>From the newsroom of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania, Monday,
October 8, 2001 ....

Gaining insight on deaf theater

By Kristen A. Graham

INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF

GLASSBORO - To make it on the professional stage, all aspiring actors have
to take big leaps.

Claudia Liolios' leaps are enormous.

Liolios, a native of Germany, is hailed by her artistic director as
brilliant, gifted and wonderful. But she is deaf, so brilliant, gifted and
wonderful aren't always enough.

"It's hard sometimes," Liolios told a group of 40 deaf and hearing thespians
and students on Saturday, "but you can't be nervous. You have to believe in
the creativity inside you."

The challenges and lessons illustrated by the work of Liolios and her peers
were the topic of a theater workshop at Rowan University.

And the challenges are many, said Bill Morgan, artistic director of
Cleveland Signstage, the deaf-theater troupe that led the event.

"There just aren't a lot of opportunities for deaf professional actors," he
said, motioning to Liolios. "And I know that girl right there is just as
good, if not better, than Marlee Matlin, but there aren't that many parts."

Still, for Liolios, the limitations sometimes make her bold.

Struggling to learn English and American Sign Language after her arrival
from Germany three years ago, she nevertheless decided to try out for the
Cleveland Shakespeare Festival. She was the only deaf person who showed up
for the auditions.

"I don't think they were looking for a deaf female actor," she said, "but I
got five roles in two plays. I like working with hearing actors when they
know their signs."

Inside a Rowan classroom, Signstage's Iosif Schneiderman, a deaf Russian
actor and director, focused on one of deaf theater's most important
principles.

"For hearing actors, eye contact may be secondary to what they hear,"
Schneiderman said. "For deaf actors, eye contact is hearing."

He then asked the workshop participants to do a simple-sounding task: Pair
up and spend five minutes following each other around without dropping eye
contact.

Sheryl Paquette of Kenton, Del., who is studying American Sign Language at
Delaware Technical and Community College, and Lisa Waechtler, a Pine Hill
resident and Camden County College student, struggled at first.

"It's much harder than I thought," Paquette whispered, bumping into a
chalkboard.

"I know," Waechtler answered. "Don't look down."

Later, deaf actors gave insight into what Morgan called "a whole different
style of theater, an art form in its own right" - deaf theater, which can be
totally signed performances or productions with signing and spoken
interpretation.

"A hearing actor who doesn't know signs well can absolutely decimate a
signing actor's performance by speaking over the signs," Schneiderman said.

"Hearing people can just change their voice," Vikee Waltrip said. "Deaf
people have to change their signs to distinguish themselves as characters.
If I'm playing an 80-year-old woman or a teenager, I have to sign very
differently."

Cari Howell, a Clarksboro native who is an actor and a Gloucester County
College student, said the workshop had been valuable on several levels.

"I've been acting since I was little, but I just got into ASL," Howell said.
"You do a lot of acting with your emotions and gestures anyway, so this fits
right in. It's great."

Watching from a doorway as Schneiderman silently acted out shooting baskets,
riding a horse, and exercising, Howell admitted that as a novice of American
Sign Language, she wasn't sure she would catch everything that went on.

She found, though, that "it's easy to understand everyone here, even if you
don't know all the signs."

Mark Fields, director of the Glassboro Center for the Arts, sponsor of the
event, noted that it was just the start of a longer project. Through the
winter, many of the workshop participants will work on a Signstage-aided
production of Snow White, with a performance in the spring.

"We saw this as an opportunity to reach out to an audience it doesn't appear
many people are reaching out to," Fields said. "There's so much to learn."

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