A Plano Theater Will Perform It's a Wonderful Life for Deaf Audiences

At The Shops at Willow Bend in Plano, holiday activity has dwindled in the age of online shopping. But on the mall’s second floor near Dillard's, a hidden gem of a theater bustles with activity.

On a Sunday evening just days before the show’s premiere, we pay a visit to the North Texas Performing Arts Theater, where actors and stage crew members are frantically getting ready for NTPA Deaf Theatre’s production of It’s A Wonderful Life. This production will feature a cast and crew who are primarily deaf and hard of hearing. Much of the communication during rehearsal takes place through American Sign Language, and the excitement is visible among the cast and crew.

NTPA Deaf Theatre launched in summer of 2022, with the mission to provide performing arts opportunities for deaf and hard of hearing youth, and to produce shows accessible for performers and audience members of all abilities.

“Our first step was to create a groundswell of support in the community,” says Darrell Rodenbaugh, chief executive officer of North Texas Performing Arts. “We recruited a board of directors, and in order to be on our board, you have to either be deaf or have a deaf member in your family. It's really that body within our structure that guides the strategy, the programming, and everything there is about the deaf theater.”

Directing It’s A Wonderful Life is Daymond Sands, who will be guiding a cast of 22 actors in NTPA Deaf Theatre’s first full-length production.

This is a moment Sands has always dreamed of. He fell in love with performing arts as a choir and theater student at Stonewall Jackson Elementary, which has since been renamed Mockingbird Elementary School. He didn’t always imagine a career in the arts would be possible because of his deafness.

But he maintained his determination after discovering a movie that would quickly change his life.

“Children of a Lesser God has Marlee Matlin in it,” says Sands. “And she's an actress, and she's deaf, and she's successful. I saw that within myself and that I had that same potential.”

Both Rodenbaugh and Sands promise that NTPA Deaf Theatre’s production of It’s A Wonderful Life, the Dickens-inspired story of George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart in the classic holiday film, will be a “sign-heavy” show.

“This is a very unique experience,” says Sands. “Because we have voice actors, and they'll be on the stage with the deaf actors. And we're setting up captioning. Not only that, there's just so much variety within the actors on the stage. We have children, we have adults — there was a wide net that was cast for this crew, and it's just really wonderful to see a different range of people, and all of these different disabilities put on display.”

Much of the dialogue takes place through signing, and the actors noticeably add emphasis and demonstrate the nuance of emotion through movement. One actress, Jessica Bowen, will play multiple characters in the production.

For years, Bowen has advocated for accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing people in the realm of performing arts, and in the days leading up to the show, she is elated over the support the production has received thus far.

“We didn't have this while I was growing up,” Bowen says. “[It’s been exciting] being involved with the deaf community and showing the hearing community that we can do the same things they can, and sell out tickets. We have people coming in from all over Texas, and even from other states.”

It’s A Wonderful Life kicks off at the North Texas Performing Arts Theatre (6121 W. Park Blvd., Plano) at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 17; on Saturday, Nov. 18, there's a 2 p.m. matinee show and a 7 p.m. evening show; the finale is at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 19.