Deaf artists took to the stage recently, entertaining and educating as they told the ‘Story of Our Lives’.
The show marked the Deaf Association of Guyana’s (DAG) sixth annual presentation of various performing art forms: dance, drama and song and it was held at the National Cultural Centre.
The ‘Story of Our Lives’ began at 17:00 hrs and ran until 19:00 hrs, during which Deaf Theatre Guyana,
a group within DAG put well over 30 young deaf performers on stage, where they addressed topics like: What is it like to be born deaf? To be born hearing to deaf parents? What are emotional traumas deaf youth often experience growing up in a hearing family?
There was a drama skit; ‘Deaf Driver’ which dealt in a comical fashion with what happens when a hearing and a deaf driver crash and the hearing driver is at fault – what will the judge decide? ‘Pollution’ was another entertaining item that had the small audience paying attention to the message of how we unthinkingly dirty our world and how sometimes the unlikeliest people can serve as role models.
When the show was over the audience was well entertained and certainly had a better understanding of deaf culture in the Guyanese context.
DAG is a non-governmental organisation ran jointly by a team of deaf and hearing office bearers. It promotes deaf youth in all areas of their lives: educational, social, cultural; it produces learning resources for teachers of the deaf and conducts Sign Language classes for various target groups; it promotes the recognition of GSL (Guyana Sign Language) as the official language of the deaf. For more information on the DAG you can contact Sabine McIntosh, Director at 225-4489.
