Review: The Vivacity of ASL

Napal Tesfai

Hailing from the Pacific Northwest, Ryan is a Deaf Youth Drama Program Alum, National Theater of the Deaf Alum, comedian, actor, play director, and producer. He also performed and toured with “Big River”by Deaf West Theater in the States and internationally, earning a Tony Award.

Despite street construction on Jackson Street and limited parking, the show was sold-out with a variety of people in attendance. Deaf Spotlight has received mixed responses from theatre patrons. I’m not going to lie to you readers. The audience was ominously quiet, and I could sense confusion among the audience during the Lewis Carroll piece. I could tell some people were awed and others were annoyed. For those who are not familiar with Carroll’s works, Carroll (aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was best known for his writings of ‘Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland’ and its sequel ‘Through the Looking-Glass’.

Could it be because people did not understand Carroll’s works? Could it be because the skit was too long? I do know that Schlecht did an amazing job portraying the large number of characters during the Lewis Carroll piece. You have to give him praise for being on top of his game as in how he was able to fully express every character.

Schlecht then showed his witty short clip of the film of ‘Ghost” ("Got Matches?", directed and produced by Troy Kotsur and Deanne Bray. It's a separate, short film from the independent film, "Deaf Ghost" which Troy is the director. It's currently in pre-production. For more information, you can go to imdb.com. ) that was filmed after‘Big River’ that left the audience smiling then groaning and moaning for more of the film and wrapped up the show by telling the story of a cat and a dog’s relationship dynamics at home while their owner were out of the house. The skit proved that hearty laughter won the audience over.

Congratulations to Ryan Schlecht for a successful show and on behalf of Deaf Spotlight, we thank you for partnering with us!!