Deaf performance troupe works to enlighten audiences

Friday, March 1, 2002 | 9:59 a.m.

Russian performers who use humor, pantomime and dance to provide a glimpse into Russian and deaf cultures will perform Saturday at Community College of Southern Nevada's Nicholas Horn Theatre.

Members of TOYS Theater, a group formed in 1985 in St. Petersburg, Russia, personify toys and use body language to tell stories and rhymes in interactive performances.

Each of the four performers and Oleg Golovushkin, director of TOYS Theater, are deaf.

The performers have toured such countries as Finland, Norway, Gemany, the Netherlands, Poland and throughout the United States performing for deaf and hearing audiences.

"Our primary goal was to find our own place in the professional world of theater and make it accessible to anyone," said Golovushkin, who joined the theater group in 1994.

"(The) actors wanted to expand their own creative, theatrical potentials and find their own identity in the world of the performing arts," he added. "We wanted to have something unique, something different."

Playing the roles of the Doll, the Cook, the Boy and the Dwarf are performers Vasily Solonitsky, Ludmila Romanovskaya, Alexander Filimonov and Ilya Goltsov. They do not use sign language during the show.

"We use a visual form of art and music that is understood by anyone regardless (of) language and culture," Golovushkin said.

Music is also used during the performances. "People who are deaf can feel the music vibrations and the rhythm, he said.

Though the performance is open to deaf and hearing audiences, Golovushkin said that it has had a positive impact on children who are deaf.

"More kids needs to be exposed to the deaf professionals, to build their own self-worth, confidence and passion to succeed, regardless of the odds that life brings." he said.

"We want kids to enjoy, to learn, to participate, to inspire, to meet with their role models and feel that they can do anything that they desire."

Creating characters that are toys makes the subject matter accessible to all audiences, Golovushkin said.

"Everyone likes to play, regardless of age," he said. "We are living toys. We play with an audience and an audience plays with us."