Word: deafness
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Read these words aloud and imagine that there is no one in the state of Texas who could ever hear them without difficulty. That will give some idea of the number of Americans who are deaf or hard of hearing. There are approximately 14 million such people in the U.S., and until very recently they have been the true silent minority, unheard as well as unhearing...
...deaf performer, Sesame Street's Linda Bove, was so popular with the show's preschool audience that she became a regular member of the cast, playing the part of a deaf actress and spawning entire playgrounds of tots weaving tiny finger patterns in the air. At least one major theater, Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, reserves two performances of every production for the deaf, with a translator using sign language at the side of the stage to tell what the actors are saying. A major breakthrough came last month when Children of a Lesser God, a play...
...story was inspired by Frelich's own. Playwright Mark Medoff (When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder?) was fascinated by the interplay between Frelich, already an accomplished actress with the National Theater of the Deaf, and her hearing husband, Robert Steinberg, 39, a stage manager and lighting designer. Medoff, who is head of the drama department of New Mexico State University, promised to write her a play. When he finished it, he invited the couple to New Mexico in January 1979 to rehearse it. Says Medoff: "I picked their brains for months in an effort to find out more...
Having grown up in a world of silence, Frelich actually feels no envy for those who can hear. Her parents were deaf, and genetics made her and her eight brothers and sisters deaf as well. None of them found not being able to hear a great handicap, and she has little patience for do-gooders. "Most people I would meet were extremely patronizing," she says, signing rapidly to her husband, who puts her words into speech for TIME'S Elaine Dutka. "'Look at this wonderful deaf person,' they'd think, and want...
Many people still find it difficult to believe that anyone who acts as well as Frelich is really deaf, and backstage visitors are often surprised and stunned to discover that she cannot hear them. "The play will undoubtedly help bridge the gap in the understanding of hearing people," she says, "but there is still a long way to go." And where will Frelich herself go? "Jobs for deaf actresses aren't plentiful," she admits, "but who knows what can happen in the future? I have a lot more dreams...