There's an article in this morning's New York Times about how the federal budget cuts are affecting arts programs for the deaf. The Broadway series brought the National Theater for the Deaf production Big River to Philadelphia in November 2004, and it was an amazing experience to see their interpretation of this show. How they'll survive losing 60% of their budget remains to be seen.
The National Theater of the Deaf, based in West Hartford, Conn., the group that many credit with pioneering the field, had been getting $687,000 a year from Washington until the last of its federal grants ran out in mid-2005. . . . Now the theater has gone two years without putting on a show for adults and without conducting its summer training academy for deaf and hard-of-hearing actors.