The crowd is hushed.

On stage King Lear, one of Shakespeare's great plays, begins.

"What do you have to say?" King Lear asks Cordelia, his favorite daughter.

The King's other daughters have promised him all the love on heaven and earth.

But Cordelia is silent.

"Nothing," says Cordelia.

Cordelia doesn't speak the word. She signs it.

And the great play is underway.

Monique Holt plays the role of Cordelia, signing all her lines. Holt is performing with the Shakespeare Theatre, a major theatrical company in Washington, D.C. She is the only deaf actress in the play. The hearing actors and actresses have a voice coach; Holt has a "sign master" who watches her sign language and consults in her translation and performance. One of the hearing actors says the words while she signs them.

"I am a storyteller," says Holt, reflecting after the performance.

"It's important to me to understand the meaning of my roles, " said Holt in an interview after the play was over. "For example, 'I am false fortune's fool.' I was unsure how to translate that. First I tried 'FALSE LUCK GRUMP.' I didn't like it. So I changed it to 'the future won't help me,' but that wasn't right either.

In the end, Holt decided on the sign phrase, "IT (FORTUNE) WILL NOT DECIDE MY FUTURE."

Holt remembered working with a hearing actress who memorized her lines without understanding what they meant. Not her. For Holt, understanding is critical.

Perhaps Holt's insistence in creating a character and understanding the character's personality is what has made her one of the leading deaf actresses in the United States. In a profession in which few people are able to live on their earnings, she has made her living as an actress since she entered the professional world.

The playbill from King Lear "It's important to me to understand the meaning of my roles." said Holt In an interview after the play was over.

"I was lucky," Holt said. She was in Europe and still in school at New York University when her first job offer, with its actors union card, came. After that, one role followed another.

Holt has performed in many Shakespearean plays. She was Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Ophelia in Hamlet.

What's her secret?

"You have to push yourself," Holt said. And get out into a world where everyone competes and hears. "I don't think about being deaf. I make it a point be friendly and outgoing with everyone. I just do it."

She helped found an organization for stage artists in New York called Artists: Betwixt and Between (ABAB).

"We started ABAB with just four people," said Holt. "Now there are over 60 members. We are actors, visual artists, stage designers, and sculptors."

The group pools their skills in all aspects of art, she said.

She loves her craft.

"In the end, I like to tell stories," said Holt. "I am a storyteller."

And everyone-hearing and deaf-likes to watch her.