Welcome to the ASL Shakespeare Project.
This project began in 1999 at Yale University. A team of four people, two deaf, and two hearing, came together to translate Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night into ASL. This core team was later joined by other Deaf performers.
It took over a year to translate and videotape the full play. Then the translation was produced by the Amaryllis Theater in Philadelphia. This website is dedicated to those artists who promote and develop ASL in the arts. We hope you enjoy it.
TRANSLATION PROCESS
How did we begin translating? We began by editing Shakespeare’s original script, cutting it down so that it wasn’t too long. We researched the play, the characters, and the story itself. We looked at overall themes and began by taking one scene at a time, then one line at a time. Sometimes it took us days to find the right translation for just one line. Sometimes it took only a minute or two. It all depended on how complicated Shakespeare’s language was.
Actor and translator Robert DeMayo begins by telling us about the process of translating Shakespeare into ASL:
Robert DeMayo
Last summer, Peter contacted many people in the area who are deaf and who know ASL and could come together and advise him in the translation, including me. The process involved us all with different levels and different styles of ASL. We looked at each other from our own perspectives. If we had consensus, we would write it down and move on.
(Clip of team translating.)
The process was difficult. What did it require of us? First, we started with figuring out Shakespeare’s text, his language. Then we would translate Shakespeare’s text into English meanings. Then we would think about the English and translate into ASL. And so you had three steps in the process.
TRANSLATION PROCESS II
We would start by reading a scene. Then we would debate the meaning. After agreeing on a translation, each of us would write down or “gloss” it for ourselves. (Example of team discussing translation and gloss used for video script.)
We all had different styles of writing ASL and since ASL cannot really be written down, we videotaped it immediately. If we didn’t videotape it soon after translating, it would have been hard to interpret because each of our glosses were different.
When we got it right, we would continue on to the next scene. When we were finished we had the whole script on digital videotape. Here is a short example:
Translation Video Script Sample
ART THOU A CHURCHMAN?
Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 1-13
Viola
Save thee, friend, and thy music: dost thou live by thy tabour?
Clown
No, sir, I live by the church.
Viola
Art thou a churchman?
Clown
No such matter, sir: I do live by the church; for I do live at my house, and my house doth stand by the church.
Viola
So thou mayst say, the church stands by thy tabour, if thy tabour stand by the church.
Clown
You have said, sir. To see this age! A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit: how quickly the wrong side may be turned outward
VIDEO SCRIPT FROM TRANSLATION
DRUNKEN MAN
Act I, Scene 5, Lines 77-84
Olivia
What’s a drunken man like, fool?
Clown
Like a drowned man, a fool and a mad man: one draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.
Olivia
Go thou and seek the crowner, and let him sit o’ my coz; for he’s in the third degree of drink, he’s drowned: go, look after him.
Clown
He is but mad yet, madonna; and the fool shall look to the madman.
(View next movie to see same scene in final production.)
SCENE FROM AMARYLLIS THEATRE PRODUCTION
DRUNKEN MAN
Act I, Scene 5, Lines 77-84
Olivia
What’s a drunken man like, fool?
Clown
Like a drowned man, a fool and a mad man: one draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.
Olivia
Go thou and seek the crowner, and let him sit o’ my coz; for he’s in the third degree of drink, he’s drowned: go, look after him.
Clown
He is but mad yet, madonna; and the fool shall look to the madman.
Like all languages, ASL has artistic elements found on the stage, poetry, and storytelling. For lack of a better term, we’ll go with “stage ASL.” Stage ASL enhances the beauty of both written (Shakespearean) English and elevates the sophistication of ASL. Stage ASL has the following elements;
- Word/sign play
- Transformational signs
- Rhyme
- Cultural reference
Word/sign play refers to playing on the movement, location, and handshape of signs. Sign Play allows you to have artistic license to use sign language in different ways.
Creative and dramatic use of the open hand is found throughout the play, signifying books, masks, letters, and falling in love.
Next you will see two actors signing and playing. Watch how they change each other’s signs throughout the scene.
SIGN PLAY EXAMPLE I
FAREWELL DEAR HEART
Act 2, Scene 3, Lines 74-79
Sir Toby Belch
‘Farewell, dear heart, since I must needs be gone.’
Clown
‘His eyes do show his days are almost done.’
Malvolio
Is’t even so?
Sir Toby Belch
‘But I will never die.’
Clown
Sir Toby, there you lie.
SIGN PLAY EXAMPLE II
2,000 STRONG
Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 37-39
Fabian
This is a dear manikin to you, Sir Toby.
Sir Toby Belch
I have been dear to him, lad, some two thousand strong, or so.
Fabian
We shall have a rare letter from him: but you’ll not deliver’t?
Sir Toby Belch
Never trust me, then; and by all means stir on the youth to an answer. I think oxen and wairopes cannot hale them together.
TRANSFORMATIONAL SIGNS
Moving from one idea to another can be found in transformational signs. The same handshape must be used when changing signs/concepts. The signer begins with one sign, then alters the movement and/or location to form another sign, all in one continuous motion. Often transformational signs on the stage add flair to the scripted lines.
IF MUSIC BE THE FOOD OF LOVE
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 1-7
Duke Orsino
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
Shakespeare often uses rhyme in his plays. Rhyme in English is based on the sounds of words, but in ASL, rhyme is visual. Every sign is made of four different components.
Hand configuration: how the hand is shaped, like b, 4, or other shapes.
Location: near the head, in front of the body or to the right or left.
Movement: how the sign moves, from right to left, up or down, etc…
Orientation: which refers to the way the palm faces, up or down, towards or away from the body.
Signs like “aunt” and “uncle” have the same movement, but use different handshapes—so they have a weak rhyme. But signs like “mother” and “father” have the same handshape, palm orientation and movement—so they have a strong rhyme.
The more signs have similarity of shape, location, movement, and orientation, the stronger the rhyme. Or, if an entire story is told using one handshape, the rhyme is also strong.
Watch the next clip and try to find the ASL rhymes.
FATE SHOW THY FORCE
Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 203-206
Olivia
I do I know not what, and fear to find
Mine eye too great a flatterer for my mind.
Fate, show thy force: ourselves we do not owe;
What is decreed must be, and be this so.
Like in any culture, the native culture that translates a work of literature includes references to one’s culture. In Twelfth Night, references range from the most subtle and unconscious (waving hands to get one’s attention) to the most explicit (“music to your eyes” instead of “music to your ears”).
Watch the next clip where Robert DeMayo discusses some of the cultural challenges that came up when translating Twelfth Night into ASL.
He asked me, “How does deaf culture become incorporated with Shakespeare? How do you envision that?” We tried to establish Deaf culture in a variety of ways. For example, names. When we say “Viola,” or call “Viola,” you don’t sign the name V I O L A. We tap a person or try to get their attention somehow. But hearing culture will yell, “Viola”, where as deaf people don’t. You just say “Hey you” or tap the person. So that was one of the conflicts.
Five hundred years ago when Shakespeare was writing, there were a variety of words he would say—“My Lady” or “Liege” or “My Lord” or others. We needed to be careful to follow differences in rank or status. We need to use those names, but which ones would we use when they aren’t part of Deaf culture. That was one of the conflicts.
Similarly, or another example in the translation, the signs that we used—anything that was connected with sound—we would try translate it more visually. The sign, for example, “Hear me this.” That is what a hearing person in Shakespeare’s time would say. “Hear me this.” Deaf people don’t sign that. You would tap a person and say “Look at me.” That’s visual. So it is more of the same concept, more of a parallel, but it is a different translation. ASL is more visual.
Another example, in the opening scene at the beginning of the play, Orsino has a speech where he talks about music, love, ocean, food, etc. It’s more of a musical passage with soundwaves of music. But for the Deaf, how do you do that? We had to come up with handshapes, movements, motion that had the same rhythm with the hands, not with music or sound—we disregarded that. Using the same handshape or similar movements [shows examples] or classifiers [shows examples]. We needed to figure out a way to make Shakespeare’s signs as beautiful as his music.
H-o-m-o-n-y-m. Homonyms are pairs of words that sound the same but mean two completely different things. For example in English, hear and here sound the same, but mean different things.
Shakespeare often uses homonyms to make jokes or puns. In the very beginning of the play, he uses the two words h-a-r-t, meaning deer, and h-e-a-r-t meaning heart. Homonyms are difficult to translate into ASL because they are based on the sounds of words. The translation team had to create visual puns in ASL.
The next example shows you the Shakespearean text side-by-side with the ASL translation. Watch how the character Orsino makes a target, as if he is looking through a rifle telescope. Then see how uses a visual pun in ASL.
WILL YOU HUNT
Act 1, Scene 1, Lines 16-24
CURIO
Will you go hunt, my lord?
DUKE ORSINO
What, Curio?
CURIO
The hart.
DUKE ORSINO
Why, so I do, the noblest that I have:
O, when mine eyes did see Olivia first,
Methought she purged the air of pestilence!
That instant was I turn’d into a hart;
And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds,
E’er since pursue me.
I recently played the part of Feste the clown. In one scene, I tease and joke with Malvolio, who is in prison.
When this scene was first performed over 400 years ago, Shakespeare wrote that Malvolio should be “within.” What does “within” mean? It is a stage direction and means that Malvolio is probably hidden somewhere off the stage and can only be heard by the audience, not seen. But in ASL, the character of Malvolio needs to be seen so that people can read his signs, or read his body.
How does this work in the ASL translation? In 1914, a French director named Jacques Copeau placed Malvolio in a trap door underneath the stage. That has been a popular way of directing this scene ever since. So the ASL translation located Malvolio in a trap door under a stage where only his arms were seen.
It’s difficult to read signs that occur only on the hands and arms without the body. Remember, Malvolio’s sign name is MALVOLIO (brushing the shoulder). How can he do this if the audience cannot see his shoulder? Watch this example and see how the ASL changes because Malvolio is no longer able to use his body to communicate. His punishment becomes more strict in ASL than in English because Malvolio can no longer use his whole body to communicate.
STAGING CHALLENGE EXAMPLE
MALVOLIO IN THE DARK HOUSE
Act 4, Scene 2, lines 10-24
Clown
What, ho, I say! peace in this prison!
Malvolio
[Within] Who calls there?
Clown
Sir Topas the curate, who comes to visit Malvolio the lunatic.
Malvolio
Sir Topas, Sir Topas, good Sir Topas, go to my lady.
Clown
Out, hyperbolical fiend! how vexest thou this man!
talkest thou nothing but of ladies?
Malvolio
Sir Topas, never was man thus wronged: good Sir
Topas, do not think I am mad: they have laid me here in hideous darkness.
Clown
Fie, thou dishonest Satan! sayest thou that house is dark?
Malvolio
As hell, Sir Topas.
c-l-a-s-s-i-f-i-e-r-s. Classifiers are commonly defined as a set of signs that are made with a specific handshape and represent a noun’s shape, size, and location, as well as other defining physical characteristics. Deaf people use classifiers all the time to describe events, and show how things relate to each other. A 3-classifier can show a car, or two cars racing each other.
Classifiers are helpful in ASL translation of Shakespeare because they can be used creatively. Sometimes many different classifiers are used in the same story.
Watch these two examples. The first shows the use of one classifier throughout the entire line. In the second, see how the man in the red shirt, who is playing Maria, uses several different classifiers for the scene.
Also see section on Rhyme.
FOOLERY
Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 17-20
Viola
I saw thee late at the Count Orsino’s.
Clown
Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines every where. I would be sorry, sir, but the fool should be as oft with your master as with my mistress: I think I saw your wisdom there.
YOUR GASKINS FALL
Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 19-22
Maria
You are resolute, then?
Clown
Not so, neither; but I am resolved on two points.
Maria
That if one break, the other will hold; or, if both
break, your gaskins fall.
Shakespeare includes many songs in Twelfth Night. All of them are sung by the character named Feste.
We wanted to treat the songs differently, so we translated them into ASL poetry. Poet Peter Cook, who played the part of Feste in the production, worked on translating the songs using his specific style of poetry. Notice how Peter’s style incorporates gestures and mime, as well as signs.
Peter often shifts his body to play different characters. If you look carefully, Peter also shows different viewpoints. Sometimes he shows a close-up of a face and sometimes he shows a body falling from far away. Often he switches back and forth to create a visual rhythm. He tells a story much like a movie director would, by showing it from different perspectives, or camera angles. Sometimes he even “rewinds” and you see him doing things in reverse.
Famous poet Bernard Bragg named this type of ASL performance “Visual Vernacular.”
Watch Peter Cook perform the song “Come Away, Death” using the visual vernacular style of ASL.
COME AWAY DEATH
Act 2, Scene 5, Lines 31-46
Clown
Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O, prepare it!
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet
On my black coffin let there be strown;
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, where my bones shall be thrown:
A thousand thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O, where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there!
An idiom is an expression that does not mean what it literally says. For example, in English, to “kick the bucket” doesn’t mean to literally kick a bucket. It means “to die.”
In ASL there are many examples of this, too. “think+disappear” means “I have forgotten” or Oh-I-See can be signed as “that, that.”
When translating Shakespeare there are many English idioms that were common to people of Shakespeare’s time that English-speaking people don’t use today. It becomes, therefore, important to look up the definitions of words or phrases that Shakespeare uses.
Read the scene from Act I, Scene III of Twelfth Night. The highlighted words are idioms or words common in Shakespeare’s time that are not in use today. Click on the highlighted words and an ASL definition will appear.
BUTTERY BAR
Act I, Scene III, lines 52-64
Sir Andrew
Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand?
Maria
Sir, I have not you by the hand.
Sir Andrew
Marry, but you shall have; and here’s my hand.
Maria
Now, sir, ‘thought is free:’ I pray you, bring your hand to the buttery-bar and let it drink.
Sir Andrew
Wherefore, sweet-heart? What’s your metaphor?
Maria
It’s dry, sir.
Sir Andrew
Why, I think so: I am not such an ass but I can
keep my hand dry. But what’s your jest?
Maria
A dry jest, sir.
Sir Andrew
Are you full of them?
Maria
Ay, sir, I have them at my fingers’ ends: marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren.