Deaf-run theater Riksteatern Crea hosts Sign Language Arts event

Renca Dunn, Daily Moth Reporter:
Riksteatern Crea is a Deaf run theater in Stockholm, Sweden just like how we have our Deaf West and National Theater of the Deaf here in the USA. From November 17 to 21, Riksteatern Crea organized an event that focused on sign language arts mainly on visual vernacular and poetry. They did open auditions and picked 16 Deaf artists from different countries to come to Riksteatern Crea to learn more and increase understanding about visual vernacular and poetry. The 16 Deaf artists were from various countries such as Sweden, USA, Germany, France, Italy, and more.

(Full-screen images of 12 performers])

Dunn: There were two leaders that led workshops at the event whose names are Debbie Z Rennie and Giuseppe Giuranna.

(Photo of Rennie and Giuranna)

On the last night, November 20th, there was an open performance by the 16 Deaf artists for the public to come and watch at Riksteatern Crea. We connected with a Deaf creator, Erik Akervall, from Sweden who does directing and film making to film the event for us. We will show you the video clips of the event.

(B-roll of audience applauding and cheering)

Giuseppe Giuranna, Workshop Leader (Italy) :

What is visual vernacular? It’s like this…

(Giuranna gestures a water faucet and dripping water that slides down a sink)

(B-roll clips of three VV performers)

Lorenzo Laudo, Performer (Italy):

Visual vernacular has no words. It is zooming into the little details of the story and expressing that.

(B-roll of four VV performers)

Ace Mahbaz, Performer (Germany):

In the past, visual vernacular was strongly tied with story telling like watching a film. Yes, that is one way, but it is not nailed down as the only way. I see visual vernacular as a tool to express something. In the world of languages, one of the things that is “birthed” is visual vernacular. So, I take that within me and express it. It can be expressed through poetry or through storytelling or humor. So, that is how I see it, visual vernacular as one of the parts of languages.

(B-roll of three VV performers)

Jamila Ouahid, Performer (Sweden):

People in the past who were involved with visual vernacular said a lot has changed. With our technology, language has changed, creativity has changed, etc. We see on social media, many new things are added. Visual vernacular in the past has been different. I don’t know what it was like before because I am the “new generation” for this visual vernacular. I don’t know what it will look like in the future. Like how language changes- it’s the same with visual vernacular. Our cars in the old days would have to have a key to open the door, but now we can push a button to open.

(B-roll of two VV performers)

Mindy Drapsa, Riksteatern Crea Artistic Director (Sweden) :

Sign Language Arts is so important because it gives us the tools and the space for this. You know with theater, hearing people always say “Oh deaf people are so beautiful with their body language!”- that is how they view us and we are like “No, we use our hands to communicate.” So, we need the time and space to talk about this. Where? This is when professional theaters are responsible for this. We are funded by the government. So, we should take the responsibility to work on this to push for (Deaf) theater to continue to improve and get better.

Justin Perez, Performer (USA):

In the USA, there are not many Deaf people who do this. So, I did research and realized that there are more ASL stories, ASL poetry, ABC stories, numbers stories, and very little on visual vernacular. Just not many people for this. So, I thought to myself ok..I got a team and the three of us started “VV Underground.”

(B-roll of performers saluting and waving goodbye to a cheering audience)

(B-roll of audience members mingling)

Audience member :

Seeing this really made me even more proud to be a deaf person.

Audience member:

I see that it is open to interpretation on what is “art.”

(B-roll of audience members mingling)

Renca:

Wow. We want to thank Erik for his time. You can find more of his work with a link we provided in the transcript.

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Renca: We did reach out to Justin Perez who is from here (USA) for an interview. He was one of the few people from the USA who went to Sweden. Justin is one of the founders of VV Underground so we were curious about his experience with this event.

Renca: It’s very cool you had the opportunity to socialize and learn from people from different countries with all their talents. What a rich experience, I’m sure!

Justin Perez:

Yes! I got my International Sign Language fix. I admit, here I use full ASL on a daily basis, and I had to shift into using International Sign and that was so cool. It’s more open and interactive, and I learned different languages. That’s something I really enjoyed doing there.

Renca: I’m sure that during that week, you learned a lot from them and gathered a lot of advice, tips, and thoughts. Now, I’m curious, what’s one takeaway that you’d like to share with us that benefited you?

Justin: One big benefit is in the past, I would normally sign stories with visual vernacular, but when I went there, many of them shared tips about explaining details. Giuseppe, the VV leader, gave the same kind of feedback about me needing to go into more detail. I tried doing that myself and finally understood how to show the bigger picture, and give them a better feeling and understanding of the story. A big piece of feedback was going deeper with the details. I felt that was powerful. With regular stories it feels okay, but now after watching my older videos I realized they’re just okay. If I used that feedback in my previous stories, they’d be so much better. That’s one takeaway.

Renca: That’s true. You know, oftentimes we feel like a general description is good enough, but with more details it makes you realize we still can do that. We can dig deeper and create a great way to express our story. That’s awesome.

Justin: Plus they’re big on feedback. I don’t often get feedback and often improvise my stories, but they went into more detail on how I could improve and I realized that’s important for me to give a good message.

Renca: True.

Justin: I’ve been seeing many instances of VV. Often, I see that they tend to be very broad. What’s the message? What’s the point? I feel up to three minutes is a great amount of time. We very strongly feel three minutes is a great length for VV stories. If it’s any more than that, that’s a bit too long. I learned something new. Three minutes is more intriguing, like a short trailer.

Renca: Thank you Justin for your time. We want to thank Riksteatern Crea’s artistic director Mindy Drapsa and the crew for making this happen. We did ask them if they would do this again. They responded to us that they hope so! We look forward to seeing more Deaf visual vernacular artists out there!

Riskteatern Crea: https://www.instagram.com/riksteaterncrea/

Erik Akervall: https://akervallprod.com/