roles, in a division of labor that fails to find the synergy between listening and seeing that was achieved in “Spring Awakening.”

Kotsur lends Peter a middle-aged preppy distinctiveness, but his acting isn’t able to preserve the subtlety of Albee’s writing. Peter and Ann, like the great majority of Albee’s characters, are fussbudgets when it comes to language. Kotsur’s body language and facial expressions seem at times too large for such a self-editing character. The general outline is right but the fine points of Peter get lost in translation, especially for those in the audience not conversant with ASL.

Zion’s portrayal builds in emotional power as she reveals the desperation Ann feels for a marriage that grown stale and safe. She has no reason to complain about her cozy cage, but she can no longer ignore the longing for sexual abandon. When Zion screams, the sound is that of an animal crying out for the wilderness. Her performance rescues “Homelife” with its feral intensity.

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“The Zoo Story” picks up the action after Peter has left the apartment to read for pleasure in the park. His confrontation with Jerry, however, makes the standoff with Ann seem relatively tame. Early Albee is even harder on a character who willingly sacrifices his animal ferocity for the security and comfort of conventional routine.

The casting of Russell Harvard as Jerry sets up difficulties. (Tyrone Giordano takes over the role on March 16.) Harvard’s Jerry seems substantially younger than Kotsur’s Peter, creating an odd dynamic between the characters. Jerry’s relative youthfulness lends an Oedipal current to his antagonism toward Peter, undermining the class resentment that Albee stresses and banishing the subtle homoeroticism between them.

But the bigger issue is the flailing theatricality of Harvard’s performance. Jerry may be dangerous but Albee retains a tight grip on his words and deeds. Harvard plays the dramatic situation at the expense of the character. Kotsur’s meek Peter isn’t so much accosted by a stranger as overwhelmed by a cast member determined to leave a daredevil impression.

It doesn’t help that the voices of Peter and Jerry are performed by actors (Eberle and Jeff Alan-Lee) who might as well be portraying other characters hanging around Central Park that afternoon. Their physical distinctiveness from their counterparts and their close proximity (they’re stationed at a nearby bench) blur the stage picture.

“At Home at the Zoo” makes “The Zoo Story” seem as though it isn’t the main attraction when in fact it’s one of Albee’s unequivocal masterpieces. Deaf West has made a valiant attempt, but the production sheds only sporadic light on these most eloquent of bestial plays.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

‘Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo’

Where: Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Lovelace Studio Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 26

Tickets: $50-$60 (subject to change)

Information: (310) 746-4000 or www.TheWallis.org

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnulty

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La Times: Deaf West sets out to tame 'Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo'

Deaf West Theatre is back at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts after the company’s heralded revival of “Spring Awakening,” which catapulted itself to Broadway after its Beverly Hills triumph.

After proving once again that a musical can be reinvented by a troupe of deaf and hearing actors blending American Sign Language with the original spoken and sung text, Deaf West might seem to be lowering the bar in taking on two one-act plays in which no dancing or crooning is required.

But “Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo,” which combines the playwright’s 1959 breakthrough drama “The Zoo Story” with “Homelife,” the prequel he wrote more than four decades later, turns out to be a formidable challenge for a company that has to work around Albee’s most salient gift — his astringent language.

The production, directed by Coy Middlebrook, begins with “Homelife.” The order makes sense narratively but raises other issues. Albee felt that Peter, the polite book publisher whose Central Park bench is invaded by Jerry, a frothing-at-the-mouth lost soul, needed some fleshing out. To right what he felt was the imbalance between the two characters, he wrote an accompanying one-act, set in Peter’s Upper East Side home just prior to the fateful Central Park outing, in which a tense exchange between Peter and his wife, Ann, clarifies the extent to which the animal has been bred out of this all-too-respectable husband.

The problem is that “The Zoo Story,” one of Albee’s greatest plays, doesn’t need elaboration. The battle between Peter and Jerry is strengthened by the enigmatic nature of the confrontation. Albee has been grouped in the Theatre of the Absurd, and one of the characteristics of this otherwise disparate confederate of playwrights that includes Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco and Harold Pinter is that the stage metaphors around which their plays are built aren’t reducible to single interpretations.

“Homelife” narrows our understanding of “The Zoo Story.” By heightening our awareness of Peter’s overly domesticated nature, Albee transforms his classic into a much more straightforward clash between genteel repression and marginalized discontent.

If “Homelife” is the more satisfying of the two dramas in this Deaf West-Wallis co-production, it may have something to do with our curiosity about Ann, whose tantalizing psychology we have to work out for ourselves. Of course it helps that the strongest performance in the cast is by Amber Zion, who portrays this frustrated wife living with her politely distracted husband, two daughters and menagerie of pets in enviable Manhattan comfort.

The play begins with Peter (Troy Kotsur) poring over a manuscript of “probably the most important boring book” his company has ever published. His concentration is a fortress that initially blocks out Ann’s out-of-nowhere remark, “We should talk” — a sign if ever there was one that all is not well in this upper-middle-class paradise.

Or is it a prison? The set by Karyl Newman (who also designed the costumes) bookends the living room with bars to create the effect of a kind of high-end zoo. Outside this deluxe pen, Jake Eberle and Paige Lindsey White provide the voices of Peter and Ann. They speak as Kotsur and Zion play and sign the roles, in a division of labor that fails to find the synergy between listening and seeing that was achieved in “Spring Awakening.”

Kotsur lends Peter a middle-aged preppy distinctiveness, but his acting isn’t able to preserve the subtlety of Albee’s writing. Peter and Ann, like the great majority of Albee’s characters, are fussbudgets when it comes to language. Kotsur’s body language and facial expressions seem at times too large for such a self-editing character. The general outline is right but the fine points of Peter get lost in translation, especially for those in the audience not conversant with ASL.

Zion’s portrayal builds in emotional power as she reveals the desperation Ann feels for a marriage that grown stale and safe. She has no reason to complain about her cozy cage, but she can no longer ignore the longing for sexual abandon. When Zion screams, the sound is that of an animal crying out for the wilderness. Her performance rescues “Homelife” with its feral intensity.

SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter »

“The Zoo Story” picks up the action after Peter has left the apartment to read for pleasure in the park. His confrontation with Jerry, however, makes the standoff with Ann seem relatively tame. Early Albee is even harder on a character who willingly sacrifices his animal ferocity for the security and comfort of conventional routine.

The casting of Russell Harvard as Jerry sets up difficulties. (Tyrone Giordano takes over the role on March 16.) Harvard’s Jerry seems substantially younger than Kotsur’s Peter, creating an odd dynamic between the characters. Jerry’s relative youthfulness lends an Oedipal current to his antagonism toward Peter, undermining the class resentment that Albee stresses and banishing the subtle homoeroticism between them.

But the bigger issue is the flailing theatricality of Harvard’s performance. Jerry may be dangerous but Albee retains a tight grip on his words and deeds. Harvard plays the dramatic situation at the expense of the character. Kotsur’s meek Peter isn’t so much accosted by a stranger as overwhelmed by a cast member determined to leave a daredevil impression.

It doesn’t help that the voices of Peter and Jerry are performed by actors (Eberle and Jeff Alan-Lee) who might as well be portraying other characters hanging around Central Park that afternoon. Their physical distinctiveness from their counterparts and their close proximity (they’re stationed at a nearby bench) blur the stage picture.

“At Home at the Zoo” makes “The Zoo Story” seem as though it isn’t the main attraction when in fact it’s one of Albee’s unequivocal masterpieces. Deaf West has made a valiant attempt, but the production sheds only sporadic light on these most eloquent of bestial plays.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

‘Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo’

Where: Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Lovelace Studio Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 26

Tickets: $50-$60 (subject to change)

Information: (310) 746-4000 or www.TheWallis.org

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnulty

ALSO

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link

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New Post has been published on News Twitter

New Post has been published on http://www.news-twitter.com/2017/03/12/la-times-deaf-west-sets-out-to-tame-edward-albees-at-home-at-the-zoo/

La Times: Deaf West sets out to tame 'Edward Albee's At Home at the Zoo'

Deaf West Theatre is back at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts after the company’s heralded revival of “Spring Awakening,” which catapulted itself to Broadway after its Beverly Hills triumph.

After proving once again that a musical can be reinvented by a troupe of deaf and hearing actors blending American Sign Language with the original spoken and sung text, Deaf West might seem to be lowering the bar in taking on two one-act plays in which no dancing or crooning is required.

But “Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo,” which combines the playwright’s 1959 breakthrough drama “The Zoo Story” with “Homelife,” the prequel he wrote more than four decades later, turns out to be a formidable challenge for a company that has to work around Albee’s most salient gift — his astringent language.

The production, directed by Coy Middlebrook, begins with “Homelife.” The order makes sense narratively but raises other issues. Albee felt that Peter, the polite book publisher whose Central Park bench is invaded by Jerry, a frothing-at-the-mouth lost soul, needed some fleshing out. To right what he felt was the imbalance between the two characters, he wrote an accompanying one-act, set in Peter’s Upper East Side home just prior to the fateful Central Park outing, in which a tense exchange between Peter and his wife, Ann, clarifies the extent to which the animal has been bred out of this all-too-respectable husband.

The problem is that “The Zoo Story,” one of Albee’s greatest plays, doesn’t need elaboration. The battle between Peter and Jerry is strengthened by the enigmatic nature of the confrontation. Albee has been grouped in the Theatre of the Absurd, and one of the characteristics of this otherwise disparate confederate of playwrights that includes Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionesco and Harold Pinter is that the stage metaphors around which their plays are built aren’t reducible to single interpretations.

“Homelife” narrows our understanding of “The Zoo Story.” By heightening our awareness of Peter’s overly domesticated nature, Albee transforms his classic into a much more straightforward clash between genteel repression and marginalized discontent.

If “Homelife” is the more satisfying of the two dramas in this Deaf West-Wallis co-production, it may have something to do with our curiosity about Ann, whose tantalizing psychology we have to work out for ourselves. Of course it helps that the strongest performance in the cast is by Amber Zion, who portrays this frustrated wife living with her politely distracted husband, two daughters and menagerie of pets in enviable Manhattan comfort.

The play begins with Peter (Troy Kotsur) poring over a manuscript of “probably the most important boring book” his company has ever published. His concentration is a fortress that initially blocks out Ann’s out-of-nowhere remark, “We should talk” — a sign if ever there was one that all is not well in this upper-middle-class paradise.

Or is it a prison? The set by Karyl Newman (who also designed the costumes) bookends the living room with bars to create the effect of a kind of high-end zoo. Outside this deluxe pen, Jake Eberle and Paige Lindsey White provide the voices of Peter and Ann. They speak as Kotsur and Zion play and sign the roles, in a division of labor that fails to find the synergy between listening and seeing that was achieved in “Spring Awakening.”

Kotsur lends Peter a middle-aged preppy distinctiveness, but his acting isn’t able to preserve the subtlety of Albee’s writing. Peter and Ann, like the great majority of Albee’s characters, are fussbudgets when it comes to language. Kotsur’s body language and facial expressions seem at times too large for such a self-editing character. The general outline is right but the fine points of Peter get lost in translation, especially for those in the audience not conversant with ASL.

Zion’s portrayal builds in emotional power as she reveals the desperation Ann feels for a marriage that grown stale and safe. She has no reason to complain about her cozy cage, but she can no longer ignore the longing for sexual abandon. When Zion screams, the sound is that of an animal crying out for the wilderness. Her performance rescues “Homelife” with its feral intensity.

SIGN UP for the free Essential Arts & Culture newsletter »

“The Zoo Story” picks up the action after Peter has left the apartment to read for pleasure in the park. His confrontation with Jerry, however, makes the standoff with Ann seem relatively tame. Early Albee is even harder on a character who willingly sacrifices his animal ferocity for the security and comfort of conventional routine.

The casting of Russell Harvard as Jerry sets up difficulties. (Tyrone Giordano takes over the role on March 16.) Harvard’s Jerry seems substantially younger than Kotsur’s Peter, creating an odd dynamic between the characters. Jerry’s relative youthfulness lends an Oedipal current to his antagonism toward Peter, undermining the class resentment that Albee stresses and banishing the subtle homoeroticism between them.

But the bigger issue is the flailing theatricality of Harvard’s performance. Jerry may be dangerous but Albee retains a tight grip on his words and deeds. Harvard plays the dramatic situation at the expense of the character. Kotsur’s meek Peter isn’t so much accosted by a stranger as overwhelmed by a cast member determined to leave a daredevil impression.

It doesn’t help that the voices of Peter and Jerry are performed by actors (Eberle and Jeff Alan-Lee) who might as well be portraying other characters hanging around Central Park that afternoon. Their physical distinctiveness from their counterparts and their close proximity (they’re stationed at a nearby bench) blur the stage picture.

“At Home at the Zoo” makes “The Zoo Story” seem as though it isn’t the main attraction when in fact it’s one of Albee’s unequivocal masterpieces. Deaf West has made a valiant attempt, but the production sheds only sporadic light on these most eloquent of bestial plays.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

‘Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo’

Where: Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Lovelace Studio Theater, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Ends March 26

Tickets: $50-$60 (subject to change)

Information: (310) 746-4000 or www.TheWallis.org

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com

Follow me @charlesmcnulty

ALSO

This post has been harvested from the source link, and News-Twitter has no responsibility on its content. Source link