http://www.ted.com/talks/ben_cameron_tedxyyc.html

1) There is a new alliance between the Theatre Arts and Interpretation Departments at Gallaudet University, with GIS (Gallaudet Interpreting Services) as a major player.  The new residency of Faction of Fools –as discussed in my previous post—at our theatre department is exactly why I reached out to the Interpretation Department.  Besides a wealth of professional learning experiences for our theatre students made possible with the FoF partnership, a wealth of professional learning experiences could be made possible for undergraduate (BAI – Bachelor of Arts in Interpretation) and graduate (MAI – Master of Arts in Interpretation) interpreting students through coverage of FoF rehearsals, production meetings, workshops, and performances, as BAI/MAI students are expected to meet a hours-specific pro bono interpreting requirement and a robust number of them have expressed an interest in theatre.  The Interpretation Department, GIS, and FoF are as equally enthusiastic as I am about this nascent initiative.

This is only the beginning, and uncharted territory for both our departments—but this is a baby step toward the creation of a theatre-interpreting component to the Theatre Arts degree program, which is in its early idea stages already.  Emphasis on EARLY.  There will be growing pains, but it’s not difficult to recognize that this could, eventually, fill the vacuum left by the shuttering of Julliard’s theatre interpreting program 2-3 years ago.

2) Our in-house Fight Training Certification Program (FTCP), a new dimension to our program, will be launching as a pilot this year.  Our theatre students will train with Casey Kaleba, a DC-area fight master with impressive area and national credentials who will be choreographing the intense violence in our April 2012 production of Hamlet, which I’m directing this spring.  He is also listed as a certified stage combat instructor with the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD).  The idea for the FTCP started to germinate after Casey and I collaborated on 2008’s Agamemnon, an ASL production of Aeschylus’ The Oresteia trilogy—he directed the fights and designed the blood effects for that memorable production, which was staged in the Eastman Studio Theatre black box on 1 ton of sand.

Students will have the opportunity to gain SAFD basic-level certification after a total of 15 hours’ training in non-weapons and weapons stage combat, and the framework would be in place if they wanted to work toward intermediate-level certification.  Either way, this will look strong on any Gallaudet theatre student’s resume, and influence future Gallaudet production choices as long as the FTCP is in place—the FTCP hinges on not only actor training unto itself, but the direct application of actor training toward any given production.

3)  The emerging alliance between the Gallaudet and Georgetown theatre programs continues to evolve.  It began last spring, when a group of Georgetown theatre undergraduates voiced 3 of 8 performances of L’Abbe de L’Epee: A Satire, which I directed and designed the set for.  These students were under the direction of Susan Lynskey, visiting assistant professor at Georgetown’s Department of Performing Arts and DC-area actor.  Now Susan will be directing Visible Impact, an original ensemble piece at Georgetown’s Devine Studio Theatre (located at the Davis Performing Arts Center) this fall which includes a number of scenes from Deaf playwright and Gallaudet theatre professor Willy Conley‘s play, Vignettes of a Deaf Character.  Willy is collaborating with Susan on Impact, as he will be directing those scenes.  A number of Gallaudet theatre majors have been cast in this production–I will share their names as soon as they have been confirmed.

4)  The rumors are true.  Alpha Psi Omega is back from the grave.  Last spring, due to the passion, persistence, and efforts of several Gallaudet theatre majors, Gallaudet’s Psi Theta chapter of the national theatre honor society, Alpha Psi Omega (APO), was reactivated for the first time since 1984.

I serve as the chapter’s faculty advisor, and I have emphasized to its members that they are not just theatre students or Gallaudet students or members of any student organization, they are now—for all practical purposes—arts ambassadors and advocates on Gallaudet’s campus.

During a time where American Deaf theatre is endangered, the arts as a redeeming cultural value to Deaf people can only be instilled and advanced by committed, responsible activism—it would be foolhardy to justify non-action based on a casual assumption that the Gallaudet University community has internalized that value.  Apathy is never constructive.

5)  This bit of news may hit some of you like a thunderbolt—the aging Elstad Auditorium is finally getting renovated.  You read that last sentence correctly.  The. Aging. Elstad. Auditorium. Is. Finally. Getting. Renovated.  New chairs.  New tiles.  New carpet.   Wheelchair accessibility at last.  I’m confident that the Deaf-blind community will be very pleased with the choice of the new carpet, and somewhere between 10-20 individual seats will be interchangeable with wheelchairs in the first 3-4 rows.  The caveat here is that this is not a full-blown transformation of the entire Elstad building, but this should improve the audience experience in time for things to get exciting.

6)  A December surprise is coming.  Get ready.

I’ve been asked several times:  why is the theatre department, at Gallaudet, the only liberal arts university for Deaf and hard of hearing people, hosting a hearing company, or a company made up of hearing people?   The nature of the professional theatre circuit is highly competitive and often ruthless, unsentimental even, and d/Deaf people entering this profession are already at an immediate disadvantage as a multi-minority group.  We are a linguistic minority, we are a cultural minority, and we are additionally perceived—rightfully or not—as a group associated with disability.

Our theatre department’s new partnership with Faction of Fools not only fits within the framework of the philosophy guiding the new direction of our program AND coincides with the University’s new emphasis on developing relationships beyond its campus, but it is also a conscious, outside-the-box effort to address the historic, ongoing professional networking difficulties facing d/Deaf people seeking to work in the mainstream theatre circuit.  I have been working for some time to put Gallaudet on the map as a bona fide DC theatre destination, too, and by virtue of our partnership with FoF, we’re plugged in now—I’m quite excited about that.

Faction of Fools, as an organization, had been on a quest for a stable venue for some time now–more specifically, a venue stable enough to host at least 16 performances of their productions throughout the coming season in order to be eligible for Helen Hayes consideration.  To clarify, that would be at least 16 performances PER production.  FoF productions feature a rotating ensemble of local actors who are currently active members at some of the other theatres operating in Washington, DC.  I quickly realized that this had the makings of a win-win situation for the both of us, and a series of exploratory conversations with Matt Wilson, FoF’s artistic director, and Dr. Lindsey Snyder, FoF’s director of access, began–these conversations quickly turned serious enough, and not long after, the invitation to Faction of Fools to become a resident company at the Theatre Arts Department was formally extended.

The new agreement between FoF and our theatre department stipulates that in order for FoF to use our space for rehearsals and performances, they must incorporate an average of 1-2 Gallaudet theatre majors/minors in their productions.  I am trying to improve the odds for Gallaudet theatre students with a proactive model of career networking within a “safe” environment—if Gallaudet Theatre Major X is in the same FoF production as Artist Y, who is active with 2-3 other DC-area theatres, this potentially improves the odds of Major X finding work with those same theatres.  I’ll be the first to concede that I may be overly optimistic and this may blow up in my face yet, but I’m more than willing to give this a shot and see what happens from here out.   At least some semblance of a post-graduation networking (and support) system is infinitely preferable to a nonexistent one.

Additionally, they will provide specialized training workshops to Gallaudet theatre majors/minors in Commedia dell’Arte, breathing techniques, acrobatics, and other skills—a sampling of skills which strengthens our average student’s theatre resume prior to graduation.  That will be invaluable in such a student’s quest for professional work in theatre and/or film, or his/her application to a MFA program anywhere in the United States.  Indirectly, those same acquired skills may somehow end up benefiting 21^st century Deaf theatre if and/or when the time comes.  Once a semester, separate workshops will be offered by FoF to the Gallaudet community itself.

To kick things off, 2 Gallaudet theatre majors—senior James McGowan and junior Randi Medugno—as well as Joey Caverly, a recent graduate, were in the cast of Faction of Fools’ summertime Fringe Festival production of Tales of Courage and Poultry, and I’m proud to say it was highly successful.

Reviews of that production are at the links immediately below:

http://dctheatrescene.com/2011/07/08/2nd-annual-fool-for-all-tales-of-courage-and-poultry/

http://mdtheatreguide.com/2011/07/fringe-review-2nd-annual-fool-for-all-tales-of-courage-and-poultry/

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/fringe/2011/07/08/hip-shot-2nd-annual-fool-for-all-tales-of-courage-and-poultry/

Next on tap for Faction of Fools at Gallaudet is The Mandrake, a romantic comedy written by Machiavelli—the one and same author of The Prince, a treatise on how to acquire and keep power by any and all means necessary.  Randi Medugno returns in this one, and she is joined by another junior, Charlie Ainsworth.

Late August is usually that time of the year when various publications in the DC-metro area are beginning to come out with their annual theatre season previews.  Faction of Fools was profiled in two already.  Check these out:

http://mdtheatreguide.com/2011/08/let-us-entertain-you-matthew-r-wilson-previews-the-2011-2012-season-of-faction-of-fools/

http://www.bizjournals.com/mobile/washington/blog/2011/08/theater-companies-enter-and-exit.html

In a nutshell, as new chair and on behalf of our theatre department, I will prioritize mutually beneficial relationships and partnerships that are unambiguous in their practical and professional value to the average Gallaudet theatre student.

Last thing left to say here:  welcome to Gallaudet, Fools!

Why “Elstad Island”?  It was inspired in part by a friend, also a Gallaudet theatre alum, who remembers the Elstad—fondly and not—as this crazy, strange, landlocked island.  When you look at Gallaudet’s campus map, the Elstad’s current location makes it seem like it was banished to its corner of campus, out of sight and out of mind, as most of University life is centered in and around Kendall Green (the Mall).  Additionally, it seems as though the Elstad is far away from the fast-growing theatre hotbed of Washington, DC.

Why the blog?  Its creation reflect one of my priorities as new chair, which is to improve and strengthen the channels of communication with various constituencies beyond Gallaudet’s campus with a shared stake in the long-term sustainability of our theatre department.

A decade into the 21^st century, traditional notions of theatre itself in America are being challenged and redefined.  I sincerely empathize with the emotional attachment to Deaf theatre as a natural and logical extension of Deaf culture and community, but the reality is that Deaf theatre in America is dying a slow death.  I don’t literally mean Deaf theatre itself is dying, but the 20^th century idea of Deaf theatre is, for no small number of reasons at play here.  I will ensure that our theatre department continues to preserve Deaf theatre traditions as long as we remain part of the academic and cultural fabrics at Gallaudet, the only liberal arts university for Deaf and hard of hearing people, but there needs to be a fearlessness and willingness to experiment with, and improve upon, the same traditions originating in the previous century so 21^st century American Deaf theatre can evolve as an idea in its own right.  It is incumbent upon our theatre department, and Gallaudet University, to cultivate the next generation of Deaf theatre artists, creative thinkers, and their allies in order to bring this about, to transform this idea into an institution.

What is exactly the value of a Bachelor of Arts degree in theatre from Gallaudet University in the 21st century?  What are its expectations, its advantages?  Who are our students’ role models?  How consistently are our students being empowered?  Are they being properly prepared for professional life post-graduation?  These are the questions guiding the direction I hope to take Gallaudet’s Theatre Arts Department in, and I am visualizing a student-centered hybrid program where our liberal arts curriculum is fused with a conservatory approach as well as a marked emphasis on professional theatre training.

I firmly believe Gallaudet should be the best—not default—choice of Deaf students seeking a proactive, accessible, quality university theatre education which prepares them well for the realities of a working professional theatre field dominated by hearing people who have little or no exposure to–and consequently, little or no experience working with—Deaf people.  Our students need every single competitive advantage they can get.

The next 3 years are going to be interesting, and revealing, too.

Welcome to Elstad Island!