From May 30th to June 2nd, 2019, I and the cast members performed Man of La Mancha at Multi-unity Cultural Community Center downtown Rochester, NY. I acted as the Governor, the Innkeeper, and an "Interpreter" for the Barber. The show went very well with standing ovations. I was indeed surprised to receive the ovations, which I did not expect. It was a great experience acting the 3 roles in that production. Luane Davis Haggerty was the director of this production, which she worked hard to make it look excellent as possible. It was hard work as it was the most complicated theatrical work for me and the rest of the actors. This show consisted of deaf and hard of hearing actors, who used American Sign Language (ASL). At the same time, hearing actors spoke the scripts and sang the songs out loud. Therefore, the show turned out accessible for all audiences. The interactions among the deaf/hard of hearing and the hearing people was a challenge that benefited both cultures: the deaf culture and the hearing culture working together. It was a tremendous experience for all of us as a group.
The other thing I did was creating a social networking project regarding to this production, which I posted on Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube, and it enhanced the promotion of the show very well. I uploaded some interviews of the actors, created wild videos of the rehearsals with special effects, and made still images that included unusual special effects. These kind of creative, out of the box computer graphic effects seemed to attract the people out in the community when I posted them. I believe that my social network of Man of La Mancha helped gain the audiences and community awareness.
I shall thank Luane Davis Haggerty for supporting my acting careers and my social networking projects. I also would like to thank Multi-unity Cultural Community Center for providing us the theatre space. I'm indeed honored to be a part of this whole amazing unique theatrical production. We all shall dream the impossible dreams!
