On September 21st, I and the cast members in Dangerous Signs headed over to Little Theatre Cafe for Rochester's Fringe Festival. Luane Davis Haggerty, director and voicer, and Joseph Fox, one of the cast members, wore Dangerous Signs sweatshirts on the way to the Cafe.
From left to right, Jonathan, Malik, Troy, and Jamal performed Paul Lawrence Dunbar's "We Wear the Masks" in American Sign Language.
From left to right, Eden, Tim, Eddie (myself), Jonathan, Jamal, Joseph, Malik, Sam, and Troy were performing a skit about what poetry is, and its meaning and purposes.
Joseph and Malik performed Robert F. Panara's poem titled "The Rustle of A Star".
I (myself), Tim, Troy, Eden, Malik, and Jamal performed "Bully", created by all of us in ASL. We brought up the Karen Klein bullying situation that happened on the bus in Rochester when young boys mocked at the woman with video-tape online, which became a big news at a national level. Each of us also did skits about each bullying experiences each of us had when young in schools in the past. We also created a bullying mime, physical movement, and acting skit. Lastly, we used each letter of the woman's name - Karen Klein - to convey the message of bullying as not good for anyone.
Troy, Jonathan, Tim, Eden, Sam, Jamal, and myself performed my own poem titled "Bones". All of us interacted together when I performed this work in which they became bones inside the ears, seashells, organic ornaments, and water; an American Sign Language poetic technique called personification.
This is a continuing performance of "Bones".
This performance is a poem written by Langston Hughes titled "Hold Fast To Dreams". Eden and Sam became birds flying, lifted by Jamal and Troy, that were about to have their wings broken when Jonathan upfront said "Bird with broken wings that cannot fly."
We all received positive comments from the audiences in the Little Theatre Cafe. Possible opportunities came up when some people brought up with ideas such as possibly performing in a local TV news on public television, performing at public schools (especially the bullying skit), and performing at GEVA theatre in their NEXT Stage section. Also, we performed on a large stage on Gibbs street afterwards, outside. We performed "Honor to Trayvon Martin", the shooting incident that happened down in Florida which became controversial due to possible racism. The next day, on September 22nd, we performed at the Little Theatre #1, using their stage, which we did the same performances at the Little Theatre Cafe.
