Lessons in Laughter: An Autobiography of a Deaf Actor
Bragg, a deaf person born of deaf parents in Depression-era New York City, tells how he realized his dream of becoming an actor and pays tribute to his family, deaf friends and others to whom "sign language was a perfectly normal and acceptable way of communicating." The richness and variety found in signing and in the deaf culture permeate his montage of stories. This member of a minority he describes as unique resisted exploitaiton by the hearing, and efforts of professionals to deflect his self-determination. In vignettes that reveal a bubbling personality, readers follow the flowering of his lively intelligence, his developing relationships and the psychic energy that enabled him to construct a textured life, star in a weekly show on public television in San Francisco, found the National Theatre of the Deaf. Bragg's story, told in sign to coauthor Bergman, a colleague, provides a bridge between the hearing society and the deaf. Photos not seen by PW.Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.