Don Armado

Another day, another actor. This time its Adam Bassett of Hull. He has never acted with Deafinitely Theatre before. Our Artistic Director, Paula Garfield discovered him last year on a talent-spotting trip to Derby.


He'll be playing Don Armado, the "fantastical Spaniard", a character Shakespeare created to mock the fallen glory of the Spanish Armada. 


Adam is thrilled to be performing in Love's Labour's Lost: 


"Excited and nervous because we all have to perform in front 1,500 people which is amazing. Also, The Globe is so well-known around the world. That we are going to perform there also we all will be taking part in the first British Sign Language Shakespeare play! Definitely exciting!"

The Princess

Rehearsals got under way proper for Love's Labour's Lost yesterday. Here's a bit more info about another of one of our actors, Nadia Nadarajah who will be playing The Princess of France. 

Nadia is relatively new to acting but has been a presenter for BSLBT programmes such as Wicked and Snapshot. In 2010 she won an award for Best Young Director at the International Disability Film Awards for a short film, All Day. She clearly has many talents! 

Here are her thoughts on Shakespeare:

"I first started to learn Shakespeare when I was at school. At this age I could only understand parts of what was written and never the full story. I remember discussing one of the plays orally, in spoken English, but as BSL is my preferred language I was not able to get a better understanding this way.

When I first got involved in translation week with Deafinitely theatre I was very apprehensive. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to fully understand everything that was happening, and just wouldn't "get it."

I was very fortunate to have Andrew Muir and Kate Furby to help with the translation of the play in to BSL. They are excellent at translating in to BSL so that I can fully understand, and for this I owe them a big thank you.

It is amazing to me that Shakespeare wrote this story over 500 years ago,and everything that he expressed at this time is still true today. His views on love and relationships for example, are still the same things that we see and believe to be true in everyday life."

Nadia acting in development workshops for Deafinitely's autumn production, Tanika's Journey

A little feature

To find out a bit more about the translation process that took place in March and to see interviews with the directors and actors watch this episode of Deaf magazine programme, The Hub. There is a feature on our preparations for Love's Labour's Lost around 15 minutes into the episode.

http://www.bslbt.co.uk/programmes/the-hub/the-hub-series-2/programme-3-2/

The King....

Rehearsals start next Monday for Love's Labour's Lost. We can hardly wait! Its a good time to start to introduce some of our actors.

First up, is the guy who is playing Ferdinand (the King of Navarre), Stephen Collins. He is probably one of the more well-known members of the cast having acted in Graeae Theatre's successful show, Reasons to be Cheerful.

A native of Bethnal Green, Stephen's first experience of theatre acting was within Deafinitely Theatre's Drama School course two years ago and since then his acting career has really taken off. He's really looking forward to performing Shakespeare:

"I studied Shakespeare at school and know some of his famous work like Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth & Henry 5th. His plays have been translated so many times by different people but yet his plays still feel fresh, original and current. They are great stories! I haven't read many of them but I'm very keen to explore these plays now that I'm doing LLL. It is tricky to study Shakespeare but its not impossible and I'm really excited with what Deafinitely theatre is coming up with. I think for every actor, you want to do at least one of his plays in your lifetime." 

                                    Stephen in Deafinitely Theatre's 4Play, 2011. Photo by Simon Kane.

In 'quiet' waters....

Apologies that things have been quiet lately with a bit of a blog lull over Easter. But all that will change next week when the action starts hotting up again ready for the start of rehearsals on the 23rd!

The reality is that is that it hasn't actually been quiet in the office. Its just much of our attention has been focused on the very thrilling task of marketing the tour. After two performances at Shakespeare's Globe our production of Love's Labour's Lost will be shown in Ipswich, Wolverhampton, Derby and Brighton. Lots and lots of flyers and posters like the one below have been produced to be distributed out to the touring venues.

Tomorrow most of our staff will be at Deaf Day. This is an annual exhibition event at London's City Lit where dozens of organisations that work with deaf people will have stalls to promote their services. Its a popular event; the corridors are always packed full of deaf people catching up with each other. They also tend to have a quick look at the exhibitions before heading off to the pub opposite! If you decide to pop along - come and say hello to us on the 5th Floor!