Plays by Deaf Playwrights
Note: This information has been static for a while. I worked on collecting this information a good while back and have not come back to it. What I found was discovered through a variety of sources consisting of direct contact with some deaf playwrights, the appendix listing in Steve Baldwin’s “Pictures in the Air,” and internet research.
I have plans to come back to this and update it as some new plays have been written since I last posted in this area and there are new upcoming playwrights that I need to add to this site to keep it relevant.
Note: * = one act and ** = playlet
A = adaptation
Steve Baldwin
A Play of Our Own
A Play of Our Own- Part III (1979)
Borderline (1980)
Sign and Sound A Lovin’ (1980)
Christmas Oasis (1980)
A Play of Our Own-Part IV (1981)
How to Pick A College President (1983)
Deaf Smith (1985)
Dynasty (A)
Coronado Hill Country
You Were Ok, Ok, Fine, Fine
Midnight Ride of Billy Dawes
T.H. Gallaudet and Monsieur Clerc: Coming to Terms
Develop, Divide, Destroy –Part 1
Develop, Divide, Destroy-Part 2
Love and Let Love
A Case of Matter Over Mouth
Potluck Dinner
Obstacles
Who’s Gonna be the Next Gally Prezy?
Dr. Corson’s Famous Tuesday Nite at the Office
Caught In Between
True hero
Le Petite Caporale, Napoleon-Part 1
Le Petite Caporale, Napoleon-Part 2
A Mafia Doctor Confesses
Birth of A Deaf Play
Twin D’Amorias
Boston-Marathon
How to Break An Evil Bronco
Friday Night Live!
Donald Bangs
The Touch (1976)
Different Worlds (1979)
Sea Princess (1980)
The Miser (A) (1981)
Dracula (A) (1981)
Jealousy (A) (1985)
The Phoney (1991)
Institutional Blues (1993) co-authored with Jan Delap
Michelle Banks
Black Woman’s Stories: One Deaf Experience (1992/1993) co-authored with Ann Marie Bryant
There’s a Butter, but No Bread (1990) co-authored with Monique Holt
Reflections of a Black Deaf Woman (1995 with ongoing revisions)
Eugene Bergman
Fish nor Fowl (1984)
Adrian Blue
Circus of Signs (1982)
A Nice Place to Live
Bernard Bragg
Tales from a Clubroom (1980) co-authored with Eugene Bergman
That Makes Two of Us (1982)
To Whom It May Concern (1998)
On the Golden Wedding Anniversary (1998)
Laugh Properly, Please (1999)
True Deaf (2000)
A Journey Into the World of Visual Wonders
Douglas Burke
The Good Peddler (1961)
I have added a link to his website where you can explore his background and writing in more detail. Willy is a versatile artist who works across a wide range of artistic disciplines to create his art. He has had an extensive career as an actor, photographer, educator, and overall terrific human being. See the new note after the play ‘ The Universal Drum.”
Broken Spokes (1990)
The Hearing Test (1991)
Playing Seriously (1994)
The water Falls (1996)
Vignettes of the Deaf Character (1997)
Falling On Hearing Eyes: a of Sign /anguish for People with Communication Disorders (1998)
For EveryMan, Woman, and Child (1999)
The Fallout Shelter (2000)
The Universal Drum (2002) [Update 11-26-2017-Workshop production of this play will occur on January 13, 2018, by Sign & Sing]
Goya –en la Quinta del Sordo (in the house of the deaf man) (2002) co-authored with Iosif Schneiderman
Oh, Figaro! (A) (2003) co-authored with John Augustine
The Girl Who Saved a Village (2004)
Bob Daniels
I Didn’t Hear the Color (1990)
Am I Paranoid? (1992)
Teresa Deevy [1894-1963]
Prior to 1919-
Created 3 plays using the name D.V. Goode
Practice and Precept
Let Us Live
The Firstborn
Reserved Ground (1928) [Rejected by Abbey Theatre]
After Tomorrow
Reapers (1930)
A Disciple* (1931) (Original title “The Enthusiast” and later re-titled ”In Search of Valor)
Temporal Powers (1932)
The King of Spain’s Daughter* (1935)
Katie Roche (1936)
The Wild Goose (1936)
Wife to James Whelan (1942)[Rejected by Abbey Theatre, later staged by Madame D. Bannard Cogley’s Studio Theatre in 1956]
Within A Marble City*
Light Falling (1948) [Staged by Abbey Theatre’s experimental company called Peacock Theatre]
Eyes and No Eyes*
Strange Birth*
The Finding of the Ball*
In the Cellar of my Friend*
Supreme Dominion
Undetermined format
One Look and What It Lewd To
MacConglinne
A Minute’s Wait
Radio Dramas
Wife to James Whelan* (1946)
Dignity*
Strange Birth*
Polinka** [Adapted from Chekhov’s short story of the same name]
Light Failing*
Within A Marble City*
Going Beyond Alma’s Glory*
Holiday House*
Concerning Meagher, or, How Did He Die?**
In the Cellar of my Friend*
Dance
Possession [A ballet]
Patricia Durr
Meta (1993)
Sign Off
Gilbert Eastman
Sign Me Alice (A) (1973)
Hands (1975)
Laurent Clerc: A Profile (1976)
What (1981)
Sign Me Alice II (1983)
Can Do: A Revue (1989)
Terry Galloway
2 Women Writers (1982)
Out of Their Minds (1984)
Heart of a Dog (1984)
Hamlet in Berlin (1985)
Out All Night and Lost My Shoes (1986)
Lardo Weeping (1993)
Bruce Hlibok
Women Talk (1984)
The Deaf Man Howls (1989)
Tom Holcomb
Deafnasty (1985)
Hear No Scream: AIDS in the Deaf-Part 1
Hear No Scream: AIDS in the Deaf-Part 2
Side by Side [Also adapted by Shanny Mow in 1995 as “Love thy Neighbor for NTID]
The Week the World Heard Gallaudet
Monique Holt
THE NIGHT WAS SO HUNGRY THAT ATE THE MOON (2006)
E. Lynn Jacobowitz
Deaf History: Time Machine (1978)
Deafective (1978)
Solar System (1978)
Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1978)
Theatre House (1979)
Voyage (1979)
Pah, Stop! Oh, Stop! (1981)
Aaron Weir Kelstone
25 Cents (1991)
Handful of Myths (A) (1995)
10 Handful of Myths (A) (1996)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (A) (2000)
Legend of Sleepy Hollow (A) (2000)
The Giving Tree and Other Stories (A) (2003)
Lysistrata (A) (2005)
Ray Kennedy
Deafia (1977)
Contract with the Devil (1981)
Mike Lamitola
Profile of A Deaf Peddler (Adaptation from Deaf Heritage) (1999) [Restaged for NTD in 2001]
A very prolific, active writer in several different literary genres. Currently commissioned by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf to create a new play titled AGENCY that will premiere March 1-4, 2018 at the Panara Theatre. I have linked back to his website where there is a more extensive list of his works including an updated list of the plays he was written.
The Rake (1992)
Six Women In Search Of A perfect Play (1994)
Daffodils (1995)
Snooty (1996)
Whispers of A Savage Sort (1996)
Among Fathers (1997)
Interpretations (2001)
Hippos & Giraffes (2002)
This (2003)
Love In My Veins (2003)
Beauty & The Beast (2004)
Doogle (2005)
In Love And Trust I Lust (2005)
Written, but not yet produced
Deal
Honeymoon
I Never Slept With Helen Keller
Gambit
Penny Lover
Written, but not yet produced and no deaf theme
The Happy De Von Campers
Lifeguard
Jackhammer
White Chocolate-
Darkest Room in the House
Threshold
Eric Malzkuhn
Sounds of Silence (1955-Script Lost)
And Gladly Teche (Script Lost)
Moments Preserved (1966)
Color of Love
The Flying Zarillas
The Lonely
The Eternal Road
Crooked Cop
Richard Medugno
Silent Salzburg
Lewis Merkin
Language of [One/Love?] (date?) co-authored with Drew Emery
Dorothy Miles
A Play of Our Own (1973)
Shanny Mow
Daisy & Pole & Milly & Mike & The Superintendent & The Spanking Machine (1978)
The Iliad, Play by Play (A) (1980)
Gilgamesh (A) (1981)
The Ghost of Chastity Past (1981)
Parzival, From the Horse’s Mouth (A) (1982)
The Greatest Little Sign Show (1988)
Odyssey (A) (1989)
La Legenda Da La Llorna (1990)
You Asked For It (1990)
Letters From Heaven (A) (1991)
Myths: Baked, Boiled & Fried (A) (1992)
Eight Handfuls of Myths (A) (1992)
Shakespeare Unmasked (A) (1995)
Counterfeits (1995)
Love Thy Neighbor (A) (1995)
The Cat Spanking Machine (1997)
Selecting A Ghost (1997)
Shakespeare Unmasked II (A) (1998)
Squanto Spoke English* (1998)
Snow White and Too Many Cooks (1999)
The Woman Who Wins Every Bet (2001)
Bell in Hell *(2004) & [NTID full-length production](2008)
Fingers Around the World: Orient (A) (2004)
Fingers Around the World: South of the Border (A) (2005)
Fingers Around the World: Africa (A) (2006)
Kate Nelson
There and Back
Rico Peterson
Another Play of Our Own
Seeing Place
Terrence J. O’Rourke
Appointments with Fred (1989)
Terrylene Theriot-Sacceti
Molded (1987)
Unveiling the Rock (1993)
Dorothy Teall
Star
Howard L. Terry
The Dream (1912)
Michele M. Verhoosky
A Laying of Hands (1993)
Middle of Nowhere (1996)
Beyond the Blue (2002)
I See the Moon (2008)
Craig J. Weiner
The Sound of Silence
happened to notice the 8 ) became a smiley face icon rather than the number and end parenthesis…
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