Contact:
KIM GARFIELD
(323) 965-1029

DEAF WEST THEATRE TO RECEIVE
SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES
“HIGHEST RECOGNITION AWARD”

PRESENTATION TO BE HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26

The multi-award-winning DEAF WEST THEATRE (DWT) has been chosen to receive the 3rd annual “Highest Recognition Award” from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for “distinguished contributions to improve and enrich the cultural lives of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing individuals, nationwide.”

The award will be presented to DWT’s founder/artistic director Ed Waterstreet in a ceremony taking place in the Great Hall of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, Washington, DC, on Wednesday, October 26, beginning at 2:00pm.

In a letter to Waterstreet, Dr. Margaret J. Giannini, Director of the Office on Disability, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, wrote that he had been selected to receive this annual Award because “your work is a tribute to the spirit of creativity that comes alive in your efforts, and those of your creative and talented team of producers, directors and actors, to bridge the gap between the deaf and hearing worlds” and that DWT “helped awaken America to the reality that ability, not disability, is what matters most.”

Founded in 1990, DWT began operating out of the Fountain Theatre, Hollywood, and subsequently at its own state-of-the-art North Hollywood theatre in the NoHo Arts District. It’s ground-breaking production of A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE in 2000, featured a cast of deaf and hearing actors and was presented in both American Sign Language (ASL) and Voice, a signature of all DWT productions.

DWT’s acclaimed production of BIG RIVER, which originally opened at their N. Hollywood venue, transferred to the Mark Taper Forum, downtown Los Angeles and ultimately had a successful run on Broadway. The musical returned to Los Angeles at the Ahmanson Theatre, then embarked on a one-year national tour, reaching deaf and hearing audiences around the United States and in Tokyo, Japan.
Currently, DWT is collaborating with the prestigious Pasadena Playhouse to present the World Premiere of OPEN WINDOW, a new deaf-themed play by Stephen Sachs, set to open on October 21 (through November 20). The play is about a deaf teenager who’s been locked in a basement for most of his life and is charged with having murdered his father. Two deaf professional women – a linguist and a psychologist – are at odds over how to rehabilitate this ‘wild child.’

DWT’s next “deaf musical,” slated for a Spring, 2006 production, is loosely based on the classic fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty”; the show will be co-written by Tony Award winner Rachel Sheinken (book writer of the smash Broadway hit “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) and will be directed by Broadway veteran Jeff Calhoun (Los Angeles Ovation Award winner for DWT’s “Big River” and “Oliver!”).

DEAF WEST THEATRE is located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood. For further information: (818) 762-2998. Website: www.deafwest.org