ProTactile Shakespeare: Inclusive theater by/for the deafblind
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In 2016, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Gallaudet University a $25,000 grant to develop and document models of theater for DeafBlind people by DeafBlind people. Using Romeo and Juliet as the starting point, the project proposed to explore how immersive theater techniques could be leveraged to create a dramatic experience rooted in the emerging DeafBlind language known as ProTactile (PT) and the perceptual experiences of DeafBlind people. (2) The grant project had two main goals. First, to generate models and practices that could be shared with the national and international DeafBlind community. Second, to challenge conventional paradigms of dramatic performance. How do artistic processes and practices lead to exclusionary theater? How does access for, rather than inclusion of people with disabilities reinforce these exclusions? What would inclusive, rather than accessible, theater processes and practices look like for DeafBlind actors and audiences?
In July/August 2018, six DeafBlind participants, a sighted Deaf project director, and a sighted hearing theater artist advisor gathered for a week of intense playing with Shakespeare, PT, and tactile/olfactorial/gustatorial props. At the end of the ProTactile Theater Institute (PTTI), participants workshopped scenes from Romeo and Juliet for a small audience composed of DeafBlind, Deaf, and sighted individuals. Unlike the hierarchical and directorled framework of much traditional theater, our process was intensely group oriented. Every element of the theatrical experience, from performance model, script, set design, costume elements, props, tactile cues, came out of collaborative discussion and decision making. To respect the nature of this work, this article is also structured as a collaborative piece in which participants reflect on their experience and share insights from a week spent living, breathing, and dreaming PT Shakespeare.