“Two Rooms,” UF’s first production using American Sign Language, was performed last week. The play, staged by the School of Theatre + Dance, garnered about 200 attendees in total and was adapted to incorporate Deaf culture by the Signing Gators.
Joanna Byun, a 20-year-old UF sociology sophomore, was the lead actress and is Deaf.
“It’s really wonderful,” Byun said, speaking through a sign language interpreter. “I’m so happy that Deaf people are being showcased in this.”
In order to incorporate Deaf culture, the main characters were written as deaf, and two characters playing interpreters were adapted into the play.
Laxmi Woodham, who played one of the interpreters, said interpreting sign language in the play was a lot harder than it is in real life.
“Normally, we would wait until we got the message and then start voicing,” the 24-year-old UF English junior said. “In the play, we were simultaneous, because we had a script to work on.”
Byun hopes the play will lead to more ASL productions.
“Really, this should be happening a lot more,” she said. “There are so many people who don’t know ASL or anything about Deaf culture.”
