Hand Signals

From: Westchester County Weekly, NY - May 8, 2003

by Clara Eusebi - May 8, 2003

Any clown, mime, mask actor, Larry, Curley, or Moe will testify that the complexity of expression accomplished through physical theater upstages the travails of the most intent method actor and the vocal calisthenics of the sparklingest musical number. Visual language makes The Little Theatre of the Deaf (LTD) a leader in fun physical theater. LTD is touring with a new production, The Giving Tree and Other Stories , which comes to The Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase College. After the main performance, which is based on Shel Silverstein 's short stories, the group will invite the audience into Your Game , an interactive improv game that has been a hit since 1969. The Giving Tree , the story of a boy who falls in love with a tree, is about unconditional love. The program is an hour long and tailored to appeal to elementary school children. An introduction to American Sign Language opens the performance. Actors teach students how to sign a handful of words, which are used later in the performance.

LTD is the children's theater wing of the National Theatre of the Deaf , which has had 64 national tours and more than 8,000 performances, making it, at age 34, the oldest continually-producing touring theater company in the country.

The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College is located at 735 Anderson Hill Road in Purchase, NY. The Little Theatre of the Deaf will perform in the PepsiCo Theatre on May 10 at 3pm. Tickets are $20. Visit www.arts center.org for more information or call the Box Office at (914) 241-6200.

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