RACINE — The stage is set, the lights are up and the seats are ready to be filled. "Dial M for Murder" is currently playing at the Racine Theater Guild.
Friday night's show will include one extra light, shinning just off stage. There you'll find Sorelle Gonzalez, a UW-Milwaukee junior, along with two of their classmates.
"You have to portray the tone that the characters are using on the stage, so you're really performing," Gonzalez said of their role.
Gonzales and their classmates will be providing interpretation during the show. They are all students in UWM's American Sign Language (ASL) studies program.
"If you enjoy theater, you have the opportunity to tell a story and express emotion and everybody should get the chance to enjoy the show and that's what we're doing," Gonzalez said.
The theater is happy to have the students on stage alongside the volunteer actors.
"When you think about community theater, one thing that always stand out to me is the idea of community," said Racine Guild Theater Director of Marketing and Development Jocelyn Fish. "There is such a large community of deaf and hard of hearing individuals who haven't maybe had access to theater before or maybe even live performances in general."
ASL is the third most commonly used language in the United States after English and Spanish.
In addition to providing greater access to the performances, the interpreting also helps Sorelle and their classmates develop confidence in their language skills.
"The theater interpreting gives us an opportunity to sit down and really look at the language and really analyze that. Different vocabulary, we have time to really look into it and understand what that message is and then take that to the performance and practice interpreting," Gonzalez said.
The real-life, community based experience is important to UWM's ASL Program Director Sunny Brysch.
"We do believe that service to the community is equally as important and that's how students grow. So when they're out in the community, not only are they providing excellent access to services but they're also building their skills at the same time," Brysch said through an ASL translator.
There's about 500 students in the program at UWM. It's the only 4-year ASL studies and interpreter training degree available in the state. The program is currently working on expanding its language lab on campus.
"This program is training us to be professionals and do that and provide and amazing show for people that want to enjoy it, no matter their hearing abilities," Gonzalez said.
The Racine Theater Guild plans on having interpreters at all main stage shows going forward. ASL interpreted shows will happen on the second Friday of a show's run.
For tickets, click here.
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