Performing Arts Productions

Deaf Play Creators Festival

Program Book
Teaser Video

• October 14 & 21 - Movie

  8pm - 10pm (Doors open at 7:30pm)
  Wegmans Theatre at RIT MAGIC Spell Studios.

  Panel discussion with directors and playwrights
  October 14, 2022 only

  Discussion Poster
  Ticket required or 585-475-4121

• October 14-16 & 21-23 - Live Streamed
  Live Stream Poster
  Ticket required

Deaf Play Creators Festival 2022 features "Plumb Crazy Pipe Dream" by Aimee Chou and "Pushing Buttons" by Robert Roth. Chou and Roth were selected to expand their scripts for DPCF during the 2021 MAP-Deaf Theatre 10-Minute Play Festival. "Plumb Crazy Pipe Dream" was produced as a 10-minute play by Deaf Spotlight. "Pushing Buttons" was produced as a 10-minute play by Deaf Austin Theatre.

Plumb Crazy Pipe Dream – A couple struggle to maintain a husband and wife relationship as the water crisis in Flint, Michigan effects their daily lives and has tragic consequences for both of them. Can they find a way to move past the tragedy and renew their hope for a future together?

Pushing Buttons – Danny has grown up trying to meet his mother’s expectations. As he discovers more about his Deaf experience and his personal identity the relationship between mother and the son becomes increasingly difficult. Especially as Dany discovers a love interest that doesn’t meet his mother’s expectations.

Everybody

Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Andy Head
RIT Ingle Auditorium
Poster
A modern adaptation of the 15-Century play, Everyman. The play features the unique casting quirk of using a lottery system to define the roles of the play. This is meant to symbolize the randomness of death. The story is kept largely the same as Everyman with a few exceptions. The story follows the character of Everybody as they journey through life’s greatest mystery—the meaning of life.

Please note: this production contains adult content and strong language and is intended for mature (17+) audiences only. Additionally, some scenes utilize a flashing light effect that may affect photosensitive viewers.

Twenty-Five Years Through Movement and Space

Directed by Marc Holland
RIT Ingle Auditorium
Poster
A celebration of Thomas Warfield’s 25th anniversary of dance at RIT/NTID. The production will feature dances from his creative journey using movement to design space on stage. The theme will incorporate concepts of the movement of life in the solar system - a journey through space. Included in the performance will be students from the RIT Performing Arts Scholars program and students from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. The RIT DanceCore Ensemble will also be featured under the direction of dance professor Marc Holland. With dancers using the energy of their bodies and the power of motion to convey ideas and stories, the audience will encounter a multimedia experience combining dance, technology, and design expressing the connection between humanity, the universe, and creativity.

Ordinary Days

Written by Adam Gwon
Music and Lyrics by Adam Gwon
Directed by Kelley Holley
RIT University Gallery
Poster
Ordinary Days portrays four New Yorkers who lives intersect as they search for fulfillment, happiness, love, and cabs. When the ever-optimistic Warren finds Deb’s lost notes for her grad thesis, the two set in motion a series of events that not only change their lives, but the lives of fellow New Yorkers Claire and Jason. Told through a series of intricately connected songs and vignettes, Ordinary Days is an original musical about growing up and enjoying the view.

This play is presented in full spoken English with open captions.

Deaf Republic Stage Play

Written by Ilya Kaminsky
Directed by Malik Paris
RIT Inn & Conference Center, Henrietta Ballroom *
[ map to RIT Inn ]     [ RIT Inn layout ]

Poster

Deaf Republic takes place in an unspecified time of political unrest in an occupied territory. The story unfolds in episodic poems, opening with the shooting of a young deaf boy at a protest. In response, the entire town adopts deafness as a strategy of resistance. The poems explore how language enables resistance to power and how the lives of the townspeople are scarred by political violence. Written in English by Ilya Kaminsky, a hard-of-hearing Ukraine immigrant who grew up in Rochester, Deaf Republic is performed in ASL as part of the 2023 Big Read organized by NTID. NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Learn more about the NTID NEA Big Read and planned activities.

* Due to renovations of department production spaces, Deaf Republic will be staged in the RIT Inn and Conference Center’s Henrietta Ballroom. This large space will be transformed into a small theater with platform seating for good sightlines. Only 100 tickets are available for each show. RIT shuttles run to the RIT Inn regularly. Schedules can be found here: https://www.rit.edu/parking/campus-shuttles#schedules

Singring and the Glass Guitar

Developed and Directed by Thomas Warfield and Joe Geigel
Venue TBA
Poster
Singring and the Glass Guitar is the final song on the RA album from the 1970s progressive rock band Todd Rundgren’s Utopia. This production develops the song into a 20-minute Augmented Reality dance piece. The song is an ‘electrified faiytale’ featuring a group of explorers who must battle the four elements to find four keys and save the spirit of Harmony.