Theater News

Deaf West to Co-Present 3rd Annual National Deaf High School Theatre Festival

The event is created by the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind.

Katie Boeck and Sandra Mae Frank in Deaf West's 2015 Broadway revival of Spring Awakening.
Katie Boeck and Sandra Mae Frank in Deaf West's 2015 Broadway revival of Spring Awakening.
(© Joan Marcus)

Deaf West Theatre has partnered with the Utah Schools for the Deaf and Blind (USDB) for the third annual National Deaf High School Theatre Festival (NDHSTF), a hybrid-virtual and in-person educational theatrical competition for young Deaf actors across the United States.

The in-person festival will be held March 16-19, 2023 in Salt Lake City, with the final community performance to be live-streamed to a national audience on Stellar. The virtual festival will be held January 30-March 10, 2023. The deadline to register for both is January 20, 2023.

The NDHSTF gives young Deaf performers the ability to perform on a national stage, refine their skills through competition and feedback, use American Sign Language (ASL) as their medium for acting, experience professional theater in an accessible language, and socialize with like-minded Deaf peers.

Teaching Artists for the 2023 festival will include renowned artists from the Deaf community including Jonaz McMillan, who also serves as this year's Festival Programmer and Coordinator, as well as Storm Smith, Renca Dunn, and Sunshine 2.0 from the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

For more information about the festival, click here.