Description

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William Shakespeare’s wonderful romantic romp Twelfth Night now can be viewed on DVD translated into a vivacious American Sign Language performance. Director Peter Novak presents a stellar cast of Deaf actors in this unique production, including Adrian Blue, Peter Cook, Robert DeMayo, Monique Holt, Jacke Roth, and Dennis Webster. These accomplished performers bring alive the confused lovers Viola, Orsino, Sebastian, and Olivia, and present hilarious characterizations of the wily Maria, Sir Toby Belch, Sir Andrew Aguecheek, the feisty clown Feste, and the dour steward Malvolio. Accompanied by an equally accomplished English voice-over, the actors add sensational brio and panache to their interpretation of this delightful comedy, all enhanced by the singular expressiveness of ASL.

This fully captioned DVD enables viewers to experience Twelfth Night in an utterly unique way. Also, they can delve further into its creation by visiting a special Internet site that features explanations of the techniques used for the ASL translation, information about Shakespeare and the inception of the play, and complete lesson plans. Educators and students of ASL and Shakespeare both will benefit enormously from viewing, analyzing, and discussing this remarkable rendition of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved plays.

About the Author

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Peter Novak is Associate Professor of Performing Arts at the University of San Francisco, CA.