User:Brownsuga6161

GILBERT EASTMAN
"Gilbert Eastman" was born in 1934 to deaf to hearing parents in Middletown, Connecticut. He is awesome! My students love you!

LIFE and CAREER
Like most Deaf children born to hearing parents in the early twentieth century, Gilbert communicated by lip reading, writing on paper, and fingerspelling with his parents and two brothers. At the age of three, Eastman enrolled at the American School for the Deaf, where he learned American Sign Language. Eastman graduated from the ASD in 1952. Due to his exceptional intelligence, a teacher at ASD encouraged him to attend Gallaudet University. In 1957, Gallaudet Dean of Students, George Detmold, offered Eastman the opportunity to establish a theatre department at Gallaudet and the theatre department flourished. Thirty-five years later, a complete theatre arts curriculum for the first time was designed for Deaf students. Eastman taught courses, directed plays, located props, built sets, designed costumes, and performed all the other myriad responsibilities demanded by each production. At the same time he took classes at Catholic University, without the appropriate support services such as sign language interpreters, and became the first Deaf person to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree in theatre. Eastman continued to direct at Gallaudet, translating the Greek mythological play Antigone into American Sign Language. He also wrote and published Sign Me Alice, a play with all Deaf characters based on Shaw's Pygmalion and Lerner's My Fair Lady. Ten years later, Eastman wrote Sign Me Alice II. After the Deaf President Now movement, he wrote Can-Do: A Revue. He passed away in December 3, 2006 from cancer.

SIGN ME ALICE
“Sign Me Alice” is one of the most famous a playwright in the Deaf community. It was created by Eastman and was first performed at Gallaudet University. This play is considered to be blend of Deaf and ASL literature because it exemplifies the Deaf experience being performed on stage using American Sign Language. This play focuses on cultural identity of the Deaf. “Sign Me Alice” was the first, full length theatrical production to deal with issue of deafness. “Sign Me Alice” is based around a young woman named Alice. While working as a maid at a hotel, Alice meets a doctor who promises to help her further her career. The doctor tries to teach her manual English; eager to further her career she obliges him. However, she finds her identity as a Deaf person departs from using manual signed English and begins using ASL. It portrays a young woman’s struggle to be herself and not something mainstream society wants her to be. [Peters, Cynthia. Deaf American Literature: from Carnival to the Canon. Washington, D.C.: Gallaudet UP, 2000. Print.]

HONORS and AWARDS
MFA in Drama from Catholic University of America

Gilbert C. Eastman Studio Theatre--Black box theatre at the Elstad named after Eastman at Gallaudet University

OTHER WORKS
Can-Do: A Revue

Aladdin and His Magic Lamp

What?

Sign Me Alice

Sign Me Alice II

Just a DEAF Person's Thoughts 1996