Changing 1 person's view about Deaf people

One day I was trying to find out more about the famous Deaf  actors I always hear about so I would be more in tune to the Deaf people I know from the Deaf Theater. I always get free help from interns coming from a local college, I ask the intern that was doing her hours at that time to do a research and write a report for me on Sean Berdy. He is one of the actors that inspired me to learn about the Deaf community, culture and language. He plays on Switched at Birth I already wrote about how things started for me. After him the intern did a report on Bernard Bragg and Deana Bray but this story is about the report done on Sean Berdy. While the intern was researching his career and past life she found some information about his girlfriend, Mary Harman. At the time of the research they had a lot of tweets and Instagram posts to each other and their relationship was open to the public (which at the time I'm writing this is not or they are not together anymore, again this is not about his personal life either, I'm just writing to have a better reference of the facts and situation in case I read this in the future..distant future) So looking around her tweets and IG posts the intern started to look more into what she wrote or what she does. She found out a bunch of sites and information about Mary, which believe it or not, I still haven't read the report on any of the actors to be honest, but the report is supposed to be about Sean, not Mary but since I didn't read yet, I'm still blind about who he is too beside he is a good actor, signer that works on Switched at Birth. The thing that amazed me and made me so proud was that the more she was looking for information the more she found out about Mary, the more she liked her. She became a fan of Mary, for her vibe, for her attitude and her thoughts that were all visible through her words on the social media.

The fact the Mary is so well spoken and has so much in depth thoughts about life, politics and philosophy changed her thought about Deaf people in general. She, like me before, always knew that Deaf people exist out there in the world, but never she thought they had such a rich culture and were so intelligent as most people. The usual old stereotype "deaf and dumb" was what she had in mind, but reading and learning about how much they can do and what they accomplished and seeing it all real on Mary's profiles and interviews, she opened her mind to a very different world she was living in and didn't even notice.

Regardless if she will continue searching and getting involved in the Deaf community, she is now with a new view and complete respect to Deaf people. She can see a new world around her and all thanks to Sean Berdy and Mary Harman (if he wasn't a famous actor I wouldn't have asked her to do a report about him, and if he wasn't dating Mary she wouldn't find out about her either and fell in love with her)

That whole process of discovering the Deaf world also made me feel super involved, every new discovery she would share with me all excited about it, of course most of the info she would share I would know already, but it was so good to see one more person so enthusiastic to learn more about them.

And just yesterday, I got a text message from her asking to know who is playing the CODA girl who was Natalie's girlfriend because she wanted to follow her on twitter. Here are the facts: 1 - she didn't have a twitter account, she must have created it just to follow Mary as this is what she said when she finished her hours as an intern, 2 - she had never seen Switched at Birth until I told her about the show, and of course introduced her to Sean Berdy and the deaf culture, 3 - Although, I did not appreciate a text at 11:41pm asking for something that could have waited until the following day, and another text at 12:23am saying she found the person  it was nice to know she is still looking for more role models in the Deaf community such as Abby Walla (the person she was looking for). Maybe she is really trying to get into it.

On this week's episode of Switched at Birth, there was a line that fit perfectly to what just happened here "the best leaders lead by example". The example of a Deaf person that just for being herself created such an impact on someone else's life, that is Mary Harman, a true leader and great influence into the "Deaf world"

Sean Berdy and Mary Harman

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.