March 2020
Online ASL production
ogden, ut

I don't remember how I found out about this, but I'm glad I did!  The Ziegfeld Theatre in Ogden, Utah, produced a version of Newsies done entirely in American Sign Language (ASL).  I probably wouldn't have known about it if Covid hadn't hit, forcing them to cancel their in-person performances.  I'm up for anything Newsies, so naturally, I bought my ticket to stream it and it was great!  I think I watched it twice, at least, maybe three times, while I had access to it.  I'd only ever seen the ASL interpreters at performances before, never a full production done in ASL, so I was curious about how was I going to understand what was happening.  It turns out that there were two actors for every major role: one who signed and one who spoke.  It was clear that the speaking actors were there to interpret for the signing actors, not the other way around.  It took a little getting used to, but it very quickly settled into a comfortable storytelling style and ended up being a wonderful experience I've thought about many times over the years.  I would love to experience more shows like this.