Vamos Theatre is the UK’s leading full mask company, touring wordless, visual theatre nationally and internationally. I have been with the company for eight years and had many different hats from an actor/practitioner to General Manager. I now juggle Vamos’s Marketing and Development with raising a very lively two year old.
Whilst Vamos doesn’t make work specifically for deaf audiences we have found that audiences can fully access the work without an interpreter. The journey of Vamos connecting with the Deaf community started in Dudley Social Club on a cold blustery evening in October 2010. Our show Much Ado about Wenlock was booked for Dudley Deaf Theatre, of which 100 members showed up. As an actor I remember vividly at the end of the show removing my mask to the audience standing and waving two hands at me. I now know this is sign language for clapping, but I was somewhat baffled on that autumnal evening five and a half years ago!
We have always maintained the connection with Dudley Deaf Theatre, working with them and Black Country Touring to book our shows into Black Country venues. However for our current production, The Best Thing, Vamos has been working in consultation with deaf arts practitioners and interpreters including Emily Howlett and Lara Steward from PAD Productions, Interpreter Sarah Gatford, Aimee Cockle and Katherene Borland from Multi-Duo, Mary-Jayne Russell de Clifford from DeDrama Theatre, and actors Steve Collins, Sami Thorpe and Alix Adams. We have invited our consultants into the rehearsal room, asked them to review our marketing material, and to participate in trial workshops so we can constantly get feedback on how we can make Vamos, as a whole, more accessible to deaf audiences.
Oh boy, we have learnt a lot! We have not learnt sign language (yet) but are embracing changes in our workshops and marketing. We have a new BSL flyer for The Best Thing [you can watch this here] and a workshop designed for deaf participants. But our biggest discovery is that deaf participants naturally have strong mask skills because they have to communicate with clarity and directness in everyday life. These two qualities in deaf communication are innate to mask work which means deaf participants tend to have a natural talent for this art form.
Vamos Theatre is very proud to be making quality theatre for hearing and deaf audiences alike and long may it continue. We already have plans in the pipeline for the next two years about expanding our accessibility, so please watch this space.
Honor
This article will also be appearing as a guest blog on The Limping Chicken - "the world's most popular deaf blog!"