No Errors in Their Comedy; MSSD Students Participate in Regional Shakespeare Theatre

By Rosalinda Ricasa

“I felt nervous at first,” said Matthew Scott, “but when I saw the audience laugh I began to enjoy it…I felt great about my part….” Scott, a freshman at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD), was reflecting on his role as a servant in The Comedy of Errors. Scott and his schoolmates—Brent Benoit, Edward Corporal, Cierra Cotton, Xian Huang, Desmond Kerkulah, Camille Mitchell, Matthew Pollock, and Hema Saylor—were the only deaf and hard of hearing performers to participate in the play, which took place to rave reviews at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Their performance was partly the result of the work of MSSD English teacher/researcher Judith Giannotti. “When I learned about the Text Alive! program from a friend, I realized that participation would be a wonderful educational opportunity for our students,” she said. Giannotti applied immediately and the application was accepted.

Thus when her students returned to school last fall, they began a semester’s study of Shakespeare. In anticipation of their performance, Giannotti and her class studied The Comedy of Errors for three months. Every morning the students read and discussed the play. “Reading the play was challenging for the students,” Giannotti observed. “At the same time, they were stimulated by the plot and its complexities. Every day we would review where we left off the day before, calling on the students’ skills in recall and retelling. Students took on the roles of the characters, which helped maintain their attention and their interest.” Students mastered the vocabulary, she noted. “They were less inclined to be held up by single words when they were delivering a dramatic line.

They were intent upon expressing the meaning of the passage. They familiarized themselves with the words and their vocabularies grew daily. After a few encounters with ‘doth,’ ‘thou,’ ‘dost,’ ‘thy,’ and ‘art,’ they signed the modern version of the verb or the pronoun without hesitating.” After studying the play, the students rehearsed for the first scene—assigned by the staff —in MSSD’s Theatre Malz.

Teacher-artist Niki Jacobsen from the Shakespeare Theatre worked with the students, teaching them how to prepare for a stage performance and how Shakespeare used language. Giannotti was also required to attend four two-hour professional development workshops provided by the Shakespeare Theatre’s education department. The MSSD students performed in American Sign Language to the delight of the deaf and hearing people in their audiences. One hearing viewer noted, “I can understand [Shakespeare] without the voice interpreter!”

All of the students commented positively about their roles. Corporal, who played a sailor, said, “I felt great…because most people laughed and seemed to enjoy it.” Cotton, who played the wife of the main character, said she now wants to go the Hollywood route! Pollock, who played the main character, noted he now prefers to act in plays by Shakespeare because he thinks they are challenging.

After the performance, the students attended a matinee performance of The Comedy of Errors by the Shakespeare Theatre Company, had a final assessment workshop, and developed a web interview about the performance with the help of Julie Longson, Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center instructional technology specialist.

“The students were inspired by the audience response,” said Giannotti. “It was an unforgettable experience for all of us.”

Copyright © 2006 Gallaudet University Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center
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