* This anthology has been curated by a seasoned playwright, academic, director and actor who has lived experience of being deaf. * Would be recommended reading in deaf studies and deaf culture courses across the world. * This book is the first anthology of its kind.

* This anthology has been curated by a seasoned playwright, academic, director and actor who has lived experience of being deaf. * Would be recommended reading in deaf studies and deaf culture courses across the world. * This book is the first anthology of its kind.

Visual-Gestural Communication is a truly unique volume in non-language communication devoted to the study of universal gestures, facial expressions, body language, and pantomime. Readers develop the skill and confidence to interact -- sans shared language -- with individuals, such as someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, or who speaks a foreign language. The text and accompanying online resources feature a wealth of icebreakers, sequenced yet modular activities and assignments, as well as resources, student exercises, and teacher-guided tasks that explore aspects and amalgamations of nonverbal communication, theatre, and sign language. It is a tremendous resource for students of visual-gestural communication, sign language interpretation, American Sign Language (and other foreign sign languages), nonverbal communication, theatre, and performance studies, as well as community educators in deaf awareness and advocacy. In addition to the text's vital use in the theatrical arena, it is also applicable to teachers who wish to help their students maximize the use of their facial expressions, gestures, and body language as a prerequisite to learning ASL.

Visual-Gestural Communication is a truly unique volume in non-language communication devoted to the study of universal gestures, facial expressions, body language, and pantomime. Readers develop the skill and confidence to interact -- sans shared language -- with individuals, such as someone who is deaf or hard of hearing, or who speaks a foreign language. The text and accompanying online resources feature a wealth of icebreakers, sequenced yet modular activities and assignments, as well as resources, student exercises, and teacher-guided tasks that explore aspects and amalgamations of nonverbal communication, theatre, and sign language. It is a tremendous resource for students of visual-gestural communication, sign language interpretation, American Sign Language (and other foreign sign languages), nonverbal communication, theatre, and performance studies, as well as community educators in deaf awareness and advocacy. In addition to the text's vital use in the theatrical arena, it is also applicable to teachers who wish to help their students maximize the use of their facial expressions, gestures, and body language as a prerequisite to learning ASL.

After spending three years in The National Theatre of the Deaf performing plays by hearing authors featuring hearing characters, Willy Conley realized that he wanted to write plays with deaf, hard-of- hearing, and hearing characters created from the Deaf perspective. "Vignettes of the Deaf Character and Other Plays "presents the result of his desire in twelve masterful plays.
"I write for the eye, always searching for live, mobile, provocative images that would fill and illuminate the entire stage space with the complexities, the pathos, and the humor involved when deaf and hearing cultures merge or collide," writes Conley in his introduction. His plays depict a wide range of Deaf characters, including two brothers locked in a tragic rivalry familiar to families of all backgrounds; the broadly comedic Deaf Guide and hearing Techie interspersing laughs with cultural lessons in their Museum of Signs for People with Communication Disorders; Everyone searching for her Good Deeds as she faces imminent Death in an updating of the classic morality play, plus many others. These works explore a broad palette of circumstances with and without hearing characters, allowing Deaf characters to interact minus the direct influence that the dominant culture might exert." Vignettes of the Deaf Character and Other Plays" presents the drama and passion of a master playwright who, through his perceptions, reveals facets of the Deaf character in all of us.