AMERICAN THEATRE: James Caverly and Andrew Morrill’s play Trash is a case of kitchen-sink realism in more ways than one. In addition to following two men who find themselves locked in the grind of city life, scraping to make ends meet, Trash—having a free workshop staging this weekend at New York City’s IRT Theater, and a run at Brooklyn’s JACK April 28-30—also literally takes place in a kitchen, as the roommates argue over whose turn it is to take out the trash.
2 comments:
This sounds like a really fun show. IRT Theatre is doing amazing work in creating space for Deaf and Hard of Hearing artist and audiences. It is amazing to see that that space is being made and that the work is being done. Of course it is not enough that one theatre company is putting in the work, there should be space for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people all throughout the theatre industry. However, it is amazing that IRT is setting an example for other companies to follow. I also love the idea of the show Trash. It sounds like a really fun experiment in the work of Deaf artistry. I would love to go and see the show as a hearing person and get a moment to be surrounded in a world of art from the perspective of the D/deaf community. I can only imagine how beautiful it would be even though I would have to work twice as hard to understand, which is exactly what James Caverly and Andrew Morrill wanted.
I think it is important to understand the perspective of someone who is deaf living in a world designed for hearing bodies. I love that everyone involved with the production wanted their hearing audience to have to put in the work deaf people are forced to in hearing situations. I saw To Kill a Mockingbird on Broadway recently and one of the cast members is deaf. He was signing his lines as another character spoke them. I thought it was a great integration, but also felt disappointed there were no American Sign Language interpreters for other characters. Presenting the whole show in ASL would increase the deaf audience’s access to world class theatre and perhaps increase ticket sales. I hope theaters across the country can make these changes now instead of waiting until they have members in their cast or crew who need these accommodations.
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