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Hi, my name is Kelly Mengelkoch
And I’ll be playing the role
Of Sylvia in Tribes
It’s a beautiful play
It focuses around the character of Billy
Who is a young man who is deaf
But has been raised in a hearing family
And he’s finally at this point in his life
Encounters, a girl, Sylvia
Who has grown up hearing
But lives with an all deaf family
And her hearing is now going
And so it’s their worlds kind of colliding
And her introducing him
Finally to the deaf community
And her seeing what its like in a family
That is not as supportive of the deaf community
Not necessarily out of judgment
As much as trying to foster
A normal life for Billy
Every character has special horrible
and wonderful things about them
That’s where the play really bashes heads
And everything unfolds
The cast here lovingly likes to
Call this process acting camp sometimes
Because of all the extra special things
We get to learn for this play in particular
Sylvia is a wonderful role for an actress
Because you get to learn sign language
I have to learn how to play piano
It’s kind of opened up Kelly’s awareness
Of the deaf community
It’s been so educational
And so rewarding in that respect
With the wealth of information I’ve
Been taught through this process
I can only hope that an audience member
Seeing it in one compact evening
Gets introduced to a community
They may not be familiar with
It’s more than just
A nice evening at the theatre
But it is a nice evening at the theatre
But
It just hits your heart in a different way
It’s been a really great process
Every day is fun and challenging
I think it’s going to be
Something really special