ABSTRACT
Often theatre classes on the playwriting process will follow a conventional text-based approach. At the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID), improvisation is utilized to develop, connect, and imagine the progression of the playwright’s storyline from a visual perspective involving both hearing and deaf students. The work begins, develops, and completes itself through the embodied language of the actor/writer using American Sign Language (ASL), universal gesture, mimed movement, and the unique application of Sign Mime techniques formally taught at NTID. Improvisational work with the actor/writer creates physical representations of theme and message connected to breathing exercises that help center the actor/writer. Use of eye contact is emphasized to provide an understanding of relational context based on the length of eye gaze or the withholding of eye contact between characters. Spatial awareness is supported through improvisation exercises to help the actor/writer focus on how space, within a play’s structure, is used to define setting, develop meaningful interactions with specific settings, and provide strong use of effective entrances or departures. Finally, to achieve a full appreciation of the various exercises, a process is introduced using movement, posture, and gesture (MPG).
