According to A Journey into the Deaf-World (Lane, Hoffmeister, and Bahan, 1996), ASL plays and skits probably emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in the residential schools. Dramatic performances have flourished in the twentieth century in Deaf clubs, Deaf colleges, Deaf theater groups, Deaf TV/film production groups, and Deaf celebration groups. Drama in ASL is characterized by large and rhythmic sign movements and clear visual facial information such as facial grammar (questions, adverbs, conjunctions, and so forth) and emotions.

In the early 1970s, the National Theatre of the Deaf debuted an original ASL play called My Third Eye about ASL and Deaf people, and it was a huge success. Regional Deaf theaters have sprung up around the U.S., including the Onyx Theater (New York City), The New York Deaf Theater, Cleveland Signstage Theater, Deaf Bailiwick Artists (Chicago), and Deaf West Theater (Los Angeles), as well as in college theaters at Gallaudet University and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. There have also been efforts to create original productions in ASL. For example, Tales from a Clubroom by Bernard Bragg and Eugene Bergman, Institution Blues by Don Bangs, and Broken Spokes by Willy Conley have been produced in local and college theaters.

Some films have been created by Deaf people. A Deaf filmmaker named Ernest Marshall produced feature films between 1937 and 1963 in which all the actors used ASL. Another good example of Deaf film production is Think Me Nothing by Peter Wolf. It represents the strong core of the Deaf world. The big breakthrough for Deaf performers came in the 1980s when Marlee Matlin won an Oscar for her role in Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Juliana Fjeld received an Emmy award for her television production, Love Is Never Silent (1985). Since then, many Deaf actors and actresses have gone into the TV/film industry.

DEAF HUMOR

Deaf humor developed in the Deaf community partly as a way of coping with the oppression Deaf people face in the hearing world. ASL comedy amuses Deaf audiences. It includes funny stories, jokes, sketches, and other similar forms that make people laugh. One classic example of a funny story goes like this:

A crowd goes crazy when a deaf giant comes into town. He spots one woman lying down frightened, comes toward her, and gently lifts her onto his huge palm. She lies motionless on his palm, still frightened. The giant says, “You are so beautiful! I want to marry... !“ The audience laughs, knowing that the woman is smashed to death when the giant signs MARRY, as the active hand moves fast and hard toward the palm. Then the giant says, “Oh uh ... oral is better, oh well.”

This statement is very ironic and is intended to make Deaf people giggle uncomfortably since they know about the history of oral oppression.