Salon 1 - Unpacking Common Mistakes in Deaf-Hearing Collaborations

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:20]Hello 1S1. Hello 1S1 theater. Hello 1S1.

[00:00:34]1S1 theater was not founded out of a desire to see an increase in the number of deaf versions of theatrical productions, but rather out of a hope for a future where access is understood to be fundamentally integrated into the work, not merely an afterthought or an add-on that could come and go.

[00:00:59]Creative projects led by deaf professional artists, sign language users who are linguistically and culturally deaf, are rarities in Canada.

[00:01:09]So, if we want to see a genuine cultural exchange where deaf and hearing artists come together to share and create, bridges need to be built.

[00:01:19]But these cultural bridges must be founded in authenticity, which means setting aside representations that are typically seen in society at large.

[00:01:28]Rather, deaf people must have the chance to share our voice, so it can be seen, supported, and so that we are empowered to tell our stories, put our creativity and art out into the world.

[00:01:41]Our vision is one of collaboration, and not just in Canada. We at 1S1 see a global movement of deaf and disabled artists advocating for significant change, and we are proud to join them.

[00:01:59]Hi. of 1 Theater.

[00:02:01]My name is Christine Sun Kim.

[00:02:04]I go by CK and I'm an American artist who's based in Berlin, Germany.

[00:02:23]I'm Ramesh from Singapore and I'm currently based in Glasgow.

[00:02:30]I'm a deaf theater maker making theater for over 25 years.

[00:02:50]My name is Joshua, last name Castille and this is my sign name. I'm a deaf actor, writer, director, creative. Any creative projects, I love to be a part of those. I'm there.

[00:03:16]Hello, my name is Troy.

[00:03:19]I'm from Los Angeles, California and I have worked on the theater stage for over 30 years.

[00:03:29]Looking back, the pay was really shitty, but I really enjoyed the accumulation of the experience. What an adventure it was. It was amazing.

[00:03:53]Here we will be exploring the theme of common mistakes that emerge in deaf hearing theater collaborations.

[00:04:02]I have observed that these collaborations frequently exhibit the same kinds of dynamics regardless of where in the world we are working and that there are patterns to these mistakes.

[00:04:14]So in this salon we will try and unpack some of these common mistakes that we have each experienced.

[00:04:21]As professional deaf artists, I'd like to ask about what you've noticed in this regard.

[00:04:29]The aim of this salon dialogue is to share with our audience the burden that is borne by deaf artists navigating these projects and by so doing begin to share the responsibility more equally with our collaborators.

[00:04:53]So I'd like to ask, in your personal experience working over your career with numerous hearing artists in a wide variety of settings, what mistakes have you noticed just keep recurring even when the hearing people are good-hearted and well-intentioned?

[00:05:09]Are there common missteps that come to mind?

[00:05:14]I would say a common pitfall for my hearing collaborators is that often times they express [clears throat] regret around not having done a little basic learning before working with me. Like deaf culture 101, learning some sign language, knowing how to say hi and thank you and attention grabbing techniques. They wish they had had learned that in advance to make things easier when it comes to working with somebody who's deaf and starting that collaboration.

[00:05:48]I've been relatively lucky in the past few years.

[00:05:56]Collaborators like Matthew Lenton from Vanishing Point, George Mann from Theater Ad Infinitum.

[00:06:15]Both of these have been keen to explore a visual vocabulary with me.

[00:06:21]Both in their own theater practice as directors are aware of and often use very visual cues and points of reference.

[00:06:40]I'm aware that this is not always the case.

[00:06:46]Many hearing, and I must add, deaf collaborators worry so much about the language, whether it's signed or spoken, and don't think of creative solutions to make the language accessible to either deaf or hearing.

[00:07:18]Many forget that it can be the intention behind a spoken word or gesture that is the most important.

[00:07:32]Working from the basis of getting the intention communicated is a point that is often missed.

[00:07:44]In my years of working with hearing collaborators, I did get frustrated with being patronized, thinking that because I'm deaf, I can't do this.

[00:07:56]I'm not as good. My ideas are not as valid.

[00:08:03]There was a sense at that time, especially in my early career, that visual meant mime.

[00:08:12]For me, it was so much more than that.

[00:08:20]That was a lot to overcome.

[00:08:24]The view that because I'm deaf, I can only sign or mime.

[00:08:36]I hope this isn't a view that some still have.

[00:08:45]Then, some hearing people think you can't do certain roles because you're deaf.

[00:08:57]Well, I agree that being deaf brings another perspective to a role.

[00:09:04]It's not something that is restrictive.

[00:09:10]If If anything, being deaf adds another layer to a role.

[00:09:24]What I don't like seeing is hearing collaborators who only see collaborating with a deaf person as a funding opportunity.

[00:09:43]It's not happened to me, but I'm aware that it's happened to others.

[00:09:47]People tend to think, "Oh, we're being inclusive because we got a deaf person involved and they're signing and that's enough. You just sign and they can understand you. It's that easy." And I'm like, "Well, it's That's not how it works."

[00:09:58]I tend to feel like, you know, in the real world, we navigate communication in our own way. And I'm a proponent of given circumstance, which means in the real world, what would this situation look like? How would we actually navigate the communication? And there's cool storytelling found in that angle.

[00:10:16]People tend to try to be, quote unquote, inclusive, but they ignore what being deaf actually means and what the deaf experience actually looks like. And I'm like, "Okay."

[00:10:27]We made many mistakes collaborating with hearing cast members.

[00:10:32]Most often, we had trouble syncing up the spoken dialogue with the signed dialogue. Sometimes, the sign was very quick and the hearing actor would continue speaking very quickly. So, we'd modify the sign.

[00:10:48]And other times, I would sign and the hearing actor was already done with his line and there wasn't a punctuation at the same time.

[00:10:56]And so, you could hear that the message was overlapping in a less-than-seamless way.

[00:11:03]Imagine having two languages at the same time with spoken English and sign language and you have to punctuate everything simultaneously and sync it up. And of course, that takes a lot of time and rehearsal.

[00:11:12]Other times, I would be signing and forgot if the hearing actor was following my line.

[00:11:21]Or I'd make the hearing actor look bad because like the hearing actor forgot his line or he'd go ahead and say his line before I signed it and would make me look bad because we weren't synced up. And so those situations would arise from time to time and it was unfair to hearing cast members who were waiting for their audio audio cue.

[00:11:42]And so or vice versa with the deaf actor.

[00:11:46]And so what what do you do in that situation? Of course, us deaf actors can't hear if their voice has stopped or not with our hearing cast members and that was a situation that would happen quite often. So we'd have to get used to that process through rehearsals.

[00:11:58]Uh and the hearing actors would have to learn not to rely on their ears as much and focus a bit more on their eyes to have a mutual respectfully uh situation and and many hearing actors really enjoy hearing [snorts] the music and so on. And now the focus was on sign language with the voice actors supporting us deaf actors so you could see and hear the dialogue at the same time.

[00:12:27]And that's what's really beautiful about art.

[00:12:30]Quite often hearing actors would be a bit awkward or frustrated, but then they would delve in, learn a lot about our deaf culture and language and it would help them improve their acting ability because their mind and body had to all be linked up and related to their blocking and movement.

[00:12:47]And so it was a great benefit for a lot of those hearing cast members as well as audience members.

[00:12:53]And several hearing actors knew nothing about deaf culture and later on ended up becoming professional interpreters and very popular interpreters and they had started learning sign language on stage that inspired them.

[00:13:04]So there's a lot of benefits that many are unaware of. So that's your opportunity to experience it.

[00:13:11]When you have collaborated with hearing artists, is there anything that they have learned from the process that they hadn't realized before?

[00:13:21]In my experience collaborating with hearing people, often times I see that hearing people don't realize the importance of information sharing. For me it could be a little bit of information, a lot of information, it could be boring information, repetitive information, gossip, a secret. It doesn't matter. For me, if we're in the same room or if we're working on the same project, it's important to share those bits of information, to let me know what's happening next, what decisions are being made, asking if I want to be included, if I want to go to lunch, and what I'd like to eat. Just these simple decisions that I can do when I have the information to also maintain my independence.

[00:14:05]They don't realize that we can potentially have a shared language.

[00:14:13]One that is visual.

[00:14:17]They don't realize that if they want to, they will understand sign language.

[00:14:24]It's not something to be scared of.

[00:14:30]They don't realize the pool of talent within the deaf community.

[00:14:39]They don't realize that when communicating with a deaf person, they talk to them, not the interpreter.

[00:14:47]I often feel like hearing people don't realize that we deaf people have our own perspectives, our own cultures.

[00:14:55]Like you know, people say deaf and hearing people are the same, it's just that deaf people don't hear. And I'm like, well, that's true, but deaf people, we have our own cultures, we have different ways of looking at the world, and that perspective can be really nice to add to a play, to add to the world, whatever creative project that you're working on, it can really improve things. And hearing people often think, oh, we'll just bring in a deaf person. And I'm like, oh no, we have our whole way of including and and and uplifting a project, you know?

[00:15:27]Deaf culture and sign language is extremely important to the deaf community and we have in-depth knowledge on that and through the years we've seen the hearing world's music and art and so on, but where was our representation?

[00:15:41]Now it's time for hearing people to enter our culture and work on art with us together to show to the general public.

[00:15:49]A good example is a small play called Shirley Valentine.

[00:15:54]And there was a female actress who was deaf, Freda Norman.

[00:15:59]And it was a one-woman show and she signed in ASL the whole way through and they had a voice actor synced up with her matching up the entire play and it was like a dance and a marriage between the ASL and the spoken dialogue so that the audience members could see the complete full representation of ASL without distractions and understand it clearly.

[00:16:24]So that was a great start of that whole process of is that one-woman show.

[00:16:30]And how can we develop original content content where we have a baby step where we can have the audience understand the ASL clearly and that's how a lot of theaters start with those small productions.

[00:16:46]I've long given thought to imagining what is possible.

[00:16:50]So in this context I'd like to ask you, what do you think could be?

[00:16:55]When hearing artists invite a deaf collaborator onto a project, how could they go beyond the invitation and truly shift into a dynamic of shared space and shared power?

[00:17:11]Do you have any thoughts for hearing artists who want to make this shift into a power sharing model of collaboration.

[00:17:22]When I work with hearing people and they are working with me or other deaf people, what I see is that often times deaf people are brought in in a lower position. So, we're brought in as maybe a consultant, as an assistant, somebody to give feedback, a guinea pig.

[00:17:41]Or it's that we can't have our name stand on our own. It has to be with a hearing person. But in my experience, I've really seen that there are situations where deaf and a hearing person are brought in and they're brought in as equals, but because of systematic discrimination, they'll end up being somebody who is not equal.

[00:18:05]I mean, we live in an ableist society, a discriminatory society, and so it is unfortunately a natural progression that as the project moves on, the hearing person is more prioritized. So, that's why I believe in having deaf people have a little more power, having the final say, so that way throughout the term of the project, we end up as equals in my experience.

[00:18:30]Start with realizing deaf people exist.

[00:18:34]Deaf people are skilled and that being deaf is not restrictive.

[00:18:43]I think there is a bit of a problem that is not the fault of deaf or hearing people.

[00:18:54]Deaf people can be quite insular in their outlook.

[00:19:03]They may feel that they've had no choice having to make opportunities for themselves, much like what I've had to do.

[00:19:12]This has resulted in deaf companies focusing on deaf issues or deaf theater made by deaf people for deaf people.

[00:19:25]While this absolutely has its place and should be available, we need a deaf voice.

[00:19:35]However, it can sometimes seem that a group or company only caters to deaf people.

[00:19:50]I think this is less the case now.

[00:19:58]Truly sharing space and power, we need deaf people having more of a presence in the mainstream.

[00:20:11]And I don't know how we make that happen.

[00:20:17]For me personally, I think in my early career, I made work with no sign language at all.

[00:20:27]I depended on a purely visual theatrical language.

[00:20:33]This was necessary to widen my audience base beyond the deaf audience.

[00:20:40]I think for me, often I start my process with hey, what's your goal?

[00:20:46]Is it that you want to work with me or do you want to include more deaf people?

[00:20:50]Do you want me to collaborate and uplift your story? Because sometimes I would try to get into the room and be like, you need more sign, you need more this and that. And the hearing artist would be overwhelmed and kind of pull away.

[00:20:59]So, I learned to be like, hey, what's your point? Is it that you want to connect with your deaf audience? Is it that you want deaf artist involvement?

[00:21:06]And that intention helps me lead them where they want to go.

[00:21:09]I feel like true inclusion means having a deaf eye on the production team.

[00:21:15]Often, they just bring in a deaf actor, and that's it. That's as far as they go.

[00:21:19]But I'm like, "No, you need a director.

[00:21:21]You need a deaf eye to help you connect and collaborate better with us."

[00:21:27]I feel like real inclusion means fusion.

[00:21:33]So, it's not a hearing production with a deaf person involved or a hearing production plus No, it should be a true meld of the worlds, and that adds to it.

[00:21:44]That really changes the world of the story in a way that elevates the material.

[00:21:49]I feel like allowing deaf people to really have the space to share, to have a seat at the table, which often means including a dazzle for translations or having a deaf assistant director, or whatever that looks like.

[00:22:05]Just having a deaf person on your team to help, to think about access as an audience member, think about what they're watching. What does that experience look like, and how do we make sure that both audiences, hearing and deaf, get what they need? So, really, it's about identifying every area of the process and allowing space for a deaf perspective to be shared.

[00:22:30]With deaf and hearing cast members working together regarding power dynamics and the space and audience perception of this, I can share a story with you.

[00:22:42]There's a gentleman named Jeff Calhoun, who was a musical director in New York City on Broadway for many years, and it just so happened that Deaf West hired him to come in and direct a play, and it was the first time he had experienced a deaf cast and a hearing cast working together. And he had a talent and some experience with musicals, of course, but combining and marrying the visual representation with the music was really a learning experience for him. He directed Big River at Deaf West, Oliver, and Pippin, as well as Sleeping Beauty Awakens. And you had deaf and hearing cast members working together.

[00:23:24]And one word he used to describe it was focus, because with focus, you could see who was communicating in sign language.

[00:23:31]And so the lights dim and they put the spotlight on the characters dialogue.

[00:23:36]And then when another character speaks, the focus moves, of course, with all of the different characters. And so both the hearing and deaf audience can see and enjoy and follow the storyline together simultaneously. And he really learned a lot from deaf culture. And it was a great benefit for him and made him an even better director for the future, thanks to deaf culture.

[00:23:58]So that's something to consider.

[00:24:02]Now I'd like to turn our attention to performance and arts access.

[00:24:07]There are some hearing arts organizations, institutions, and companies that have various accessibility mechanisms on offer. But for many of us, rather than mere access, we would prefer to see a significant structural overhaul. How can we advocate for meaningful change?

[00:24:27]When I look at institutions and organizations and how they can become more inclusive with deaf people, I think there are two ways.

[00:24:35]One is that if there's anything to do with budgets, with spending, accessibility, whether that's having interpreters, note takers, whatever the cost, to have those under the overall operating budget. So that way it's considered in the bigger picture of the budget and that it's not something that's put to the accessibility budget because there can be tension around that. There can be a lot of red tape around that. There can be limitations. So, when accessibility is considered overall as much as something would be considered like electricity or rent, to have accessibility there is important.

[00:25:16]Another success I've seen is that if there is sustainability around the project, [snorts] so that if they promise to caption all videos on social media for example, and they always do and they do it for day after day and year after year, that's structural change.

[00:25:37]Give us jobs within these institutions.

[00:25:41]If we have the skills and ability to do it.

[00:25:49]Interestingly, I currently work part-time for an educational institution on a course for deaf people.

[00:26:03]When a full-time job became available as head, of course, I was never encouraged to apply.

[00:26:16]My answer is simple.

[00:26:19]See us deaf people as equals.

[00:26:23]Stop being so scared of the communication and let us at least be considered for the full-time jobs.

[00:26:33]That really connects back to what I was saying earlier about how I always will ask the theater company, "Okay, you want to work with deaf people, but why is it that you want more deaf people to be included in the space?" Then we got to talk about the audience customer experience, getting food, getting tickets. Often I will advocate for more notepads or things that you can write on at the food counter or at the ticket booth or more ASL in the environment to really uplift that experience. But if you just want to check a box and say, "Oh, well, we wanted to include another perspective." One and done.

[00:27:07]Okay.

[00:27:09]Really what I'm getting at is that we, as deaf people, we want to be included.

[00:27:14]We want to come into those spaces, but we experience a lot of barriers. So, to allow us to get that access, we need to change and impact the theater viewing experience. Meaning we need to add captions, interpreters, writing pads, add pointable menus. And when you add those things, it benefits everyone. So, the more that you allow us in, the more everyone will benefit.

[00:27:39]It's extremely important how to approach the situation and how to remain open to this type of collaboration and partnership. That's integral, and it's not easy.

[00:27:53]Maybe starting with a small production with two actors, for example, a hearing actor and a deaf actor working together, and that will be a small step forward getting ready for a much bigger step.

[00:28:05]There was a small play where two hearing and deaf cast members worked together as a baby step before working on a bigger play, and that will prepare folks and get them ready for a larger production.

[00:28:20]And deaf people should have their ownership of the production as well and share ownership on stage because we have experienced hearing productions, but now on a deaf and hearing partnership, we need to share from our perspective in our space.

[00:28:37]Within the arts sector, where we all work, there are pervasive systems and policies that determine how we, as deaf creatives, are viewed. Some of which are quite harmful.

[00:28:51]So, I'm wondering, if you had the power to make one change, just one thing, what would it be?

[00:29:00]Um thing that I would like to see change is not systematic. It's not about regulation. It's not about policy. It's actually bigger picture than all of that.

[00:29:11]For me, it's how people perceive minority groups.

[00:29:17]And the thing is is that a lot of minority groups just happen to be groups of people that use a different language. Mine is visual.

[00:29:25]And so, what I see is that people say that deaf people can apply for maybe specialized funding. But the truth is is that we, as minorities, deserve to be on the stage, at the table, just like anyone else.

[00:29:45]Not a rule or policy, but I'd like more collaborations.

[00:29:51]More deaf people working in the mainstream of the industry.

[00:29:56]But, there needs to be the talent and skill to do the job.

[00:30:06]Deaf people should have the opportunities.

[00:30:11]Not because they are deaf, but because they are good, talented, creative, and skilled.

[00:30:21]My one thing that just always gets me is a lack of honesty from the creative team. Feel like often people don't want to offend. They don't want to say something that will hurt the deaf person. So, typically, they'll just say, "Thank you for your time." and send you out of the room. And then the audition's over, and we didn't really We need more ASL feedback. We need more information about why we weren't picked.

[00:30:45]Is it that we didn't have enough experience or enough training? Is it that you don't know how to work with us or you don't have the money for interpreters? Just be direct and then we can improve. We can change. We can work on our art because right now I feel like often we go into the audition room and we try our best to convince them to pitch ourselves to get them to hire us as a director or an actor or writer or whatever it is. We pitch and we pitch and we pitch and we get a great reaction in the room and then it's radio silence.

[00:31:11]And I'm like, "What exactly is it? Is it the writing you feel like the audience won't understand or the acting is too expressive?" Just tell me and I can make the proper adjustments if I feel it's right. If it if I feel like I want to, I can adjust myself to fit your vision.

[00:31:26]It's that honesty, that transparency, that lack of feedback. And theater schools, training programs, they're typically not accessible for us. So, where else are we supposed to get that feedback? So, typically we just get into the industry and we try our best and then it's the theater companies that hire us that say, "Oh, we're interested but we can't afford interpreters or we're interested but we don't see how this story will work with a deaf person.

[00:31:49]So, can you tell us more?" And I want more of that transparency.

[00:31:55]Regarding changing the system, I can give another example.

[00:31:59]Find a well-known play like Shakespeare, like Romeo and Juliet for example, and you have two different cultures that come together, the Capulets and the Montagues, and these two characters fall in love. So, imagine if Romeo's deaf and Juliet's hearing and they fall in love. Then you have the addition of deaf and hearing culture and even more layers and conflicts in the story, which makes it even more interesting.

[00:32:22]Hamlet by Shakespeare, imagine if Hamlet is deaf.

[00:32:26]And then there's even more interesting context to the story because Hamlet wants to rise the ranks and become a deaf king and they want to kill him.

[00:32:34]That makes it even more interesting and layered. So, there's many different ways and possibilities of both cultures working together with hearing cast members and deaf cast cast members. You can always find a different way.

[00:32:45]There's another example. There was a play called Cyrano.

[00:32:48]And there's a new adaptation of Cyrano called Elephant Shoes.

[00:32:53]And that's in development right now and work shopping with deaf and hearing actors and the director is Jeff Calhoun who plans on directing Elephant Shoes.

[00:33:03]And that will be his fifth production working with Deaf West.

[00:33:11]What does the phrase deaf-led mean to you?

[00:33:17]Why do you think it's important?

[00:33:23]To me, deaf-led means that all of the operations, all of the decisions, all of the planning is done by deaf people.

[00:33:33]And that is important to me because it shows that there is no need to negotiate your access, your understanding upon arrival.

[00:33:44]Instead, it means you arrive to a space where you are the same as others. You're in a shared space. You make decisions together and that is so empowering.

[00:33:56]I've always been committed to deaf-led in many ways.

[00:34:01]It's what I had to do when I arrived in Scotland.

[00:34:07]There were no opportunities for me as a creative, actor, director.

[00:34:15]So, I created my own opportunities by creating, leading my own work.

[00:34:27]Now, I'm in a position where I can look for collaborators or folks find me.

[00:34:35]They want to work with me.

[00:34:37]And very often for me to lead the work as creator involving me in writing, directing, or acting.

[00:34:49]I'd say Deaf Led is important as it gives Deaf people a voice, a presence, opportunities.

[00:35:00]And it is the only way we will see a change in the system.

[00:35:06]I love when Deaf Led means that a Deaf person is taking on a whole project according to their thoughts and their perspectives. Sometimes I feel like people limit it to meaning Deaf Led is just one main character who is a signer at the lead. And like, no, we Deaf people need to be in all kinds of different topics and perspectives. We can take on a directing position for a hearing show. We can build a story and make commentary through our Deaf lens on this hearing story and have that impact the show. Deaf Led doesn't just mean just a signer at the front, doesn't mean just Deaf as a character. It means that a Deaf person has their hands throughout a creative project.

[00:35:48]Typically, it tends to be a leader, a producer, or a director, somebody who gets it going. And I do think that in a play, if the lead is an actor and they have a shadow voicer, but that lead is the one who's like really the project, then I think that is being a Deaf lead because they're captaining a whole company of actors to tell a unified story. I think the more that we as Deaf artists get involved with school, with theater programs, with things like that, the more that we get involved, the more that we can hear out their concerns. We can hear them out about money or talk with them about the facts that they're up against. Meaning maybe they don't have enough deaf attendants, or maybe they can't afford interpreters. And then you can come up with solutions together.

[00:36:33]I think it's important that we do what I call freeing people from their concerns.

[00:36:37]Like I see your concern, I hear you out, rather than you can't afford an interpreter, am I not worth an interpreter? Like yes, of course that's a normal feeling to have. You are a valid actor, you deserve a good interpreter, but at the same time you have to understand they're a business and they have money to worry about. So you can hear them out and still understand, hey, I'm a good interpreter, I'm still worth the money, I've still got that self-confidence, but understand them and come up with solutions to collaborate and and get them to hire you again as an actor. And that I think will really help get the ball rolling and change the world, I think. Thanks so much to you for your theater, and thank you to everybody who's watching. Let's keep this conversation going.

[00:37:21]How can deaf lead a production?

[00:37:25]You know, it really needs to be a mutual collaboration of deaf and hearing folks working together because then you can increase awareness and acknowledgement of each other's cultures, rather than deaf folks being isolated.

[00:37:37]It's great to have outsiders learn from deaf culture, rather than being siloed.

[00:37:42]And unfortunately, most of the percentage of the funders tends to be hearing led productions. And it's really hard for deaf folks to find donations in the deaf community. And so you might have a much smaller audience that way. With a deaf and hearing collaboration, you can have a larger audience, and you can increase awareness of ASL and deaf culture and even more recognition for our language and culture and feel more confident. If you're a bit siloed, then you'll be missing spreading that message to folks who may want to learn from the culture. So that's the difference.

[00:38:16]I want to thank you all for your gracious willingness to participate in this discussion. You truly inspire me.

[00:38:24]Each of you have offered your voice to a collective movement that is on the cusp of change that will see the spotlight turn onto Deaf arts, Deaf leadership, and the flourishing of Deaf creativity.

[00:38:46]We would like to acknowledge and thank the Canada Council for the Arts for their support of us at 1S1 Theatre and Why Not Theatre, and our company Exchange and Collaboration.

[00:39:06]The Canada Council for the Arts Sector Support, Innovation, and Development Grant [clears throat] has enabled the creation of this three-part salon series.

[00:39:17]One salon is entitled Unpacking Common Mistakes in Deaf-Hearing Theatre Collaborations.

[00:39:26]Another explores 1S1 Theatre's Deaf-led vision for the future.

[00:39:34]And then there is an interview with Why Not Theatre about their production Prince Hamlet.

[00:39:42]The aim of the series is to generate a dialogue which can increase awareness of Deaf-led work among those in the arts sector, and of the importance of giving us as Deaf artists power, visibility, and space.

[00:40:04]All of your input, contributions, and experiences were vital to the creation of these conversations, which have become a resource for our community and for all the diverse communities in the sector to share, foster collaboration, and serve as an inspiration so that together we can flourish and thrive.

[00:40:31]Thank you.

[00:40:33]And also to Y not Theatre, I want to offer my utmost and most heartfelt gratitude.

[00:40:41]Thank you for your unwavering support for 1S1 Theatre.