Unfortunately, SIGN & SING has to close its doors. We’d like to thank all of our past performers, producers, interpreters, staff members, audience members, partners, and donors for all of their support.
For further information about producing any of our commissioned and performed works, please contact sign.sing.asl@gmail.com.
Couldn’t make our live performance of The Universal Drum? Watch below!
The Universal Drum was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Helen F. Whitaker Fund, Aaron Copland Fund for Music, New York State Council on the Arts, Rockefeller Brothers Fund & Anonymous.
Happy New Year! Here are a couple updates as to what SIGN & SING has been up to:
The Puffin Foundation: Funding has been made possible for The Universal Drum by the Puffin Foundation. Thank you for the support!
New Music USA: Funding has been made possible for The Universal Drum by New Music USA. Thank you for the support!
Other News:
SIGN & SING, Inc. has submitted for 501c3 status. We are currently fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, but we hope to soon be our own non-profit organization!
Projects in the Works:
SIGN & SING currently has a couple projects in the works, collaborating with Deaf artists around the world. Stay tuned for more soon!
Thank you to our packed house who attended and enjoyed The Universal Drum!
More information about the event can be found HERE, on Broadway World!
Thanks to Sarah Cuneo, here is the beautiful design for our poster for the upcoming workshop:
Also, we've cast the workshop! We'd like to formally introduce, in clockwise order:
Malik Paris, Deaf actor and ASL performer
Heather Jones, Mezzo-soprano and vocal performer
Karl Ronneburg, Percussionist
Dylan Greene, Percussionist
Andrew Morrill, Deaf actor and ASL performer
Francesca Federico, Soprano and vocal performer
Looking forward to starting rehearsals this January!
On Saturday, November 18, 2017 at 2pm, SIGN & SING performed at Princeton University, our first performance beyond New York! We are so grateful for PUASL, our wonderful hosts, who treated us to brunch and hosted us at Whitman Theater.
Above you can see Beth Applebaum and Heather O'Donovan performing Songs about Spring by Dominic Argento, the conclusion of a trilogy of stories about childhood memories and memories of different seasons. Adam Rothenberg joined the duo on piano, and director Katherine Dubbs, interpreter Shelby Edwards, and social media coordinator Katie Gill all came to support the cast. We look forward to more performances in the future!
SIGN & SING is thrilled to partner with Willy Conley to produce his work, The Universal Drum, with music! We will be presenting a performance workshop of our progress on Saturday, January 13, 2018 in New York! More information about the first performance can be found here.
Willy Conley is a Deaf American playwright and theater professor at Gallaudet University. This fall, he is teaching "Sign Language Translation for the Stage," and The Universal Drum is the class's midterm assignment.
From Willy Conley: "The poem was commissioned by Imagination Stage for their Deaf Access Company, which consisted of high school aged Deaf and hearing actors. The company wanted a short, creative piece to put together on the road which would introduce them to prospective audiences about who they were as a group. I love drums, and I saw parallels and metaphors between them and this company. I created an opening that is somewhat reminiscent of "Stomp!" and their work. Later, The Universal Drum was produced by Arbos - Company for Music and Theatre in Vienna, Austria (a Deaf-hearing theatre company).
I really like the idea of live singing and drumming accompanying the ASL expression of my poem. The main thing that would be important to me for Sign and Sing to produce this would be that the piece be visual, ASL-centric (not ASL following the singing but vice-versa), and is Deaf-audience- friendly."
The assignment was to create an ASL interpretation of Conley's poem. Lucia Cavalier, Gideon Firl, Jacinda Baldwin-Gomez, Carrie Suggs, Trent Harper, Chuck Kalu, Thandiwe Dunn, and Angela Reel all wrote beautiful interpretations of Conley's poem, under his guidance. Thank you for your hard work!
Our next step in the process is the musical creation. SIGN & SING is working with composer Brad Balliett to maintain the ASL-centricity of the piece while incorporating music (specifically percussion) in a theatrical performance.