Technology of Voice tris easy to think of the human voiee as inaccessible to deaf peopl They do nol hear their own voice 1 do they hear the voice of others, so iL must not be known to them, Indeed, lor much of Deaf peoples history, theirname mn dhe 1913 films made by dhe Natlenal Association of he Deal, the themselves has been “dval-mutes. sigh DEAT was two signs, che index finger contacting the ear and tien co: facting the mouth. It hay since sitaplified into a single sign, but the history of the older sign is preserved in the two parts, of the modern sign, where the Finger still contacts at the ear and the mouth. Nou long belore the films were made, however, te term “nuie” had hegun to fall out of favor. In 1889. the American Annals of the Deaf and Dumb, a journal o| deal education, proposed that the title of the journal change, leaving only the simpler term, “deat.” The ealitors believed the t 1n was snisleading; veal peopl: were mute, Some were hard-oF-hearing and could speaks reasonably well; yer others hed speech training and could use the veice. Dect people the years, the word had come to mean an inability 1 syeak on li, a lack of voice. Further. amure 3 wale” for a different reason—over id dumb were in- creasingly being used in the popular literature to snean “lack of in- more often than lack ol ability 9 speak (as in “io be telligenc 100 Technology of Volce = 101 struck dumb"), leading Deaf people 1 advocate abandoning the descriptors? In Lact, he huinan voiee is ex ebject, a property that Deaf people care about greatly, and through their history, it has been an object lor them co “manage.” They have often borrowed the voice of a relative or a friend, and more recently of an employee, to use lor communicating with others. [tis in this sense that voice can se fully be thavght of as a technology: it is not me quality or a medium of expression, but at entity to be cultivated. managed, and mos. recently, converted into a commercial com: modity. The management of the human voice today has become a niultunlllion-dollar industry, as Deal people employ Incerpreiss to uanslate for them into voice, 1nd telephone companies hire voiee operators to communicate for Deal people over the telephone. The rapid expansion of voiew into wireless and web technology bas and in. opened up even more ways to manage, shape, redirect, deed, profit from human voice for peaple who do not use it or hear ii. As Deaf people have moved from separate lives within their communities. o livesin front of others, their management of voice hhas changed as well. They use voice Lo say dillerent things nov, to explain chemselves and 10 participate in differeat ways. The prop. terties of bumnan voice have likewise changed, to become less int imate over the years, as Deaf people “contract” with an interpreter or an operator to voice on their belli For most of ils history, Deaf theater or “sign language theater” did not requive voice; indeed. it was intended for a signing audi- ence. Today almost all theatcr with Deal actors will be accompa: nied by voice. ‘The history is in part about changing audiences, from within the community to more public arenas. The transition In how voice came w de used in theater, Hirst w “read” the lines, then to “interpret.” and now, ay “dual performance,” where sign Ianguage and spoker language are presented simultaneously on the same stage, mirrors the transition from private to public forms102+ INSIDE DEA CULTURE capression. But the change was not williout consequence; as Deaf act 9 blended voice with sign Janguage petiorinance, thelr style of performing changed. Finding theraselves no longer on stage alone, but working with spealsing actors, Deaf actors changed how they performed, and they charyged their choice of material to The few films of the Los Angeles Club for the Deal 19405 that have survived tearured the style of performance fa vored at the time: vaudeville shows, short comedy skits. and ever dreadful blacklace peformances, alternating with beauty pageants films show poetry, typically trans lations of the classies, and singing in the form of thytlunie clappiny luring the and awards ceremonies," Ot or dancing to popular umes like “Yankee Doodle," In her history of Deaf theater, Dorothy Miles describes com as descendanis of che early “literary societies” founded at schools jor the deaf. She claims that the earliest such society is the Clere Lilcrary Association of Philadelphia, founded in 1865. Gallaudet College founded is literary society in 1874, Wolf Bragg was popular for bis Deal club performances uirough the 1930s when he conceived the idea of mounting full-length play productions under the auspices of the Hebrei Assoclailon of the Deaf, Using money pooled from friends and fellow aspiring, ors, Wolf produced sign language translations of mainstrcsu: plays, including The Monkey's Pew and Anf Weiderseten, both pop. ular with audiences during the years leading up t the Second World War. He rented high school theareis far the evening and primed fliers to distribute at Deal clubs announcing the place and date of the performuantees. the plays were wildly popalay, filling the theaters with ro or duree hundred in attendance, in part because Wolf himself veas a compelling presence on stage.* Until bis departure in 1925, Wolf had attended the New York School lor the Deaf at Fanwood and learsied the skill of siga story- telling from older students. As in other schools for the: deaf at the Tecknolocy of Voice > 103, ‘ime, Fanwood had a tradition of performance in the evening hours after classes had ended. Wolf's strong sense ol timing and colorfully vivid siyle of signing could hold an audience for hours, Le would cntertsin audiences of filends at his home with stories eribbed from the Reader's Digest, widh a lavorite being one of a man who al the urging of his wife went on a hiking trip with his best friend, only to find himself the target of a murder planned by his wife and friend, who were having an affair, Wichout access to movies or to plays, which were not sulititled or captioned in thove days, Deal people were drawn to these informal storyrelling events at homes and clubs as well as at plays performed at theaters.” Like Viddish theater aimed at a community both set apart and brought together by its foreign tongue, Deaf thearer in New York promised its audi cence vivid sign language theater, and by all reports, it delivered, Wolf Brage’s productions brought in Deaf people with litle or 0 experience in acting, with sets designed on a shoestring on bor rowed stages. Miles describes Wolf as a “demanding director” who coaxed performances out of fellow Deaf club members. Just as Vide dish theater responded tn the growing demand of Jewish in grants lor entertainment in their own language, Deaf theater was designed for Deal audiences. There was no voiced English transla tion of these productions because: ere was no one who needed 10 hear it, David Lison describes Yiddish heater as a respite from the difficul: lives that Jewish immigrants experienced, and a power~ ful reminder of what they had left behind in Uicir hoenclarids.* In Deaf theater, the homeland was the community aud the schools, Inrought together for 2 moment in an expression of drama. In the hanis of directors like Wolf Bragg, sign language theater was ar- resting and saiistying. During this period, Gallaudet College had an active tester: not only was there a dramatic dub, where actors were tavited to audi Jon, but the college’s fraternities and sororities mounted their own, plays as well, creating a lively theatrical enviceaument on campus.101 + INSIDE DEAT CULTURE Many of these productions featured voice interpcetation, In 1932, day Night Dramaric Club presented The Close of the ldo, ollowing year, the club's produc featuring an “interpreter.” The a student who “intezpreted the play for the benefit of tom Hister Lie hearing public in the audience.” In subsequent years, ane or wo of the hearing faculty would be listed as an “interpreter” or a “reader, In the summer of 1941, rie Malzkuhn was looking for a new production for the Gallaudet Dramatics Club when he read a script of a murder mystexy being performed un Broadway, Arsenieand Old Tave. Because the rights were not available, Malzkuhn wrote te the producers of the play to ask for an exception. When the producers answered that there auld be no simultaneous amateur production while the play was currently on! Broadway, Malvkubn replied that it would not be a simultaneous production because il would he in sige language, and furthermore, it would not be amateur because ley were “the best sign language pesfouners in the world.” To Melzkuhn’s surprise, the producers wrote back and invited the club to perfonn un the Broadway production's stage during its off night.* Malrkubn knew that if he was to bring his production to Broad- way, he would need a plan for voicing. He selected two of the col. lege’ Leacliers, one who caught mathematics and the other clas sies, and arranged 1o put them behind a dark sereen ta one sive of ‘the stage. Though inidder trom the audience, their voices would accompany the Deaf actors es Urey reprised in sign language the comedy of two spiaster aunts who poisoa lonely elderly gentle- men looking to rent 2 rom from them. For one night in May 1942, Bric Malakuhn and the Dramatics Club lound themselves performing on a genuine Broadway sage in front of a beating au: dience. Aller the night was over, the students retumed to Gal Taudet and the historic event became forever inscribed fn the folk af theatcs, aud iu the black-and-white photographs lore of b Technology of Voice = 105 Stored in the dlul’s glass case, Fer one night, sign language st acted the attention of an almost entirely hearing audience. 1 hardly seems competing thearer to have two amatenr voices for ven different roles, but voice at the time was augmentive. “in- terpreted «forthe benefit of ue heating public in the audience, a5 the playbill lor the Arsenic «rad Old Lave production explained, A few yens late, o sign translation of Gilbert and Sullivan's riusical The ttikado was perlormed at Gallaudet College, complete with rented wigs and costumes, and omate sets. Is was the most arm Ditious prextuction by the foothall-coach-turnestdireetor Ted atughes. As with Arsenic and Okt Lace, two reachers from the college provided voice translation, bur they were kept oif to the side be- hhind a sereen., so their uncoscumed bodies would nat mar the stag ‘of the musical. Their voices were w supplement the play, 10 help she few hearing members of the audience follow te lites in case the sign language delivery could not be understood, When voice was used in Deaf theater 16 fill the silence, it was explain and translate, but it was restrained in ambition, Voice was laumate, close by and familiar. When Eric Malzkubn met with the producers of Broadway's Arsenic ena Old Lace, he brought along a fellovy student, Archie Stack, 10 interpret because he had “a | through 1959, Gallaudet College productions relied on a small of heating” and used his voice well. From 1930 group of hearing teachers 10 read or interpret plays: Llizabeth Benson, a hearing daughter of Deaf parents, was the dean of women at the college, and frequently was called on to interpret not only for productions but also for any interpreting need on the campus. Margaset Yoder taught Hnglish aud fencing at the college and voiced fora number of productions, as did Joe Youngs, a hear ing graduate ssudent who would later become the superintendent of Maine Schou for the Deaf. A playbill aunonmncing Gallaudet's production of Haptlet in 1958 listed Leonard Siger, on the college's English faculty, as *Reader.” He also read for the followin year's108 * INSIDE DEAF CULTURE Voice continued to be oif-siage and out of from within the eominunity production af 0 sight, and read by David Hays, then a well-known Broadway set designer, an- nounced in 1966 that he and a consortium of interested individu als and organizations had received funding from the federal gov ‘ernment fer vw professional company. Alter a long history of amateur productions on 2 local seale, the news of a national the: ater took the Deal community by surprise, especially since no one had heard of David Hays before. Hlunself hearing, Hays had 10 ex ce with Deaf actors, indeed he had litle epatact with Deal peu people except for an experience watching Deaf people signing in the streets of New York, which sirack him as *an oddity.” Spurred ri bydl in success of a Broadway play about Helen Keller, The Miracle Worker, Hays began to contemplate the possibilities of a sign language theater for hearing audiences. Ke began to meet regu- larly with Edina Levine, a psychologist and mother of two deat cil- dren who hed contacts in the Department of Health, Lducation, aud Wellere. Soon she ha convinced the office to consider award ing funds for this puipose. Knowing no sige guage, Plays trav: cied te Gollandet College where he saw a production of Our Tows snd found his perspective changed: “I thought the actors... were very moving, There was something about sign language. The quiet communication, The sign and the voiee together. The quiet way of speak: it was very touching." When Beruard Brayg heard plans were afoot to fund a nailonal Deaf theater, he was excited, especially when Fdna Levine prom ised him that she would recommend bim 1@ David Heys a5 some: ov to launch this new enterprise one who could advise him Remard had grown up in the shadow of his father, Woll Bragg, and had himself peformed in Deaf club theater, As he honed his skills on the stage, he longed for something more. He wanted to perlormn Technology of Voice * 107 1g audiences, like the stars he had watched fon the stage and on the big screen. He had a dilficult relationship with his father who, oddly, ddl nor encourage his ambition to act. instead, he had urged Berard to ga into printing. Bragg wanted to ci, but he had ambitions beyond the small and amateur stages of New York Deaf theater, Truc to Levine's promise, David Hays contacted Berard and in- vited him to help him conceive ef the new national theater. The project would begin with a summer school for prospective actors, since Deal actors accustomed to the community stage needed 10 lw rained for more professional venues Bernard knew whos by wanted to recommend to David Hays—he had just brought to- gether a g1oup of Deat actors for 4 performance at the California Association of the Deaf state convention and the reception from the audience had beew tremendous, He wld David Hays he knew who would bi the best choices for the company—George Johnston was “the perfect Iago” in Gallaudet College's production of Orhelle a was Howard Palmer in the title role. For the female roles, Brags wanted his good friend Audree Noston. Hays saw a picture of Audzee, who had worked bricily as a model, and immediately agreed, Bragg also thought of the husband-and-wile pair of June and Gilbert Eastman, both from Gallaudet. Charles Corey and Joe and Bragg decided ‘Velo were favorlte actors In comedic Deal ski they should also be included." From the start, David Hays wanted his new enterprise to be a profersional theater. Hays had had an illustrious career as set de signer, and was himself lully siceped in che Broadway tradition, He ‘would design a theater of the same caliber, with the highest pro. duction values. Second, he wanted a sign fanguiage theater. In a cor- respondence with Bragy that began in June (966, lays explained “It is my conviction . .. that the manual language theatre can be developed into a startlingly beautiful medium... we must evolve methods «f performance which will create an azt.no longer merely108 + INSIDE DEAF CULTURE re to the handicapped, but which is @ bri ant new form brought to all of us by the deal." He wanted a company thet would pertorm in sign language for mainsweam sicd that the new national theater a way of bringing the hearing audiences, Bragg sua could explore mime as well, as a way to reach out to hearing audi ences, Ife himself was hieginning a cereerin mime, following in the path of Marcel Marecau under whom he trained ut Hays was adamant that the theater would not do mime. He inwnsely disliked “mutism” and the themes of Marceau’s conti ental mime. Mays wanted theater of the kind that he knew best, plays rich in Janguage and diaiogive, not cnimes wepped in glass boxes and picking flowers in a gardez. To bita, suime was like pup: petry, and bis vision of a heater did not include it. To make bis vi sion possible, Hays explained to Bragg that be have to be hired as part of the company, 10 lend their voices to the Deaf actors’ performances, to speak the actors’ lines as the actors signed them. These would have to be professional actors, not sim: actors sould ply readers oy even inter neiers, because his theater would cequire those trained in voice. David Hays's vision included hearing actors not disembodied and hidden behind a screen or consigned to the orchestza, but visibly Inoving across the siage a5 Whey voiced the lines of the Deaf actors. Sometimes they would voice in the shad. ows of Deal actors; other times they would sign some lines them not inerely voice the Deaf actors’ lines in Eng. selves. They wo lish, bur would Uiemselves be actors and deliver 26 powerful 2 performance in voice as in sign Hays’s conscious choict: of sign language over mime has marked eat theater {rom that ume ta the present tn the United States, Elsewhere in the world. including in Moscow and Hong Keng, there are Deaf companies thar vse mime, not sign language, to reach their audiences, ‘The International Visual Theatre in Paris, too, has experimented with mime and sign languay tions, but since David Hays, American Deaf theater has never se Tecimolony of Voice * 108 Hously considered mime as a medinm of communication with hearing audiences; instead it has been primarily a sign language theater When the fist company of Deaf actors arrived at the Eugene O'Neill Center in Waterford, Connecticut, in the summer al 1967, they were unsure of Hays’s novel idea, They considered them selves lucky to be a part ol s new professional company, but Deaf theater had never been like this. Deaf theater had always been per- lormed in ASL, and no one had ever come to a Deaf club perlor- mance expecting English, When Woll Bragg staged bis sign lan- guage production of Auf Weidervekem about the Nazi occupation of Germany, the gudicace came because i Lollowed Ue tradition of performance in deaf schools and Deaf dubs, that of presenting, English-language plays in sign language David Hays's idea to put both voice and sign on the stage was re markable in principle, bur asit turned out, iraught with problems, fonflics quickly arose during the first actors’ workshop in the immer of 1967. Prom the very sari. Hays set out 10 forge 10 gether the language of Deai theater with hearing theater aes and peslormance values. There would not be he raucous vaucle- ville that made up amateur Deaf club perfosmances; insicad Na tional Theatre of the Deaf |NTD) would be high art. He had some interest in original Deaf productions, but he wanced first to stage chnewies well-known plays to prove that his new company could them To achieve this goal, fe brought Lire New York City ditectors to Connecticut that summer 10 work with Uke Deal actors: Gene Tasko, who had directed Anne Bancroft in her famous sole as Helen Keller’s teachics, Annie Sullivan, in The Miracle Worker Joe Layton, a choreographer for Barbra Streisand’s Broadway perfor and Joe Chaikin, the dizector of the radical Open Theatre ‘There were some Deai teachers also invited that summer, though not to teach acting or choreography. Instend Robert anara and120 INSINF DAF CULTURE Bric Malzkubn taught the history of acting, leaving the task of ‘eaching slagecralt the Broadway directors Hays's idea of having, Deaf and hearing actors sharing the same stage immediately presented timing issues. For one thing, the lei- sorely pace that Bemard Bragg used for what he called his “visual vernacular,” of “sign-tnime*—a blending of mimetic aspects from hls waning as a mime and his father’s vivid sign style—was not suited for the quiek tempo that the hearing director, Jvc Layton, so set up a signed scene, ing the line and the stage prelerred.Ta the Lime thet it took Bem the hearing actor had often finished sp owas left uncomfernably silent. Ther: ax Remnard changed the image, the actor had to quickly chatter through the next line Some solutions trae! to be found. Layton’s solution was to order the Deal actors to reduce the complicated “wordy” signing so the volce would be paced correctly and more pleasingly. Furthermore, he wanted che Deaf actors (© move around the slage mose. The Jeet-in-concrete style of community acting, suited for the Deai dub so the audience con}d watch the signing comfortably, was replaced by a more rapid, and arguably, visually pleasing choreography. jcke Graybill remembers how much he struggled to keep up. Layton wanted faster and fasicr choreography. and Graybill tied 10 compensate. He knew that a moving body makes signing harder lor Deal audiences 10 understand, so he tried to ime his signing during belef pauses on stage so that it would nit be lost in the blur of Layton’s choreographed movements, Nest Lo change was the intensely expressive and intimate acting style of Deal actors. The rubbery faces characteristic of Deaf the: ater—the wide-open eyes, the exaggerated mouth, the distended svagging tongue, the mobile shoulders, and the shaking head—had ng on che Deal actors hancls was “expressive.” but ‘0 po. The si heir faces seemed grotesque \ Hays and other bearing directors. ‘The actors were told 10 control and choreograph their faces 10 show more restraint, ‘The sesult of this nev signing register is evident in the first pro- Technology of Vekce > 117 duction of the company on the NBC television show *An Expet ment in Television.” In Audree Norton's lovely and lyrical rend: tion of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways,” she is seated on a velvet settee in a spotlight, Her face is tighily contiolled, with only tiny movements to register small expressions of adoration and affection, Her mouth barely moves; her head turns slowly and her shoulders are even. Instead her hands show the emotion, rising and falling, and Uren as she veaches the last line of the poem, “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my lifel—and, if God choose, 1 shall but love thee better after death,” her face remains uncharged until the end of the poem, signaled by a slow drawing together of hes hands in @ final clasp of fealty to her beloved, Alter their experimental first year, the NTD was ready to mount its touring season in the fall of 1967. They perlormed for mostly hearing audiences, first near thelr home in News England, and then in other peris of the country. Iwo short plays were featured: Wil- liom Saroyan’ ke Mun with Hi Heart in we Highlands, the wildly iannt Schicehi, and thea a collection of poems, including Audree Norton’s “How Do | Love Thee?” Glesoni Soi funny nonoperatic version of Puccini's ohi vras an immediate hit with the critics, who loved its colorfully outlandish costumes and frantic choreography. Demard Bragg wore a gaudy harlequin coscume complete with prosthetie rubber nose for te title tole, and Joc Velez was equally ‘uemorable as his assistant. The costumes and sets were far more lavish then any Deaf club theater eould ever have hoped to match As the company traveled lo sa and universities as well as repertory stages, Deal audiences found themselves sitting in plush seats in fully professional theaters, and ges around the country, at colleges belore thetr eyes was a company af Deaf actors, each of them fa- mous but never belore brought together on the same stage. Almost immediately, the Deaf audiences complained aluut the new the- alcr:"1bo fast! Incompreheasible! Too elite!” Eric Malzkultn, who had been hired by the NTD in its first two112 + INSIDE DEAP CULTURE seasons 10 translate viritten English script to ASL, remembers that the idea of putting hearing and Dea! actors together on a stage ‘worse beautifully, and it was tereible.” He meant that for Gia ut the following year, when the whicchi, iL worked heautil company performed Moliete’s Szanareile. it became a disaster in Malzkubu’s eyes. The hearing actors were given their own lines to sign, and like Giant Schicr, there was ambitious choreography, DUE tie Beat audlence was coutuyed about whece w look. The ac- lors Were signing, yet sume were speaking too. The voice actors who would normally be consigned to the background were now more prominent, Tensions mounted as the Deaf actors found themselves competing with hearing, actors for the audience’s at- As the actors tried to resolve the balance between sign and voice, Deaf audiences wlio came 1 dhe Mrst pexfermances of this new theater were suprised that they couldn’) understand the perfor nances. Hearing audiences could use sound to trecx who was speaking on stage, bul the Deaf audience coulda’t always figure out which actors to Jook at. Deaf actors moved, but didn’t sign Hearing actors didn't move, but signed. The pacing of Deal club theater, where the actors twhaved as if the Stage were a world ‘made up entirely of Deal people, kept the steging clear t0 1t5 audi ences. But with a new choreography desiuned for the Kind of vi sual spectade that heaving audiences were used 1p, the feel aud texture of the NTD was no longer like cith cheater. Deaf audiences were tom. The ND had their lavoriue Deal actors playing in en- semble, and sign language was displayed favorably 10 the public, yet it was aot the same The nev use of voice on the public stage foretold a changing or- der of things, and mhere was no turning back. By any measure, the NTD was at outstanding success, Clive Barnes, writing for the New ‘ork Times; called himself chased by the experiment in sign lan ‘guage, but ssid that in his opinion, the theater would not work Tedhaclagy of Voice + 113 without the use of voice." in subsequent seasons, the NTD staged complex classics, from Dylan Thomas’ Under Mile Stein's Four Saints ia Tisee Aes, to prove that the theater had veri ous ambitions, but both translated poorly into ASL and alienated Deaf audiences.” In Wol! Bragg’s time, the audience had been made up of Los: nainstream plays in culturally familiar perfor ‘mances. It was segregated theater, and like Yiddish theater of the same period, it was intensely lammiliar to insiders and by definition, 190d to Gertrude who came to see inaccessible 10 outsiders. Yet within Une confines of these expec tations. both were fertile theater: They had aciors who were pope lar with their audiences and through their skill. the performances brought to Iie the language and culture of the community ‘The placement of voice cri the sign stage was a planned inter- vention and it changed preciices. Beyond making siga language in- tellgible to hearing audiences, it altered Dea aciors’ style of acting. it changed the direction of translation, because the signing now not only needed to match the original English text, but it also had to maich the choreography of voices performance. We tend to think of technology in terms of objects. say a telephone or a com: utes, but attactied to each technology Is a body of practices. The technology of writing is not merely the storage of speech in visible form, but an indusuy of writing: We have writers, editors, and publishers. Reyond these agents, we have paper manufactures, printers, and book binderies, Howard Becker reminds us that the “genius” of artis nor the solitary work that artists do, init includes a “cooperative community” of art brokers and gallery owners, framers, paint and canvas supply houses, and so on. which sup: pon, jusily, even exalt the work of artists. As Deaf actors maved onto a public sage, the “cooperadive” work of actors, directors, and producers put new pressures on signed performance When voice became packaged into the bodies of actors anid inte grated into che performance, it loretold of social change 10 come.114 ~ INSIDE DEAT CULTURE Sign language theater already bad a Deaf audience, but Hays wanted a cifierent audience. Lie told his company that “our object 1s not to create just another theatre for the Deal, Our new theatre Js foc everybuly. Hays astutely secoguized tat lis own growing fascination with sign lenguage was likely to be shared by sudiences who were searching for novel kinds of performances. Like him, the public was growing interested in popular kinds of performance, es pecially of new and exotic groups, and the National Theatre of the Dea‘ fit the bill. The NTD cleverly marketed Hays's vision of Deaf theater and soon the company had a [ull schedule of bookings on rajor stages across the county. NTD appealed 10 Deal performers who had grown resiless with the small confines of Deaf club stages and yearned for expesure and feme, Bernard Brojyg had dreamed as a child of performing be- sore large ouidiences but hy could not imagine how to do it without voice. When he saw Marcel Marceau command a large sudience in San Francisen, he began to think mime might be his vehicle to the public stage. He managed to acquire an invitation to study with, ‘Marceau, and after a summer in Faris at his tumed to the United States and tied w build career as anline. io, Bernard ce- lanced himself a ywcekly series on local television called The $= ent Man, and achieved a small amount of fame, When he could not convince David Hays to ny mime in the new NV, Bernard joined the other Deaf actors and leamed 10 accarnmodate voice in their acting. Patrick Graybill remembers his time with the NID as strg- sling with his fellow adors in the company over the problem of sign anslation and timing, but the lure of the professional stage ‘wes powertul Soon silent sig age theater begen 10 fade away, as did Yiddish theater in the 1940s, Today there is very litle theatrical performance in sign Janguage that is net voiced. Sometimes signed poetry of nanstives will be performed silently to demonstrate the difficulty of translation into voice, but these are bef. nostal ‘Tedhnaleay of Voice * 115 gic perlormances. Exclusively sign language theater is sometimes found, but audiences are forewarned. ‘There are no more {ul length plays only in sign language because today’s audiences will not tolerate voicclessness, The comparison with Yiddish theater is ‘apt, bur different: While the number of Yiddish speakers in the United Sates and worldwide hes declined, the nurnber of signers of ASL has not_—it arguably has increased with more hearing sce ond-languaye learners of ASL, Yet there is not a very large market for silent sign language theater Deaf club theater died hiecause there were no longer Deaf clubs ‘bur instead of going the way ol Yiddish theater, sign language the- ater Lanslormed ttself and found a new audience. Audiences tor Deal thester have broadened to include heating learners of sign language, or those who do not know sign language but arc 0 thralled by its presence. The visibility of sign languege, the hist ol iconicity, pleases mixed audiences, Simultaneous voice allows them io sce sign language “better”—to recognize in a blur of sign delivery the uccasional vivid portiayal af objects and states of being. When NTD’s actors performed Layton’s dioreographed “Three Blind Mice” during the company’s aging of My Third Bye, the ac tors hield their hands to their chests as paws, and chatcered theie teeth. Their hands reached back and flicked like tails while they pranced like nice across the stage. The choreography was entirely alien to Deaf club theater: the actors had to “dance” between rows, then rearrange themselves into another grouping. and match their movements Lo the singing of hearing actors. The pertormance was guided by voice, which pleased hearing audlences who marvel at how Deaf people cen perform in ¢ languaye both transparent ye foreign. Deaf chub theater did not strive for ieonieity; its productions were translations of popular plays, staged to entertain Deal audi ences who wanted to see mainstream plays in their own language115 + INSIDE DEAF CULTURE woll gg knew how to make signs pleasing wo Deal audiences; he wuld play with the internal structuse of signs to show details of the eccers’ actions aad their rections 10 events, But in NTD, cbe emphasis was on siga transparency: Bernard Rragg remembers Gene Lasko asking the acturs to “stretch out their signs” to make. hem more iconieand tus more recognizable to the auienee. The actors should not simply sign that “the arm was bloody.” bul ac- tually hold up the arm, and slowly show the bicod flowing dowa ue art anid droplets dripping off the art, Soon after, voice as a technology began 10 be deployed in arenas other than the theate:—in education, social service, government, and the workplace. Several years after the NTD’s inaugural season in 1966, a series of federal lavis were pessed guaranteeing access to the deat and disabled. Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of inst the disabled in any leveral agency. Sectina 504 of the sarne get expands the protection lo in- 1973 prohibits discrimination ag clude ay federally supported prograna, Shozlly alter the passage of Public Law 94-142, also known as the Education for All Handi Children Act of 1975, public school districts were required and disebled children. ‘As deaf children and adults moved ou of segregated schools into capped lo admit and provide education 1 any dea new public arenas, the workplace and the integrated school, inter- preters not only signed for them, but provided voice as well, to translate oa had been typically limited 10 deat or hacu-ol-heariug children gns into spoken bnglish, Whereas public scliool educa who could speak Jor themselves, schoals now provided voice inter- ppreters who spoke for students if they could nor do so themselves. he expansion of disability rights through the next two decades culminated in the far-reaching Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. which guaraniced access in commercial spaces as well as public ones, Television manufacturers are now required to mstall a captioning decoder chip in all televisions larger than thirieen Inches, enabling aearly every television In she United Siaies 10 provide captions on the screen, Hotels have to be accessible 1 the echnology of Velee 117 disabled, Including by providing televisions equipped with decoder chips, Deaf people who wish w attend union meetings or work place training can request intespretery who can both sign and voice, gaining them access in expression as well as in information. Unlike dusing the Internetional Typographical Union's chapel meetings of the 19406 and 1950s, when Deal workers relied on hard-of-hearing cownrkers to interpret for them, the American Postal Workers’ Union today provides interpreters [ar iis: Deal union members. Participation in public ovement also expanded puamty has 4 staff legal advocate vonsibility is co mect with every deaf or hard-ol-hearing under the new law. Los Aageles whose res person who enters the legal system and dewrmine their communi cative need. IT voice swell oF signing are mseded, the advocate anranges for an interpreter to be present at all legal ratters involv ing the individual. Giving voice to a deaf defendant or pettianes ‘has hecome an expanded legal right only recently. Hospitals can be sued for fing wo provide imerpreters whew medial information is gathered from a deaf pata. a che time of admission, Deaf people’ tse of voice has uot only deployed human eecrs and interpreters in the service of Deal individuals, but ale led to the design of new types of machines, in 1985, the California Asso Sition of the Peaf (CAD) and the Greater Los Angeles Association dl the Deal (GLAD), an agency providing social services 10 deat people, peltioned tae Cakfornia Utilities Commission: 10 provide releplione avcess to deal ari iard-of-hearing resents ofthe tate Acping thar any publi utility should be fully inclusive, the orga- cevol-charge jeletext machines so that deaf people could access the telephone lines to do real-time exchange of text messages, just as phone com- panies at that time provided relephones Iree of charge for the hear- ing, Furthermore, they wanted the commission to support tele phone access beuveen individuals who Had the text machines and those who did not. Local Deaf agencies in Californie hed becn experimenting with318 + INSIDE DEAE CULTURE using heering operators who would read incoming teletype calls to a caller who did not have teletype equipment, The CAD wanted he service funded by telephone subscription fecy and expanded to twenty-four hours, seven days a week co any citizen living in Gali- fomia, Using the relay, Deal people could call hearing relatives, snop owners, doctors, catalog companies, work supervisors, and others over the telephone. The utilities commission agreed. and in 1987, inaugurated the new service, in which calls to and trom the operator were free ol charge, atid the telephone toll charge was as ifthe Deol caller hed dialed the hearing caller directly.” To pay tor relay operators, the commission created a surcharge added to all phone bills. The tecli- the cost of distributing equipment and hit nology provided voice for Deaf to use anid to exploit in conjunction with other technologies, Quickly recognizing that relay services could be Inerative given the subsidy, telephone companies aygressively bid for the right to oiler them. And Deal people, no longer limited 10 harrowing the \cighbors and rclatlyes, damored for the service, causing the demand to skyrocket. In the first month in California, 50,000 calls were relayed after the now service was inaugurated. Five ‘years later, the serview spread through the rest of the country and here were 315.000 calls per month. Ry 2001, there were approxi. maicly 31,000 calls @ day to relay centers throughout the United Staies.*! Text relay services are tighily mediated, with the opera- tor speaking the text lines slowly and limiting interruptions froin the hearing caller, but Lhe service has established he principle of public access for deaf telephone users, and iy now commonplace throughont the United States. To make it more convenient to use and remember, many states have conversed the toll-free number that callers use 10 reach the relay center co a simple three-digit onc, TH To hanuile the volume of calls a telephone carrier offering relay services may employ es many as ane hundred relay operators dur- ing the peak hours of 10:00 a.m. « 3:00 p.m, weekdays, De- Techmology of Voice © 119 pending on the carrier, the actual location of the operatars may no even be within the state where the call is made: Sprint employs ap- crators throughout the country and has ceaters locaicd in Califor- tia, South Dakota, and Texas, As the operator cosnes on line ané demtifies her or his gender and operator number (for example, “Operator 456F” for s female operator), the caller gives the phone umber to dial and waits lor the operator to coaneet with the other party. Throughout the conversation, the operator main! as strict a mediator rale as possible: no personal conversations should take place berween the operator and the deaf caller, nor should tae operator engage in overmediation and try 1 respond bon behalf of either party. Voice relay is expected to be impersonal and objective, with the identity of the operator limited 10 the gen- der and code. Whereas thirty yeary ago Deaf people askest neigh bors, friends, coworkers, and children io make telephone ealls ont their behalf, calls are now made by hearing strangers whose iden- tity and location are never known. ‘The blending of human vore: and intelligent machines has moved Lo the next level with video relay services, which use cam: ‘ras and the Internet to link Deaf signing “callers” ro a live inte preter. The Deaf caller goes wa website where the image of a ign, language interpreter appears on the screen, Once the interpreter sees the videu image of the Deaf caller as well, the call is initiated and the telephone transaction takes place in sign language and the ‘operator's voice using cameras. Video relay calls likewise use inter pretersin remote locations. and the role of the interpreter is strietly Inmtted to transmitting language between the two eallers. The ser yice has expanded to hoypitals, where instead of arranging lor a live interpreter for Deaf patients wh arrive at the hospital, dhe stall whee's in a video monitor with a camera attached to a bigh- speed phone line. The video interpreting service is dialed up, and an interpreter working out of her home in another state comes or the monitor and interprets for the Di Voice can also be contained in patient all portable machines. Deaf120 - INSIDT DAR CULTURE puople can awa text pagers that convert weilten text Lo speech us. ing fairly realistic mechanics voice for We puzpose of leaving voice messages with hearing calless. Voice recognition software Is also now being used for remote live voice translation. The voice of the speaker in a public speaking situation is transmitted to an oper- ator and a small deskcop computer via a high-speed telephone line where il is translated into iext using voice recognition software, then transmitzed back to the location of the speaker where it is projected onto # screen as English subtitles ar captions. To com: pensate for the relatively high error rate of voice recognition salt ware: trained operators monitor ineorrcet ward choices and type ortections, In tis configuration, the divide beeween the hu- man and the mechanical becomes bluised because tne “inter preter" is never actually seen but is mediated entirely by machine In essence, as the human-to-human interaction in lation is broken down, voiee reaches a new level of alienstion, where ils translation to texl is never completely human, Con- spiring with the arts, the public utilities, the government, and pri- vate industry, Dest people have given themselves the ability 10 speak in new ways, even as they do not themselves produce voice in their own bodies, Far from being an unknown entity, voice isa very serious maiter 10 Deaf people. tn his autobiography, Lessons it Laugh Bragg tells how he Berard ad to be taught how to laugh because his us tutored laughter was 100 strange to the hearing war. Deaf people who are sell-conscious about their own voices will insist on hear ing people's voice interpretation af their language. Far short inusr- actions, such as an order in a restaurant ar a chance encounter with hearing person, Beat people will use writing to communt- cate bevanse 10 alteipe wo use a D unmodulated voice is risky. Jo- seph Grigeley, 4 Deaf artist, snemorialized his many written en~ counters with hearing friends and strangers into on unusual art form titled White Noise, once on exhibit at the Whitney Museum Fectmoloyy of Vetce * 121 of American Art. Seraps of paner saved over the years, ranging ftom instructions te philosophical ruminations, were wallpapered ona curved surface, showing interactions preserved in writing. For ost of their history, Deal people In the United States have man aged their use of voive, either by using others’ voices or through ‘writing: in chis sense, technological transformation of voice is not new to the community, When faculty members Elizabeth Benson and Edward Scouten voiced behind a screen off-stage for Gallaudet College's 1947 pro- duction of The Mikado, they were there because the hearing faculty wanted to hear the lines of Gilbert and Sullivan said out loud and not because they didn't understand the language of the produc om. AL Uiel ime, many hearing faculty at Gallaudet were uct signers before teaching at the college, A number had Deaf parents, or had come to the profession because of another family connec: ring faculty, the compus was tion tw deafness. Yet even with hea segregated and limited Lo those who knew sig language well. In terpretation, while available, was not used on the seale it is today. When Benson and Scouten were at Gallaudet, both were the only interpreters the campus had or needed, hecause the contexts Jor using interpreters were Jew. Within Le campus, there were many igners, bul guiside the campus there were very few. Taday there are many more signers outside the group, and for those who de not sign, there are technologies 1p mediate interaction. Today intexpreting has become highly prolesionslized and has reached a massive scale. The largest intexpzeter referral agencies ‘employ long rosters of interpreters and send them ont to a variety cf settings, irom educational to social service to corporare and legal as well as personal. One lange agency serving the western United Slalcs has 143 ilerpreters oa ils rosier available for assigament of this number, twelve axe employed full-ime. As an estimate of the demand, interpreters in San Diego work a combined 234,000 our, total pay: hours a year. At an average of twenty dollars ar122 + INSIDE PPAF CULTURE ‘ments 10 interpreters easily exceed $1] millon a year—lor one met ropolitan region, Viewed nationally, a conservative estimate of interpreters must be at least § 100 million. Deaf adults and children routinely use the voices of pro- pay:nents made to sign languag, essional intecpreters—to (alk to their doctors, te talk to th teachers and to teach themselves, to make their weddings access: ble 1o hearing lamily and riers. and for nearly every «ther aspect of their lives, Voice can simply « sks for Deaf people. Instead of writing out their wishes, Deaf people can use volee interpreters to speak simul- taneously as they sign. Insead of faxing to Businesses of visiting them personally, Deaf people cam venizin at home anil use the re- lay service to call and inquire about their products. But technol y IS abou rearrangement end replacement; as new practices are adopted. older practices decline. Deaf actors can perform before new audiences with voice accompanying them on the stage, tut they ave to alter their style of signing. Where once they occupied the stage entirely and without compromise. they now have to shere the stage with votce actors and accommodate the cemstraints of voieed performance, The wcchnology of voice brought Deat ac- tors 10 the public stage, but shortly after silent Deaf theater began its decline, and for all purposes is taday only a nostalgic theater, Where once voice belonged to people who heat and Deaf people were said to be “mute,” over the years Deaf people heve assumed areatcr ownership of voice, Managing the technology of voi means by which Deal people have carved out a public space tor themselves in American life. As their sign language moved into public places, voice moved with it. In the process, Deal people have made themselves less e secret community, and more a public Anxiety of Culture Silent Deaf theater never nected to give “lessons” to hearing peo- ple, The only hearing people whe came were those who already new the language and were related o Deaf people either by fam- ily or by some other intimate relation. The atu of Deal thearer was to enteriain Deal people, and to translate the world into their owe terms. Their theaters wer private and out of sight of the main stream. Deaf people lived their lives outside the public glare, in borrowed and teraporary spaces, figuratively mute as well as in visible. Sign language was mysterious and obluscating, not 10 be readily understood. ‘The history of how sign language came to be how the diiferent groups of dea! people came together. and how they lived thelr lives, were known only by those in the commu. But once the actors of the National Theatre of the Deaf mounted the stage in the fall of 1967, their language and way of life sud jenly became public and enormously visible. Hearing theater crit ies wrote about their signing and hearing audiences applauded their signed periormances. Even Deat people noticed the actors signs, especially when they complained that the signing was toc fast, Once seen by others, he actors turned their lives into material lor the stoye and began to objecily themselves. The fact of Uieir 123Carol Padden Tom Humphries INSIDE | DEAF CULTURE