The Big “D”
The Big "D" Poster
The Big “D” will be performed on December 4, 5 & 6 at the Medicine Hat College Theatre. The tickets cost $10 (as a donation) and are available right now at the college, but you can also get them at the door. The doors open at 7:30PM each night and the show starts at 8:00PM.
So what is “The Big D”? The Big D is a play/performance about being deaf or Deaf, or more specifically about people who are Deaf and what they go through being “big D’s”. The purpose of the performance is to give viewers a glimpse of the world in which Deaf people live. Notice my use of lower and uppercase deaf and Deaf, well, according to Deaf culture there is a difference between the two. Being deaf means you might be hearing impaired and may use a hearing aid or implant; however being Deaf means you are clinically or legally deaf.
Cast:
Deborah-Lee Balmer – Stage Manager, Actor – Garage Player
Dara Sutton – Actor – Garage Player
MacKenzie Porter – Actor, Singer – Garage Player
Mike McCoughlan
Kayla McLeod – Actor – Garage Player
Blair Lukacs – Actor – Garage Player
Hannah Amelia Rud – Actor – Garage Player
Sybil Eaglerib – Garage Player
Brandon Dorring
Patricia Spicer – Actor – Garage Player
Joanie Russel
James McCormick – Actor – Garage Player
Dr. Leslie Baldwin – Interpreter
Complete description from the Facebook group:
“When most people think about the word ‘deaf’, they think about someone who can’t hear at all. If you’ve had your hearing tested lately, the person doing that testing would agree with you (though they would describe it using more technical terms). This is called the medical perspective. If you start taking sign language classes, you’ll run into a different point of view. That is, if you have very limited or no hearing, but you don’t use sign language, you are small ‘d’ deaf. If you have any kind of hearing loss, but choose to use American Sign Language (ASL) as your main way to communicate and/or get information, then you are big ‘d’-Deaf—the big D.
Being deaf means you might wear a hearing aid or have a cochlear implant, and use your voice to communicate. Being Deaf means you likely don’t have a hearing aid because you don’t see the need. You are Deaf, after all, and your pride and heritage comes from the use of ASL, and your regular interaction with other Deaf people. It’s not that you never deal with the hearing world, but as the saying goes, ‘home is where the heart is’. For people who are Deaf, the heart is definitely in Deaf world. There is a culture and a way of being that is distinctly Deaf. For those hearing people lucky enough to experience a little bit of Deaf world, it truly touches the heart. Hopefully this play, the big ‘D’, will give you a little glimpse of that world.”