(no subject)

[deckardcanine]

I ushered two Arena Stage plays in less than a week: Looped and Legacy of Light. You can read my reviews of them here and here.

The presence of signers at the latter got me wondering how much deaf viewers actually get. Signers need serious shorthand to keep up with the dialog. Dividing your attention between signs and stage action is harder than watching a movie with subtitles. Having only two signers (one of each gender) for a six-person scene may get confusing. And as I mentioned briefly in the review, the impact of foreign words, however basic, may be lost in translation.

I really think that if I study a language again, it'll be ASL. I can get by on English just about anywhere I'm likely to go, and my moderate Spanish helps in countries with Romance languages, but if an accident left me suddenly deaf, I'd rather not have to read just letters and lips. Besides, even if I never need the language, it'll be off my beaten path.

Comments

I don't know what they do...

[thatcatgirl.livejournal.com]

...but I would think a good approach would be to have a printed copy of the dialogue available to go with the hastily signed version, except that often that would require a light to read, which might distract other viewers. :