ACTION ALERT: Deaf Theater Victim to Budget Cuts

In 2004 money earmarked to support Deaf people's theatre programs around the United States mysteriously vanished. Nobody knows why. Nobody knows who's responsible - or maybe they're just not talking. A group of Deaf artists in New York came together to make a video encouraging people to contact their senators. Their message? INVESTIGATE and REINSTATE.

Artists at Save Deaf Theater have come together to create a pastiche piece encouraging people to call their Congresscritters. Theater and theater programs were responsible for the personal development of many, many Deaf people around the United States. As the New York Times reports, these programs have been had their budgets pulled away, as have many other programs created by and for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people:

Several deaf-theater groups are struggling to stay afloat after the federal government mysteriously cut funds for cultural programs for the deaf around the country 16 months ago.

Officials at the Department of Education, which administered a program that distributed some $2 million a year in grants, said they did not see the change coming and did not know who in Congress had ordered the cut in December 2004. "All we know is that we no longer have the authority" to award those grants, said Lou Danielson, the research director for the Office of Special Education Programs.

Congressional aides in the offices of Senators Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Tom Harkin of Iowa, both Democrats who have been trying to reinstate the funds, said they had no idea who pulled the plug or why.

Nobody knows why. From the 4/19/06 online edition of the Los Angeles Times:

Bill O'Brien, Deaf West's managing director and producer, is one of only two remaining full-time staffers. "The only reason 'Big River' was able to happen, at Deaf West, at the Mark Taper Forum, on Broadway and in all of those 49 weeks afterward," he says, "was because of this funding."

The funding, which came from the Department of Education, was canceled in late 2004 when an earmark for cultural experiences for the deaf was struck during the reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities in Education Act. The money itself stopped coming to deaf theater groups last year. "We don't know exactly why it was removed," a department spokesman, Jim Bradshaw, said Tuesday by e-mail. "An explanation does not appear in the legislation's report language. About all we can tell you is that since it was an earmark outside of the department, we defer to Congress' judgment on this."

This year, the companies are really feeling the effects. Deaf West, which had been receiving $800,000 a year from the government, the largest chunk of roughly $2 million in such grants disbursed annually to deaf theater groups, has not only laid off staff but has also begun to worry about future productions.

This is part of Republican attacks on funding for public education and the performing arts all over the country. I hope you join me in adding your voice to many asking Congress to INVESTIGATE why these cuts have happened - and asking them to REINSTATE the budget for these programs so we can continue to educate and entertain - and raise the bar for Deaf children all over the country.

Would like to post the video here - but it's hosted on blip.tv, so you have to go to the Website to watch.

The song itself is a mixture of various old spirituals, Irish war songs, some of my own poetry, and bits and pieces. We wanted to refer to a lot of things... the hardest part was coming up with the translation into ASL. Eventually instead of doing a direct translation, we combined the English and ASL to create a totally different effect. We thank anyone for comments on the artwork... and on how to get the message out to more people.