Festival ‘Theatre without boundaries’
 

For many years the Polish Association of the Deaf in Szczecin has been one of the main initiators of many interesting cultural events for the deaf people.

Recently a festival ‘Theatre without boundaries’ has taken place here.

Together with the Austrian Association of Music and Theatre ARBOS we decided to enable the Deaf from Szczecin to see spectacles performed by deaf actors. We called our festival ‘Theatre without boundaries’. We were supported by firms and institutions like Austrian Forum of Culture, Polish Theatre in Szczecin, Puppet Theatre ‘Pleciuga’, the City Council, Hotel Radison SAS, restaurant ‘Rondo’, printing house ‘Królewicz’, publishing agency ‘Global’, firms ‘Mar-Kar’ and ‘Kielek’, The 3rd Channel of Polish Television and the daily Szczecin’s newspaper ‘Kurier Szczeciński’. Finally we managed to overcome the difficulties and realize our project.

Within the festival, lasting from 25 till 26th November 2003 took place workshops of ARBOS and Theatre-3 from the Polish Association of the Deaf in Szczecin entitled ‘Speaking hands, speaking bodies’.

Except the workshops, there were also spectacles. ARBOS showed a play entitled ‘Snow and death’ written by Dzevan Karahasan with Wrener Raditsching’s music. It was performed by Tessa Gasser (Azra), Alexander Mitterer (Faruk), Horst Dittrich (Angel of Azra) and Werner Moessler (Angel of Faruk).

Before the spectacle Ewa Kabsa performed her mini-recital. The actress of the theatre of Szczecin sang and used finger language at the same time. She showed that it gives new opportunities in art and can be an additional way of expression. 

ARBOS also showed a play for children, adults and teachers - ‘I see what you cannot see’ written by Herbert Gantschacher. It was performed by a deaf actor Walter Moessler. 

‘The play is based on the screenplay with a nursery rhyme in order to present to the deaf children the parlance of theatre and children who hear acquaint with finger language as a unique and equivalent way of communication‘ says Herbert Gantascher about the play.

That play of ARBOS was awarded the “Europasiegel” prize in 2002 for an innovative use of speech. 

500 children with their teachers were present at both shows.

During the festival the onlookers could also visit the exhibition of paintings and sculptures made by artists associated in Movement of Culture of Maritime Region in Meklemburg. 

In Poland very few people think about deaf ‘s participation in widely comprehended culture . Such an theatrical event that lately took place was the performance of the International Visual Theatre from France. It was in 1997, and the theatre played only 2 shows of ‘Antigone’ by Sophocles using finger language.

Elwira Rewcio, Jerzy Kałużny

Herbert Gantascher - the artistic director of ARBOS says (using finger language): Since homo sapiens decided to move in a straight posture his hands became a very important instrument of the body. Hands, for example, can be used to such activities as eating, drinking, writing, touching objects (or humans) , carrying objects (or humans). Speaking the finger language demands the use of hands and mimicry. Thereby, for deaf people, hands are a very important sense, needed for communication. They are a part of speech, which every man carries inside him as a mother of all languages.

The onlookers about the performances:

Marek Miśkow: ‘It was a difficult play. I didn’t suppose that deaf people have such big potentialities. I don’t mean the knowledge of vocabulary but the memory. It’s difficult to remember so many words and all in all the actors played without a prompter. I talked to Piotr Borejsza about the change of an actor performing in the play and that the new one managed to learn the role in such a short time. And you must remark that the amount of words was very large. No hearing actor had to remember such long lines. The co-operation of the two worlds – world of silence and world of sound, was magnificent. I was surprised by the performance and also by Ewa Kabsa, who showed that the world of sound can be translated in to the world of silence. I think that the theatre was a great art of integration of the two worlds.’

The teachers and pupils form 21st Primary School in Szczecin say: ‘We had the chance to see the play ‘I see what you do not see.’ It helped us in a very simply but meaningful way to understand how to communicate using finger language, gesture and illustrations. Werner Moessler, an Austrian actor, easily won the children’s attention. They especially liked drawing riddles and scenes played together with him. They were able to meet children form the primary school for the deaf. The barriers were overcome and they spontaneously tried to use finger language. The atmosphere was wonderful. And children were happy that the tickets had also the finger alphabet printed on them. We hope that such projects will be realised in the future so that children could integrate with the community of the deaf.’

Alicja Ślężak, teacher from 45th Primary school in Szczecin: ‘I spoke with children form our school after they had seen the performance ‘ I see what you do not see’ and we came to agreement that finger language is not easy but it would be to helpful know it because we can meet deaf people everywhere. They cannot learn to speak but we can learn their language.’ 

 Children’ short opinions:

Ada: ‘We need to know finger language when we want to speak to deaf friends. They’re not different form us.’

Daria:’ I liked the play very much and especially when the actor spoke with finger language.’

Iga: ‘People who don’t hear are the same us those who can hear but they speak differently, they speak with they bodies’

Marta: ‘The performance was better than the others. It’s difficult to show everything not using words.’

Damian: ‘I liked it a lot! We should watch such performances more often.’
Ala: ‘I liked when the actor used finger language and I understood almost everything of it.’

Alicja Ślęzak: ‘After hearing what children had said I decided that I should take up the subject of barriers in communication between people in classes at school’

1/2004