KODA West Fund raising - Best Deaf event yet!!

Still during my trip to CA, I had the pleasure to meet some of the best Deaf entertainers. Talking about beauty in the way of expression, I ended up actually meeting one of my inspiration from the very one tv show that changed my course of life,Switched at Birth, Marlee Matlin (who plays Melody Bledsoe) was sweet and kind while knowing my poor signing skills need to improve a lot, she even spoke to me, I said spoke, not signed. 

Well, let's just say I did learn a lot on this event. Deaf people are very appreciative of the effort hearing people makes either to communicate, help or support them or their organization. KODA West is an organization to help the education of the Deaf culture to children of Deaf adults. (www.kodawes.org)

John Maucere show was hilarious, but also does taught me a lot about the Deaf culture. It is so true that Deaf people are hugers. I have 1 friend that is Deaf, every time I see her, she hugs me, since I gre up in Brazil, in Brazilian culture it is common to hug and even kiss the cheeks when you meet someone for the first time, but after living in the US for almost 15 years, I'm not use to it anymore, but since this friend likes it, I had nothing against it. However, when I did get to the event, for the 4th time, a was received with a huge hug from the Deaf people in there, and not just one from the organizers, but people sitting at my table as well, so I need to come to the conclusion, that is not coincidence, that is just their culture. During John Maucere presentation, he also showed that Deaf people are very touchy, maybe loud and very excited, always.

Even though they are huggers, I didn't feel much difference on the "welcoming" attitudes, maybe I was giving a wrong vibe or something, but while I didn't know anyone there, and I still don't really but one KODA who gave me her number because I took a picture of her with Marlee, I stood there for about 30 min and not one soul came to talk to me or ask me anything, seeing that i was alone. From what I think, if I go talk to them, they will be friendly, but either they do not want to make new friends or are just scared to talk to people, which I would even understand considering how many people they may see on a daily basis that will not want to even try to communicate with them if they needed something, but in a Deaf event, I would think they would assume I know their language and culture and would not be afraid or skeptical to make contact, yet, nothing happened, I stayed alone the whole time until time to eat. 

Anyway, being a volunteer to the NY Deaf Theatre and interested in Deaf/ASL performances, this event, for sure, inspired me more and more to keep looking for it, keep studying, getting involved, practicing and eventually reaching my goal to become fluent in ASL and work with Deaf performers, either producing a show (whatever kind, TV, Live, Stand up, Movie) or working behind the scenes as part of their management/marketing team.

From top to bottom left side: Shoshana Stern, John Maucere, Lauren Maucere

From top to bottom right side: Deanna Bray, Marlee Matlin, Bernard Bragg

(Sorry, I'm definitely not good on selfies)

I Fell In Love

I should really start from the beginning. I have to admit that I never really noticed Deaf people anywhere. It was like indifferent to me. I knew they existed I just never really stop to pay attention.

Then one day while at work on saturday, trying to catch up with my prospecting and marketing duties, around 5pm I decided to put on a movie on Netflix just a background noise (irony?? maybe) while searching for a new yet mellow movie that has few action shots that would distract me more than the regular..remembering I was trying to finish work on a saturday, thinking I would be done in about 2 more hours I found this movie information interesting yet mellow enough for me to watch as planned. The name of the movie was "Switched at Birth". Silly me, didn't read the whole full description that says it was actually a tv series with 2 seasons (back then when I first saw it). Starting the pilot episode, I had to stop many times to watch the ASL scenes which destroyed my concentration at work, but in another hands it drove me to a mesmerizing feeling of such a beautiful performance from the actors (Katie Leclerc and Sean Berdy). On my attention all driven now to the episode, I was hoping to just finish the movie and go home, at this point I had given up work, I could finish it some other day. Some minutes later, for my surprise, the episode finished with no real ending. Thinking it was not satisfying and weirdly finish so fast I went to see the information tab again to find out then it was a series. I was happy that I could see the next episode and find out what would happen then, why did I do that????? I just went deeper and deeper into the show and every time I watched Marlee Matlin, Sean berdy and Katie Leclerc signing I could not stop drooling over how beautiful it was to see them performing. Saying a whole line, acting a whole scene without saying 1 word..just pure body expression. Let me make it short, I watched the whole 30 episodes of season 1 and 10 episodes (that's all they had up until that day) of season 2 in just 1.5 days. Yes, my night and basically whole Sunday was just watching Switched at Birth.

After my whole weekend was shifted to a very different planned I had in mind, I decided to look more into what was all that about. All that beautiful way of talking. I start searching the internet for more information about ASL. One thing led to another, I was downloading learning videos, books, searching for Deaf organizations, volunteering on Deaf events, contacting Deaf meetings/chatting rooms to be more involved and see more of that amazing way of expression.

Just a small tip on my background, I grew up in dancing school, I learned Ballet, Jazz, Modern Dance and even graduated and became teacher in Tap dancing. I was accepted at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (where I'm from) and received my Bachelor Degree on Theater, specializing in Set Designing. One year after I graduated, I came to the US to study Film & TV at UCLA Extension and after 5 years I received the certificate of specialization in Production and Directing. Enough said, I was always into performing art and always admired a beautiful body expression.

As life goes by I had to adapt to what I needed to do to survive, and my way went far from any art career. Currently, I sell Real Estate (hence I do my own hours and my own business) but that is not fulfilling me. I was living the days as I needed to, not as I wanted to. I gotta say that Switched at Birth TV series changed my life completely. It gave me knowledge, it gave me a goal, it gave me hope, it gave me a life again. I will always be thankful for that weekend, but the real one I will be thankful for is the creator Lizzy Weiss. Thanks to her and her brilliant mind to create such a wonderful series with so full of art and, not only that but, information about the Deaf community and culture. I sit here writing this very first blog post, in front of the Santa Clarita Studios where they shoot the series, and they are shooting right now inside there, while my eyes is watering remembering how it all started, that weekend in June 2013. Today, while I came to CA for a small vacation, I toured the city seeing some of the show's location and finished my day here at the studio (oh, I saw Constance Marie, who plays Regina leaving the studio a few minutes ago in her car) on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at 1:01pm.