My Most Meaningful Theatrical Experience

While a junior in high school, I got to have the theatrical experience of a lifetime. My director decided to do the play "Rabbit Hole" for our One Act Play competition, but with a twist. She had 2 different casts; one cast was the "speaking cast" and the other was the "signing cast." While the other cast spoke the lines, the signing cast, the one I was on, signed all of the lines in ASL. We had tons of help from our high school's ASL teacher (pictured bottom right), plus she had her Deaf friends (pictured above) work with us as well. We had to teach 3/5 signing cast members how to sign their lines, Deaf Culture, and teach them about the Deaf community... ALL IN 3 WEEKS! We ended up getting 4th in the competition and I got an outstanding actress award, but nothing will beat what Ruey (pictured top row, second from the left) said to me after my performance. She signed to me, "I love theatre, and I used to be in shows when I was your age, but when I became Deaf, going to shows was hard because I can't read the actors' lips. Thank you for including the Deaf community and culture... thank you for inviting me into your show."

This is an experience that propelled me toward my mission of fighting for the inclusivity of Deaf Culture in the theatre industry.