PLAY SUMMARY
The CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD was performed 8 times in November 1997 at
the West T. Hill Community Theatre in Danville, Kentucky. It was the very first time
that they ever had a play about the Deaf with Deaf actors. This was the first mainstreamed
play to ever occur at the Community Theatre in Danville. A tremendous impact was felt when the audience was
filled with a mix of deaf and hearing people enjoying the play!
THE CHARACTERS
James Leeds--thirty-ish. A speech teacher at a State School for the Deaf.
Sarah Norman--mid-twenties. Deaf from Birth.
Orin Dennis--in his twenties. Has some residual hearing; a lip reader.
Mrs. Norman--Sarah's mother.
Mr. Franklin--anywhere from his early thirties to his mid-forties. The Supervising Teacher at the Deaf School.
Lydia--in her late teens. Has some residual hearing; a lip reader.
Edna Klein--thirty to forty. A lawyer.
**Below is a partial summary from the script book**
"CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD"
by Mark Medoff (Dramatists Play Service, Inc.)
The play takes place in the mind of James Leeds. Throughout the
events, characters step from his memory for anything from a full scene
to several lines.
The stage is bare, holding only a few benches and a blackboard and
permitting characters to appear and disappear easily.
As to the matter of Signed English. When James is speaking to
Sarah, who is deaf and does not lip read, he signs what he says to her
unless otherwise noted. When speaking to Orin and Lydia, who both lip
read, he merely speaks directly into their faces and enucuiates with some
care.
Sarah speaks aloud only at the end of the play. Otherwise the notion
of speech where she is concerned means strictly the use of Signed
English or American Sign Language (ASL). The difference between
ASL and Signed English basically is that the former is far more
conceptual and pictorial than grammatical, Signed English employing a
word-by-word technique.
