Deaf people receive for the first time in Minsk higher education as actors

This year, the Belarusian Academy of Arts has recruited a course for deaf actors – seven people who will follow specialized higher education. TUT.BY discovered how the idea of ​​creating an inclusive course was born, what are the specificities of the training and what difficulties were faced by the students.

Minky Anastasia Skabiy does not imagine outside the theater: her aunt was an actress. She had been involved in the theater studios of the local culture palace since childhood and had participated in "Juno and Avos" and "Romeo and Juliet".

Anton Shashura, after Bobruisk's school, has become unaccustomed to college electronics with a programmer. As he was engaged in amateur activities, he decided to embark on the acting profession. Especially since the applicant already had some experience: he played in the crowd of one of the movies. "I studied computer science at the electronics college and at the academy, studying myself," Anton shares. Her clbadmate at college, Victoria Tseslovskaya, also came to the academy after working in the cinema.

These stories are absolutely typical, a candidate for any theater institute can tell you. The only difference is that the boys and girls we told you about are deaf and do not hear.

In other countries, people with such a diagnosis can receive advanced training in theater. For example, in Russia, deaf actors are produced at the Shchukin Theater Institute and the Russian Academy of Arts. Until recently, this possibility did not exist in Belarus.

"The idea of ​​theater has matured for about ten years, but you can not get ahead of society"

Yevgeny Voloboev, director of the Charcot Palace of Culture, became the head of the course for deaf actors at the Belarusian Academy of Arts. For over fifteen years in this recreation center, there are dance studios, a gesture song, a pantomime for the deaf, and now part of the new students of the academy takes part.

"I came to work at the Palace of Culture in 2003, on the eve of the New Year," Yevgeny Alekseevich explains. – I immediately wondered why deaf children did not have a New Year's program, Christmas trees, they decided to do the New Year for deaf and hard of hearing children. It was the musical "The Snow Queen" in sign language – it was a success and hearing the children came to us. Then I put the rock opera "Juno and Avos", the play "Romeo and Juliet" with deaf studio students. "

In the palace, there are not only theater studios: there are sections of painting and English. It was not so long ago that the Kadr Club was created, where the deaf write scripts and films. The question of why this can not be done at the professional level was raised a long time ago.

– In Moscow, for example, there is a professional theater of expression of the face and gestures, in Kiev – the inclusive theater "Rainbow". We do not have that kind of theater, even though there are a lot of hard of hearing and hearing impaired people. The idea is ripe for about ten years, but you will not be ahead of the company.

At one of the festivals, Evgeny Voloboev met with Vladimir Mishanchuk, Dean of the Theater Department of the Academy of Arts. It turned out that their ideas coincide.

– I have long wished that Belarus has a team for disabled people under the roof of the state. And we thought: and if we tapped the path of the actors. We started to write many articles, from both the Belarusian Society of the Deaf and the Directorate of the Palace of Culture. They went to the rectorate, then to the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, "explains Vladimir Andreevich.

The concept of development of education for inclusion, adopted in 2015, has positively solved this problem.

"Now deaf people have the right to go to higher education," Evgeny Voloboev continues. "After all, we have many schools for deaf children, but what is their perspective?" If they are creative children, then they could become artists, no one thought of a deaf professional actor. It is now possible, student-deaf actors have become pioneers. We hope that if all goes well, there will be in the future a course for operators and a course for administrators …

"If a disabled person enters a university, his disability is canceled"

The selection bar was high enough, as only 7 people could enter the group.

"A lot of people were ready," said Yevgeny Voloboev. "We sent a recruitment announcement all over the country." In Minsk, the International Song Festival signs "Suzor & # 39; e" has just been organized. We also reviewed the guys and consulted. There are deaf amateur theater studios in Mogilev and Gomel.

– Even foreigners from neighboring countries have called us to the academy, wondering if they could be admitted. If everything goes well with the first course, in the future it is possible, adds Vladimir Mishanchuk.

The guys pbaded the entrance exams as regular students: interpretation skills (sketches, songs, stage speeches, history and Russian). That's right, all in sign language.

"The choice was really great," says Mishanchuk. "But we did not want to mislead the deaf candidates, that it was easy to act. We spoke to them sincerely: for example, about personal life, future work, loss of disability. This is a very important question: unfortunately, our laws are sometimes contradictory. If a disabled person enters a university, his disability is canceled – after all, you can study, which means that you are fully capable. Our children can also remove their disability, but they have not removed it, we have found another way. And now, we now have deaf students with excellent internal and external data.

In this case, all the actors did not arrive from Minsk: there are guys from Bogushevsk, Orsha, from Bykhovsky district. The age range of students ranges from 18 to 32 years old.

The training program is similar to the program of other acting academy courses, but it has its own specificities. To learn from the experience of Russians who had already trained deaf actors, Vladimir Mishanchuk went to Moscow.

Now, like all first-year actors, deaf students are introduced to the basics of the profession in a dramatic, plastic and musical way. Certainly, there are some peculiarities:

– To train such students, one must understand the psychology of the perception of a deaf person. He has a completely different psychophysics, explains Evgeny Voloboev. – Here for you, for example, a word has several sub-texts depending on the intonation. For them, the subtext is incomprehensible, they respond to your facial expression, they are forced to convey their mood with facial expressions. And it is first of all forbidden to professional actors to play a state: they should be able to stay. So what about a deaf actor? After all, the deaf spectator will not understand if the actor will not embarrbad his face "that Stanislavsky forbade him to do".

There is also a problem with some limited sign language and translation, continues to Evgeny Alekseevich.

– Sign language is limited, deaf people do not have such a rich vocabulary, especially if they grew up in deaf families. For example, "perspective" in sign language means "future". Here, you ask a deaf novice artist who paints modern houses: "Where is the perspective?" He answers, "Here." And you have to explain what you mean. They do not understand every word, because hearing from childhood is surrounded by new vocabulary – radio, television, family. The hearing person can self-educate, deaf more difficult. They can read incomprehensible words, you can spell them, but you can not yet explain their meaning – the deaf will not understand. Many things, such as musical rhythm or tact, have to be explained to them through movement – deaf actors have to stamp, for example. Therefore, the plastic disciplines for new students are not easy. "

However, this is not a problem, says Evgeny Voloboev, because for that there is an education:

– We selected sensitive people eager to learn the craft. You have to explain to them what kind of will you have to cultivate to become an actor. Already during the first semester, the student will understand himself whether he will shoot or not, as the training of an actor requires considerable effort.

Vladimir Mishanchuk does not consider the specific problems of deaf students either:

– These are just features that, for example, have influenced the calendar. Deaf actors' clbades last longer as they require additional translation and explanation. The translation of theoretical courses entails a certain complexity: higher theatrical teaching implies knowledge of the history of theater, philosophy and literature. We do not reduce the status of teaching institution for students with inclusion because it is about higher education. And for them, and for us, it's not so easy: we need high level translators who will be present at each conference. Now, an extraordinary specialist, Larisa Raboshuk, is working with us. In fact, she gets a second degree. (Laughter) But she's the only one missing.

"Deaf people, by their nonverbal behavior, determine whether they are skeptical or negative"

The courses for students take place at the Academy of Arts and on the basis of the Charcot Palace of Culture – this allows you to solve the problem with the public. Some courses for deaf actors are organized separately, others (for example, choreography), as well as other acting courses. And in student life, there is no difference between deaf and hearing actors: both couples and those who attend couples live in the same household. By the way, the scholarship for deaf actors is the same as for all, it depends on academic performance.

According to Eugene Voloboyev, the learning process of deaf students will go in the right direction, if each teacher is aware of his personal responsibility:

– A teacher who has not worked with such people should find ways to transfer knowledge and experience to a deaf student. Teachers are used to giving the task, they say, to read / write / do, and we must be constantly in the process and keep the student's attention. Working with the deaf allows you to change the perception, because the teaching also has its marks. These guys are very talented. It is important for teachers to be aware of it. I hope that the experience gained can be pbaded on to our colleagues.

If you do not find an individual approach, it will be difficult for teachers and students.

"Deaf people are people with sophisticated perceptions. They determine whether a person is skeptical or negative, based on their non-verbal behavior, "explains Vladimir Mishanchuk. If a person behaves unworthy in his opinion, she will pay no attention to him. You must be careful.

Mishanchuk and Voloboev both plan to develop a course for deaf actors resembling a psychological theater. "It can bring together many theatrical genres: dramatic and plastic mastery, gestural songs," notes Evgeny Voloboev.

TUT.BY's two companions recall Timofey Kulyabin's "Three Sisters", presented at this year's "TEART" festival. The staging was solved thanks to sign language. "It's a theater we want to teach our students. Certainly, there are dramatic actors, but our guys will not play worse in the future, because for them sign language is their mother tongue, "says Vladimir Mishanchuk.

According to Eugène Voloboev, a serious debate is underway on the creation of an inclusive theater based on the Charcot Palace of Culture:

– It should absolutely be inclusive, some actors hear, some are deaf. Why First, it expands the audience. Second, deaf actors adopt the skills of the audience, and hearing – in the deaf, for example, expressive expression, because usually the word is underlined. It is an exchange of experience.