Deaf National Theater

Studies on the National Theater Of the Deaf A common activity shared across many of the different cultures of the world would be the art of theater. The act of performing life in order to tell a story has been around for many years. These range anywhere from the plays of the ancient Greeks, Romans and Chinese, the old English playwrights to the modern American playwright. However these cultures are not the only ones to have produced theatrical works. Deaf culture has also sprouted many of its own plays and adaptations. Having performed for the nation and the world for fifty years now, the National Theater for the Deaf has been sharing deaf culture with hearing audiences as well as enabling the minority Deaf society to engage in the field
of acting (National Theater of the Deaf, 2014). The founding fathers of the National theater of the Deaf were Dr. Edna Simon Levine, Anne Bancroft, Arthur Penn and David Hays. The National Theater of the Deaf was originally theorized in the 1950’s by Dr. Edna Simon Levine. (National Theater of the Deaf, 2014). Dr. Levine was a psychologist who focused much of her studies on the Deaf population. She was the first thing come up with the idea for a traveling troupe of actors who were exclusively deaf. However, it was not until Anne Bancroft and Arthur Penn, who were the lead actress and director of the Broadway show The Miracle Worker were approached that the idea took off. With these two on board, they brought the idea to David Hays, a light and set designer for Broadway, who after seeing “the beauty and strength of Sign Language on stage … persisted in his vision of bringing this powerful form of expression to theater audiences.” (National Theater of the Deaf, 2014).
The United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare issued a grant in 1965 to help establish the National Theater of the Deaf (National Theater of the Deaf, 2014).