Seeing signs of ‘Spring’
CAMRYN Manheim. TV, movies, Emmy winner, Golden Globe winner. Now in Deaf West Theatre’s “Spring Awakening” reawakening, she says:
“Struggling to be an actor, I learned, ‘If acting’s all that makes you happy, you then won’t be happy most of the time.’ So, needing two language credits at NYU, and to learn something else I might enjoy, I took signing.
“Four years later, I saw a vehicle hit a deaf man. I stayed with him to the hospital in back of a police car. His whole family — parents, wife, kids — were hearingimpaired. Upside down, he signed numbers to me. Forgetting g most of what I learned, n ed, I signed back, ‘Sign more slowly.’
“I then went into the Society for the Deaf to really ly learn. I became e an interpreter. r. Signing became e part of my life. I was signing for a living.
“This play has 20 kids: 10 hearing, 10 not. Everyone deaf has a hearing person. Every sign’s n’s voiced; every voice i ce signed. I play ay three characters, s, and when I speak, ak, I also sign. Plus, words are written out on a back wall. Marlee Matlin’s also in the production.
“When I first saw this show about sexual awakening, I cried. To understand deaf people are not only repressed sexually, but also oratorically, is overwhelming.” “Spring Awakening” is playing a limited engagement at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre.