Where else can you experience stories of dragon slayers, Paul Bunyon and Peter Pan all on the same stage?
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf at RIT, and several Marion students were part of it on October 16.
American Sign Language students in grades 7-12 made the trip to RIT for the performance with Visual Vernacular Storyteller Dack Virnig. The power of visual language was on full display for the Marion students, who enjoyed a performance that showcased classifiers, role shifting, Visual Vernacular, finger spelling and the use of 3D space.
“Although the introduction to the show had a voice interpreter and captioning, the stories needed no translation because of Virnig's expressive movement, rhythm, emotion, and imagination,” said Mrs. Duffy, Marion’s Spanish and ASL teacher. “His signature storytelling style, that blends humor, emotion, and visual artistry was an inspiration to the Marion students who left chatting about which story was their favorite!”
Thank you to the Deaf Creators Festival at RIT for hosting the performance and thanks to Mrs. Duffy, who coordinated the trip for our Marion students who were able to watch their school lessons take form in real time!
