Western Front Review

Deaf Professor Senses Students’ Ability

by Bernadette Ramel
April 24, 2001

In a dark little studio, Dawn Stoyanoff’s acting class is about to begin. The silence is not broken until the instructor calls the attention by stomping her foot on the floor.

The signal, now familiar to the students, is in fact addressed to Stoyanoff’s interpreters, Lori Abrams and Karee Wardrop. They are Stoyanoff’s voice during the class.

Stoyanoff, 34, cannot hear or speak. She was born deaf.

As a graduate student in the theatre arts department at Western, she is teaching the introductory acting class, which she has taught for the past three quarters.

Stoyanoff’s students not only learn the basics of acting, but also American Sign Language. They learn to sign "well," "no," "thank you" and "chocolate," which is surely not what they had initially expected of the class.

Sophomore Cash Cranson said he was surprised to learn the acting class instructor was deaf.

"It was somewhat confusing in the beginning because I had to get used to the presence of interpreters," Cranson said. "But now I really like it. It adds a whole new dimension to the class."

As with any language, knowing how to form the words is not always enough to communicate effectively.

While she signs, Stoyanoff’s face is amazingly expressive.

Her gestures and facial expressions, such as raising or lowering her eyebrows, convey the tone of her speech. They prove just as necessary as voice inflections, which help make sense of spoken words.

"The grammar of the deaf language consists in using the whole body and the whole face," Stoyanoff said.

In class, Stoyanoff naturally puts the emphasis on body language. She asks the students to perform everyday situations, such as watching TV or applying makeup.

"I focus on body language because most actors tend to work just from their head up," Stoyanoff said. "They forget about their bodies. Everything needs to be connected and in use. Once your whole body is connected, you’re able to do more."

At the end of the hour, students found themselves expressing abstract concepts and complex situations without using words.

For instance, Stoyanoff asked the class to "express" colors, such as red and blue.

Jason Lamb, a secondary education major, said the acting class teaches him how to use his body to match his vocals.

Giving a meaning to signs is not so obvious: It requires students to complement their speech with explicit gestures or behavior, he said.

"I first thought having a deaf instructor could be a problem, but now I am convinced it is even better than a hearing one," Lamb added.

Yet, because one might think voice matters to judge good acting, putting a deaf instructor in charge of an acting class with hearing students is not an obvious move to make.

Mark Kuntz, chair of the theatre arts department, said it is an opportunity to explore the possibilities inherent to the situation. He said he has never heard of it being done before.

"What Dawn can bring to students is the understanding of subtext, the difference between what we say and what we mean," Kuntz said. "When left to communicate with body language as the primary tool, the gist of the message can be very different from the actual text of the message. This is how Dawn lives, and this is what she can deliver to her students."

Hearing teachers in higher-level classes can focus more on the vocal part, Stoyanoff said. She does not totally neglect voice works, since students enrolled in the class will, for instance, be graded on a monologue.

Performances will be taped and translated in American Sign Language. One interpreter will take notes about the clarity and the force of each student’s voice.

Jamie Williams, an Australian exchange student in the class, said Stoyanoff’s handicap does not prevent her from judging acting.

"I may be wrong, but I think she is able to get the feeling of the way we’re verbally expressing ourselves, and not just our body language," Williams said.

Stoyanoff said she can usually guess what people are talking about.

"When I arrive in a restaurant, I can tell in a minute who is thinking what, or who is angry," Stoyanoff said.

She also said her senses of touch, vision, taste and smell are well developed.

Last quarter, Stoyanoff directed hearing actors for the first time in a play called "Overtones," by Alicia Gerstenberg. She said she enjoys working with hearing people. To prepare for the acting class, she compiled ideas from her previous teaching experiences.

"I have taught American Sign Language for almost 10 years, notably in the South Dakota School for Deaf," Stoyanoff said. "I also taught deaf-mute drama at the Seattle Children’s Theatre. It’s been fun to figure out which activities would transfer well from deaf children to hearing adults."

Stoyanoff earned a psychology degree, with an emphasis on women’s studies, before starting graduate studies in theatre arts.

In 1991 she played in a version of Mark Medoff’s play, "Children of a Lesser God," which is a drama about the relationship between a deaf woman and her speech therapist.

As an actor, Stoyanoff said she wants to deviate from deaf characters.

She had this opportunity in February when she played in "The Vagina Monologues" at Western.
"My character was a woman who had been raped in Croatia," Stoyanoff said. "The fact that she was deaf didn’t matter."

Her performance in sign language required an interpreter on stage.

To prepare for the role, she said she used her other senses to visualize and feel what it would be like to be her character.

"I had to envision the beautiful place where I lived, my green valley and my beautiful village," Stoyanoff said. "I had to envision walking through that grass. Then I had to concretely experience the change by seeing the soldiers burning down the village."

By going through the mental process she did, Stoyanoff easily could be seen by her colleagues and students as a bit of a perfectionist.

"Good acting means being honest," she said. "Showing off or pretending is not acting. Being honest is the most important. Even though I cannot hear, I can tell when someone is being honest or not."
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Footnotes:

Deaf: It should be read and corrected as "The grammar of the American Sign Language consists in using the whole body and the whole face."- Return to top

Deaf-mute: The correction should be read as "I also taught deaf drama at the Seattle Children’s Theatre.” This is an offensive term; for this reason, it is not used in today’s language. Mute means silence or no voice is being used. There are different communication methods that deaf and hard of hearing people use other than their voices. This does not mean they are still mute. - Return to top