UW-Milwaukee students highlight inclusivity in first integrated theater performance for hearing, deaf communities

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It's seven o'clock on a weeknight and dozens of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee acting students are huddled inside of the school's black box theater laughing, yelling, and yes, even swearing at each other from across the room.

They're rehearsing for their upcoming performance of the Pulitzer-prize winning play, Sweat, written by Lynn Nottage.

"It’s rooted in very strong, social realism," explained Director Ralph Janes, noting that the script is based in Redding, Pennsylvania in the early 2000s. “The framework for it is quite dark, and yet we constantly amaze ourselves at the humor that we find with it because it’s about human beings and human beings find humor in the darkest of places.”

Janes, who is also the director of UWM's theater education program, told CBS 58's Ellie Nakamoto-White that he is "humbled and inspired" when watching his students.

“There have been times where I just sit and I just watch people work and go, 'yes, this is great. This is really good,'" Janes said.

But while their acting talents are top-notch, it's what makes this performance different than any other one shown at the school that stands out.

Sweat marks the first play at UWM where there will not be an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter standing off to the side during the performance.

Instead, interpreters will be on stage, with the hearing actors, and moving in sync with them.

“When you put interpreters off to the side, they’re having to do tennis basically or ping pong, so they’re trying to watch the interpreters, but then they lose everything that’s happening on the stage," said ASL English Interpreting Program Director Pam Conine, who proposed the original idea. “I threw it out there like, hey, some other universities, collaborate with their theater department and do the shadowing, and they were game.”

Conine said there are 17 interpreters total, who will split up for certain performances.

“What it brings to the production [is] the visual piece of it, the connection," Conine said. "The idea that deaf people should be able to experience the arts just like everybody else.”

Maya Shub, a junior at UWM and a first-year interpreting student, said she was excited when she heard that the two departments were joining forces.

“We’ve gotten to work really closely with the actors, which, when it comes to interpreting, knowing the meaning of what they’re saying is extremely important," Shub said. “When you read this line, what is the meaning of this, so that when I’m interpreting it, I totally get that understanding?”

Marie Helser, a senior at UWM and Sweat's assistant director, said the overall goal of the performance is to put ASL into the same equal opportunity as spoken English.

“We want it to be at the best performance for them, not just for our sake, or aesthetics' sake, it’s for the deaf community," Helser said. “Especially as a hearing person, being led into the deaf world is a gift.”

Helser said the university is working to be generally more inclusive, but especially when it comes to the arts.

“Interpreters are usually just blocked off in a little section, but we wanted them to be in the performance. We wanted them to be in some costumes, in the lighting, so it’s in the experience," Helser said. "It’s not the deaf people looking back-and-forth. It’s right there and it’s an equal playing field.”

That equal playing field is something Helser and the other actors agree should be expanded on as theater is "for everyone."

“I think this is the least we can be doing for accessibility, and again, this is only one kind of accessibility right, it’s only one kind of inclusion for a specific group of people, so I hope this just gets the ball rolling on so many other things," Helser said. “Deaf isn’t a bad word. Deaf is a good and strong identity that people fit with.”

Sweat will be performed from April 19th through the 22nd at 7:30 p.m. CT in the Kenilworth 508 theatre at 2155 N. Prospect Ave.

A final matinee will be performed on April 23rd at 2 p.m. CT.

The performances on April 19th and 21st will feature both ASL and spoken English.

GA tickets are $11, senior/UWM faculty and staff tickets are $9, youth under 18 are $7, and UWM students with ID are $5.