16/04/2021
Deaf History Month, which runs from mid-March to mid-April, commemorates the achievements people who are deaf and hard of hearing. In honor of this, we're bringing you a clip from the 2015 Broadway revival of Spring Awakening, which featured deaf and hearing actors working side-by-side to bring a story of a failure of communication to the stage.
In Germany in 1890, Frank Wedekind wrote "Spring Awakening" (originally "Frühlings Erwachen"). Set at the same time, the work criticized the sexually oppressive culture of the time and drew attention to the struggles of teens attempting to navigate the world (and puberty) with this incredibly limited information.
In 1880, ten years earlier, in Milan an international conference of deaf educators was held - the Second International Congress on Education of the Deaf. Later becoming more commonly known as the "Milan Congress," it established an effective "outlawing" of sign language in schools internationally - students who were deaf and hard of hearing were to be taught orally exclusively, with no additional instruction provided through signing.
The 2015 Broadway production of Spring Awakening (a revival of the 2006 musicalization of the play by Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater) incorporates this history into its already fraught and chilling narrative. Here, many of the teens portrayed are deaf or hard of hearing, and their struggle and confusion, inherent in the time and culture, is only exacerbated by the failure of the deaf and hearing adults around them to communicate generously and effectively. This production seamlessly weaves sign language and choreography, signing and singing, to tell a truly beautiful and heart-wrenching story.
Want to know more about the logistics of staging a musical for deaf and hearing audiences and actors? Watch interviews with the choreographer and cast on "How to Make a Musical for the Deaf."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcRREvQyl54
