Sound Off Festival: Canadian deaf performers take to the stage in Edmonton

The Sound Off Festival, Canada’s national festival dedicated to the deaf performing arts, will delight and inspire audiences in Edmonton from March 5 – 10.

The annual showcase began in 2017, created by artistic director Chris Dodd.

“We bring in artists from all across Canada and we give them the opportunity to tell their stories on stage,” Dodd said. “We have deaf artists and deaf performances,” but the performances are accessible to everyone.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re deaf, hard of hearing or if you can hear. Everyone is welcome,” Dodd said.

The festival highlights the beauty of American Sign Language. The shows have ASL to English interpreters and captioning available. Some of the pieces don’t use words at all, Dodd said.

“We’re doing a show called Lumina that’s physical theatre. There’s no dialogue, there’s no signing, no words. It’s accessible to everyone.”

The deaf performing arts world is growing, he added, as an increasing number of artists are creating and sharing their work.

“It’s a wonderful time for deaf artists right now,” Dodd said. “There are more opportunities.”

Joanne Bryan is an ASL poet and performer with Speaking Vibrations, which features four Ottawa-based performers.

“We want our story to resonate wide and clear. Our idea, the concept of vibration, is that our story is being disseminated out to the world and shared with others,” she explained.

“Speaking Vibrations explores different themes. All the performers have parents who came from elsewhere, outside of Canada. We explore themes like connection, searching, our heritage, our identities,” Bryan said. “We explore the themes through storytelling, dance, song, poetry and tap dance, which come together in one piece for the audience.

“My experience as an artist really emphasizes sharing my language — American Sign Language — through poetry, my journey, my roots.”

While Bryan was born and raised in Canada, her parents are from Barbados. She says they don’t know ASL.

“I also explore language as accessibility and language as barrier,” she added.

The Sound Off Festival is bringing together three different sign languages from across Canada: LSQ from Quebec, MSL from the Maritimes and ASL.

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The theme of straddling two worlds is one many of the artists relate with.

Connor Yuzwenko-Martin has been involved in theatre for most of his life but embraced it in earnest during the pandemic, after leaving his job at a massive tech company.

“I really focused on writing, producing, collaborating with other theatres, other artists, and trying to work with deaf, deaf/blind, many different people.”

He’s working on a comedic autobiography about being deaf and queer called Connor’s Road. The Edmonton reference is not unintentional.

“It feels like a cute little local pun,” he said. “It’s a bit of a metaphor… Is it a smooth road? No. We’ve got our potholes. We’ve got our obstacles here and there,” Yuzwenko-Martin said with a smile.

“I do have some privilege. I’m a white guy and I live here. I do also have the other identifies — that are deaf and queer — and those sometimes have those stigmas attached.

“I struggle a lot with my relationship with the deaf community as well as with the queer community. The deaf community is not always inclusive for everybody who is queer. Same with the queer community … at a Pride event or something like that, they may not make it accessible for someone who is deaf. So I do really struggle with those two different worlds.

“Society in general, and our communities, we really do all struggle with the ability to love each other.”

Yuzwenko-Martin is also the founder of Edmonton deaf arts collective The Invisible Practice.

“Bringing in deaf creative artists working together, trying to figure out how to make this space for deaf creators to try test things out,” he said. “We’ve just got to keep going and have these doors open for each other.

“Dreaming about what is possible for deaf artists… excited to see where it leads us.”

Yuzwenko-Martin hopes Connor’s Road will be ready in time for next year’s Sound Off Festival.

“I will be signing in that performance. The interpreter’s voice will not be there. There is no audio in that. I will be having my surtitles and captions up there to be part of this play,” he said.

“It’s not a traditional script at all.”

The Sound Off Festival features performances, collaborations with Rapid Fire Theatre, improv, workshops and panels.

In addition to many free events, all mainstage shows are Pay-What-You-Can.

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