Even deaf theatre wants to be heard

July 28 2013

They sing with their hands and hear with their eyes. Actors from the Nedoslov Theater are hard-of-hearing or completely deaf. Most come to the theater after graduating from the Russian State Special Institute of Arts.

The Institute for the Arts provides professional training for young people with disabilities in fine arts, music, and drama, bringing together students from all over Russia and the former Soviet Union, and helping to breakdown barriers in the arts. The mission of Nedoslov Theatre Company (Moscow) is to give people with disabilities the opportunity to express themselves, presenting their own interpretation of reality through plasticity and miming, and building a bridge between the two worlds of people with and without disabilities.

Deaf does not mean disabled: Chronicles of Deaf Theatre from Russia Beyond The Headlines on Vimeo.

The theatrical project of deaf actors Nedoslov appeared in 2003. The participants of the project are talented young professional actors that are deaf and hard of hearing. "We just want this world to become kinder, better and perhaps wiser. A deaf actor feels simpler and purer; he feels lies and falsity more sharply. The audience comes to our theatre to find out some things the actors who are deaf have already discovered, that the world is more colorful," said Anna Bashenkova, Artistic Director of Nedoslov Theatre Company.

Performances are oriented both on the spectator that can hear and on the deaf. Nedoslov regularly stages it's performances in Moscow at the Institute of Arts, plays on tour in Russia, takes part in student's and professional theatrical festivals of Russia and USA ("VSA" in Washington - USA (2004), "Abilities Festival" in Toronto - Canada (2005)

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