MASARYK UNIVERSITY



                                       Faculty of Education



                                               Brno









                                               Essay

                                      (London in literature)












                                                                                            Worked:

                                                                                 Žaneta Petraturová

                                                                                             237168

              The comparison of Deaf theatre in the United Kingdom and Czech Republic

Deaf theatre in the United Kingdom

In my presentation, I said about the Deafinitely Theatre that was founded in London in 2002 and is
a professional and popular theatre group of Deaf people in London. Its team is artistic director,
Paula Garfield with Steven R. Webb, Kate Furby and others. They use British and British Sign
languages. They are doing tutorials and workshops for a few groups – pupils, students, hearing
impaired people and hearing people.


Deaf theatres in the Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, two most known theatres which are only deaf people are NEPANTO and Neslysim
Theatre Company (originally Divadlo Neslyším). NEPANTO is founded in 1973 by deaf headmaster –
Ladislav Spilka, later by Zralý, – in the project Deaf pantomime. This name NEPANTO was
abbreviation of words NEslyšící PANTOmima. The deaf team has acted many performances in our
country, e.g. Mluvící ruce in Prague on August, Otevřeno Kolín in Kolín and International pantomime
of Deaf in Brno.


Neslysim Theatre Company is founded by deaf team in Brno as well. Thanks to their first
establishment they studied this study field of Janacek University of musical art in Brno and then
they didn’t want to break their way. As they founded it and they wanted to show a few performances
for children and adults. They have visited many various places in our country and in other foreign
countries as well. It focuses on known story tales or stories for small children, e.g. About a
large beet, Hrnečku, vař!, Putování ošklivého kačátka, …


Comparison of these deaf theatres

I think these all deaf theatres in both countries are similar types of theatres however the NEPANTO
is focused on pantomime. Personally, I saw and knew the group of NEPANTO because I met him on a few
performances when I was in another group of Silent Music (Tichá Hudba) that means a song in Sign
language. NEPANTO wants to show a bit humour and funny.

On the other hand, I saw a deaf theatre – Neslysim Theatre Company – once, I think, when I was in
primary school. They showed a story tale about a large beet and they played nicely with biased
pictures. I enjoyed it and small children enjoyed it much as well.


I found out that Deafinitely Theatre is on the Facebook and they give us news, information, remarks
on change of dates or places, photos of performances and trainings etc. However, Czech theatres –
NEPANTO and Neslysim Theatre Company – aren’t on Facebook and it is pity because they would give
amount of information and events as Deafinitely Theatre. Also, I always go to my faculty and some
information about Neslysim Theatre Company and others are given on the noticeboard in the first
floor (department of Special Pedagogy). But I don’t realize the information on the noticeboard and
then I know it later. I think it is better to give information on the Facebook where I sign on
everyday and I update every hour. If they are on it, I should know immediately.


Conclusion:

I said important points and comparisons of deaf theatres in the United Kingdom and the Czech
Republic. Then I suggested many points of them to improve for us. In my conclusion, the deaf
theatres are good for deaf children and adults who could watch interesting, known and funny plays
in their Sign Languages in both countries. I am glad that they exist for long time nowadays. Also,
they are important for children to know story tales or plays from known and famous writers thanks
to literature in schools. It is easy to remember these stories. When I was a child, I had some
problems with literature or stories from the writers and these deaf theatres weren’t presented
mostly earlier. If I am a child now, I should always go to the theatres.