Lessons in laughter: the autobiography of a deaf actor

477 Pages·1989·3.15 MB·English

by  Bernard Bragg

Page i
Lessons in Laughter

Lessons in Laughter : The Autobiography of
title:
a Deaf Actor
author: Bragg, Bernard.; Bergman, Eugene.
publisher: Gallaudet University Press
isbn10 | asin:
print isbn13: 9780930323462
ebook isbn13: 9780585104850
language: English
Bragg, Bernard,--1928- , Actors--United
States--Biography, Deaf--United States--
subject Biography, Authors, American--20th
century--Biography, National Theatre of the
Deaf.
publication date: 1989
lcc: PN2287.B6827A3 1989eb
ddc: 792/.028/092
Bragg, Bernard,--1928- , Actors--United
States--Biography, Deaf--United States--
subject: Biography, Authors, American--20th
century--Biography, National Theatre of the
Deaf.
Page ii
Also by the authors
Tales from a Clubroom
Page iii
Lessons in Laughter
The Autobiography of a Deaf Actor
Bernard Bragg
as signed to EUGENE BERGMAN
Gallaudet University Press
Washington, D.C.
Page iv
©1989 by Bernard Bragg and Eugene Bergman. All rights reserved.
First edition
Published 1989. Second printing, 1990.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover photograph by Hal Roth.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bragg, Bernard, 1928
Lessons in laughter: the autobiography of a deaf actor / by Bernard Bragg
as signed to Eugene Bergman.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-930323-46-7
1. Bragg, Bernard, 1928 . 2. ActorsUnited StatesBiography.
3. DeafUnited StatesBiography. 4. Authors, American20th
centuryBiography. I. National Theatre of the Deaf. II. Bergman,
Eugene. III. Title.
PN2287.B6827A3 1989 792'.028'092-dc20
[B] 89-
1493
CIP
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Page v
To my mother whose gentleness was her strength,
And to my father who did not go gentle into that good night.
Page vii
Contents
Preface viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction x
Authors' Note xiii
One The Stage Is Set 1
Two The Rehearsal 34
Three Tryouts 73
Four The Premiere 111
Five Reviews 136
Six The World Tour 150
Seven New Scripts 186
Eight Denouement 218
Page viii
Preface
I am a storyteller. I don't write stories, I perform them. The very
telling of stories is what fascinates me because it involves an
audiencea live one. More often than not, the telling can be what makes
a story a storywhat a story is meant to bewhat it has got to be. The
facts of a story alone are never completely satisfactory; it is the
meshing of the facts with the manner of their telling that breathes life
into what otherwise would be merely a straightforward, factual
reporting of events.
I see stories in my everyday life. I see them everywhere. I spin stories
as I go along. I read stories into nearly everything. Or rather, they
unfold themselves right before my eyes. But to me, stories live only
when I perform them dramatically in sign and mime before an
audience. They disappear into thin air after I have acted them
outexcept when they are transferred to print.
A longtime friend and colleague of mine, Gene Bergman, has a feel
for words and a flair for matching them with my storytelling
performance, so by joining forces we were able to produce this book.
Each one of my stories is true. Up until now, they have vanished once
the curtain has fallen, but no more. Each will live on here.
BERNARD BRAGG
Page ix
Acknowledgments
We owe thanks to Edna S. Levine for encouraging us to write this
book, and to Harlan Lane for writing the Introduction. We also wish to
express our appreciation to Ivey Pittle, Bruce White, Pat Hurt-
Ritenburg, Ernest Moncada, Catherine Kalbacher, Kathee Christensen,
Russell Astley, Martin Sternberg, Donna Chitwood, and Peggy
Hansen for their sensitive and probing criticism. Last, but not least,
we are in debt to Gene's wife, Claire, for the patience and good humor
with which she endured our long hours of working together, and to
David Seltzer and Sabrina Bergman for their witty comments, which
enlivened our collaboration.
Page x
Introduction
Hearing people frequently ask me to explain what constitutes deaf
culture. Now I can direct them to this engrossing autobiographical
montage of stories told in sign language by America's leading deaf
theater artist, Bernard Bragg, and rendered into English with great
brio by Eugene Bergman. Lessons in Laughter is about deaf culture
and it is an artifact of deaf culture at the same time (how right that it
should have originated in signed stories, often about communication).
Many of the recurrent themes addressed by deaf authors across the
centuries, legends rooted in the deaf collective unconscious, are to be
found here freshly presented. Listen, for example, to Pierre Desloges,
the first deaf man to publish a book (it, too, was autobiographical), as
he describes his discovery of the power of French Sign Language.
When a deaf person encounters other deaf people more highly educated
than he, as I myself have experienced, he learns to combine and improve
his signs, which had hitherto been unordered and unconnected. . . . He
acquires the supposedly difficult art of depicting and expressing all his
thoughts, even those most independent of the senses, using natural signs
with as much order and precision as if he understood the rules of grammar
Compare Bragg:
What electrified and enthralled us about Mr. Panara was his very
embodiment of a living breathing revelation of the potential of sign
language. . . . In contrast to the choppy, abrupt, and often homemade signs
we normally used among ourselves, his signs were a miracle of vividness
and eloquence. . . . We had never realized that this, our native language,
could be such a powerful vehicle for expressing the richest and subtlest
feelings and conveying nuances of meaning as sophisticated as those of the
most articulate English speakers and writers.