On May 11th and 12th, I and the cast members performed poetry, songs, and storytelling in ASL (American Sign Language) as a group called Dangerous Signs at the Multi-unity Cultural Community Center (MuCCC). Also, glass pieces were laid out on the table and me and some Dangerous Signs cast members played the pieces into sweet sounds. That was a great and unique experience for me to do. Eastman School of Music students joined us to play a violin, cello, guitar, and other music instruments while we performed.
MuCCC presented the College Festival. Other colleges showed their theatrical productions. They were Monroe Community College, Eastman School of Music, Brockport University, Nazareth College, and few more. This event gave students' work a chance to be showcased in the community.
As for myself, I translated Annie Lennox's "Broken Glass" and Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence" songs into ASL. I also performed my original poem titled "Bones" with cast members that interacted along while I did the work. I also interacted along another cast who performed Ella Mae Lentz's "Eye Music" poem as well. Lastly, I played the glass pieces for one cast member's original poem.
After the performances, we stayed to be interviewed by the audience and the interviewers. The questions and answers, feedback, and comments helped us see what needs to be worked on, what was successful, and the comments enabled us to see where to go.
All in all, this experience was a tremendous learning opportunity and a great success for us, which I can only feel proud to be part of.
Here are photos of our performances.
I and the cast members in Dangerous Signs will perform our ASL signing-to-songs, poems, storytelling, and etc at Multi-use Community Cultural Center (MuCCC) for their College Theatre Festival this May 11th and 12th. We will present unique ASL translations of original poems like my "Bones" poem, well-known poems like Langston Huge's work, songs like Annie Lennox's "Walking on Broken Glass" and Simon/Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence", and several other skits. This Festival is a special showcase that enables the community to see college/university students/staff/faculty/etc's theatrical or performing arts skills.
To look for the Festival, look at MuCCC web page to get the details: http://muccc.org/events/.
