Deaf Theater Event Analysis

I went to two different events this term, the first being a theater event promoted by Deaf Spotlight back on May 13th. The beginning of this event there was some time where I got to meet Deaf community members. One guy there I talked with a lot, his name was Jimmy K. and his sign name was a “J” trasitioning to a “K” by his shoulder. There were only about 10 Deaf people there for the event but it was nice to see everyone interacting together. Unfortunatly I learned that it was not a deaf primary event, and instead of focusing around ASL it had translators. I left there before I had an oppertunity to take a photo of myself but I did gain some experience with how to go about the community and meet people outside of the classroom. I did not end

He explained to me that he had not always been Deaf, but got into an accident at work when he was about my age but he had taken a few ASL classes back in highschool so he knew he still had a way to communicate with his bestfriend who had taken the class with him. During the time I was there I saw all these people who were incredibly fluent and confident with their signing but they were also incredibly friendly and willing to slow down for a novice like me. Since I didn’t have full sign awarness and don’t know every caviot of ASL I found myself having to rely on having them either act out or fingerspell the concpet that they were trying to express to me. That or I had to do the same. Though I was able to have a few meaningful and lovely conversations during this encounter I did stay back and watch more than participate. I also met a person from Bellevue communtiy college who was learning ASL too although they had been signing for about a year and a half and were significantly more fluent than I. I think that this served as a primary experience on what skills I need improving on, fingerspelling is a primary one as the signs I knew, people were able to understand but, when I had to spell something out I usually had to repeat it atleast two

I did manage to get in for the first half and be introduced to a whole flurry of new signs and actions. I was a big fan of creative ways of telling stories both visually and through standard narratives. It was wonderful to see interpretations of poems and to watch ASL not only be a method of communication but an art as well. While I didn’t have a hard time understanding the information infront of me I did find it slightly distracting that there was the ASL to english voice translation. I understand the necessity of it for the general public but I feel I would have enjoyed it more without. I am not sure how many people were there, I would think somewhere between 40 and 60 people but needless to say the amount of people didn’t really matter. It was a great pleasure to learn about the ASLHS and see the awards given for students who have done fantastic work with ASL. The event really invigorated me and made me want to continue refining me ASL skills after I graduate and become more integrated with the large community here in Seattle. On the final not of all of this, I was enjoying myself so much that I nearly forgot to get a photo of myself. But I managed to do so during the intermission right before I had to leave. Excuse the exceptionally messy