2016

St. Bonaventure Catholic School Workshops

It was a pleasure to work with the students at St. Bonaventure Catholic School in Huntington Beach. I worked with the students to help them connect with the hearing culture and celebrate deaf culture using the power of theater and live performance.

Here are some pictures from my time with the students. Thank you again to everyone at St. Bonaventure Catholic School for allowing me to come teach for you!

Buena Park's Raymond Temple Elementary classes produced a holiday concert unlike most

From The Orange County Register:

DECEMBER 20, 2016 | BRIAN WHITEHEAD, STAFF WRITER

Curtains open as the song “Christmas Day” plays over the sound system.

On stage, a handful of Raymond Temple Elementary School students, dressed for the season, use facial expressions and sign language to sing along; others sing, but softly.

As the track ends and the curtains close, the audience of parents, school board trustees, city officials and former teachers applauds.

A new group of students then takes the stage.

Raymond Temple’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing program last week held its annual holiday concert before a capacity crowd. Santa Claus showed up bearing hats and blankets donated by the Angels.

“Our theme for the day was: It takes a village,” said Sandy O’Dea, a longtime teacher in the program. “And at the heart of this village is a fire that burns brightly. It takes parents and teachers and classified staff, as well as the community at-large, to donate time and energy.”

The half-hour performance consisted of five acts: The “Christmas Day” opening; a live-action poem, “Santa’s Workshop”; a rendition of “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer”; a play; and the annual encore.

“The Deaf and Hard of Hearing holiday concert, for us, is an opportunity first to showcase the students and the work they’ve done in school,” said Norma Martinez, Centralia Elementary School District’s superintendent. “But also it’s a great opportunity to connect the deaf culture with the hearing culture. … It’s a celebration of deaf culture and it affirms the kids’ belonging in the larger community.”

Forty students, across Raymond Temple’s four Deaf and Hard of Hearing classes, from preschool through sixth grade, performed. Most had been practicing for two weeks.

The show “brings American Sign Language, the deaf language, and makes it ordinary,” Martinez said. “It’s up on stage, not on the side. It’s center stage and everybody’s a learner.”

In partnership with Hollywood’s Deaf West Theatre, a performing arts center that runs community outreach programs for students locally, O’Dea’s preschoolers and kindergartners received 10 weeks of instruction with Antoinette Abbamonte, a theater professional.

Last week, the class of seven performed “Soaring at Raymond Temple” – an original children’s story of safety, outstanding citizenry, accountability and respect.

“Three- and 4-year olds saying lines on stage, no matter what, we were going to be a success,” O’Dea joked. “But the preschoolers got to receive the huge benefit of working with deaf role models. And the concert was the perfect venue for them to showcase what they learned.”

The show, attended by several Deaf West Theatre performers, culminated with a group rendition of Celine Dion’s “The Magic of Christmas Day.”

On stage, kids and two dozen staff members clad in green and red attire sang and signed the refrain in unison:

Oh and God bless us everyone

The good and the bad

The happy; the sad.

Oh and God bless us everyone

Here’s to family and friends

It’s good to be here again.

“It’s just breathtaking,” O’Dea said of the finale. “You’re hearing the audience, you’re hearing the song, the lyrics, and realizing what the whole spirit of these holidays is all about. No matter what you bring to the room, you leave feeling like everything’s going to be OK.”

 
 

Let’s change the world together.