A Commitment to Integrated Theatre
E. Kirby Jr., Founder & Artistic Director of Grace Ann Productions, was first introduced to the world of sign at an early age. His mother, Ann Kirby, thought he should learn sign language for his development. At the time he was only ten years old and too young to enter the program at Gallaudet University, so Ann decided to enroll herself and send Kirby to the classes. Through this experience he found an interest in deaf culture and later studied American Sign Language at the University of Tulsa as a foreign language.
As an actor, teacher and lover of the deaf community, Kirby had a dream of bringing deaf and hearing together on stage, but wasn't sure as to how or when it would happen. From that point on, his goal was to bridge the gap between deaf and hearing culture through theatre. His ultimate goal is to build a theatre where both deaf and hearing artists can perform on stage together, in what is now being called integrated theatre.
What is integrated theatre? When putting together a live theatre experience three things are very necessary: actors, set, and an audience. If you are deaf or hard-of-hearing you need a fourth, an interpreter. There are several forms of interpreting for straight plays, such as shadow interpreting, having interpreters stand to the side and sign the entire show. Integrated theatre combines hearing, hard-of-hearing, and deaf actors without interpreters. Two actors on stage have a conversation; one is deaf and the other is hearing. Both actors sign their spoken lines, another actor voices in the background. All the actors are on the stage and no one is left out!
Grace Ann Production's first endeavor with integrated theatre began in August 2004. After seeing Deaf West Theatre's Tony award-winning production of Big River , Kirby was inspired to produce the show in Oklahoma . Big River the musical is Mark Twain's classic story of Huckleberry Finn. A few important questions arose at the initial meeting to put this production together, such as, Where will we find the actor's? Fortunately Tulsa has a very active deaf community. Tulsa Speech & Hearing, as well as CSD of Oklahoma were two key organizations that helped spread the word to the deaf community and find actors for the show. In addition, these two organizations provided interpreters for the deaf and hearing cast members. Auditions began in January 2005 and rehearsals started in February for a production that opened in August of 2005. The rehearsal process was unusually long, but necessary to teach hearing people to sign their lines and deaf people to dance to music. Nonetheless, the show kicked off August 5, 2005 with much support from the community, including regional Sertoma groups that helped raise funds for the production.
The Big River Experience was successful at bringing deaf and hearing cast members together on stage and introducing integrated theatre to Oklahoma audiences. Now, that Grace Ann Productions has built a foundation for this new form of theatre in Oklahoma, it needs the support of everyone who is interested in unifying deaf and hearing on stage, and many opportunities are available to support. Grace Ann Productions presently produces five shows a year. All of the shows provide interpretation for at least one performance. Deaf directors, actors, interpreters and patrons are needed to make this successful. Currently, two of Grace Ann's shows are fully integrated with one having a strong deaf theme. In addition to Big River, last season's integrated shows included Children of a Lesser God and Oliver!. This 2006-2007 season, Grace Ann Productions integrated works are Children's Letters to God in January 2007 and an exciting debut of a new drama at the first of the year. Then, get ready, auditions for Jesus Christ Superstar begin February 17 &18, 2007 for the start of its 2007-2008 season to tour Japan in the Summer of 2007.
If you would like more information on upcoming auditions, show dates, or how you can support integrated theatre; please contact Grace Ann Productions at 918-491-3410 ext. 4, gracann@aol.com , or 8136-A South Harvard Avenue, Tulsa, OK 74137.
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