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CODA’s big Oscar win paves way for Deaf actors in every community, including at Hinsdale South where students are putting on a comedy horror show

The Deaf Drama club at Hinsdale South High School is gearing up for its spring play, which will be performed on April 29 entirely in American Sign Language, and accessible to anyone who walks through the door.

Caity Ugel and Eliza Cattani, faculty sponsors for the Deaf Drama club, said the show titled, “Hallmarks of Horror,” is essentially a comedy about horror movies. The narrator is designed to take the audience through the recurring common tropes of a horror movie, while the actors play it out on stage.

“It’s a little bit scary, it’s a little bit funny and there’s lots of action,” Cattani said.

“I know some people might be intrigued by our Deaf Drama play, but maybe a little intimidated because they feel like they don’t know sign language,” Ugel said. “But we have deaf audience members and hearing audience members who don’t know any sign language and our play is there for everyone. We want everyone to come and enjoy it.”

The group typically puts on a show in the fall or winter, and another in the spring. Last winter they did “The Elf on a Shelf Must Go.”

Ugel said the students in Deaf Drama club, who are from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing program at Hinsdale South, like to add their own spin to scenes, helping elevate the final production to something bigger.

“The students get really involved in and really excited about how they can adapt what is a hearing play for hearing people, into a deaf play. And the students themselves being deaf individuals, just have great insight to share and great ideas,” Cattani said. “An example would be if in the play, someone’s ringing a doorbell, the students will ask that along with the doorbell sound, we have flashing lights to signify somebody is at the doors because that would be more realistic for them.”

Ugel said one of elements they work with the students closely on is training them to act toward the crowd, as opposed to each other, which is an added layer of preparation involved in Deaf plays.

“Even if they are interacting with each other on stage, they have to face their body and their signing toward the audience, otherwise, their line would be completely missed,” Ugel explained.

Translating the play line by line during the live performance of “Hallmarks of Horror” will be ASL interpreter, Dan Englund, who has also directed the show in the past.

“I think it’s awesome that our deaf students have an opportunity to put on a show in a language that they use everyday,” Englund said. “Even though most of the community and students and staff at Hinsdale South don’t know sign language or aren’t fluent in ASL, they are able to enjoy the show and us as the interpreters are able to be a part of connecting the actors and the audience.”

Englund said there are four interpreters — two licensed interpreters and two students who are in interpreter training programs in college — that work with Deaf Drama club as the cast of 16 prepares for showtime

The interpreters typically go to rehearsals a week before the performance to practice with a script in hand. Interpreters are closely watching what the actors are signing to make sure it matches what is in the script, and if for any reason they were to go off-script, improvise or miss or add a line, they are there to catch it and interpret it, Englund said. “It’s a live performance just like a theater performance spoken in English could change in the middle of the show,” he added.

“We are taking it from one language into a language the audience understands,” Englund said.

His hope is that the larger community of Hinsdale sees the astounding talent of actors in the Deaf community

Just last month, CODA, a 2021 coming-of-age film about the only hearing member in a deaf family became the first movie with a largely deaf cast to win best picture at the 2022 Academy Awards. And along with that accolade, deaf actor Troy Kotsur won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and the film also inked in the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

For many in the Deaf community, the Oscar wins provide a feeling of affirmation, Cattani said.

“I think it means so many things to the students and to their families. For our deaf drama students who take their acting very seriously and work hard, I think not only do they get to see this great role model in [Troy Kotsur] but they also get to see him being recognized and appreciated,” Cattani said.

The film offered an authentic look into Deaf culture, and Ugel said for students seeing a portrayal of their lives being played out on the big screen has been a game-changing experience.

Aside from Deaf Drama club, Jr. Illinois Association of the Deaf (Jr. IAD) is a social club at Hinsdale South run by a deaf teacher, who hosted a movie night where students watched CODA in the school’s theater. “They all got together to watch the movie and talk about it before the Oscars. Every student I’ve talked to has loved it, its Deaf representation and it’s paving the way,” Ugel said.

“We definitely hope to see that happening more in the future,” she added. “And I hope to see in the future, maybe some of our students out there getting awards and being recognized for their talents.”

The play will be performed Friday, April 29 at 7 p.m. at the Hinsdale South auditorium, 7401 Clarendon Hills Road, Darien. Tickets are $6.

zsyed@chicagotribune.com