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Mountain Play signer brings together deaf and hearing worlds - Marin Independent Journal
Pat Sirianni was born hard of hearing. She went to "deaf school" through eighth grade, but after transferring to a mainstream high school, she set her life's goal - to bring the deaf world and the hearing world together.
In the years since - she is now 63 - she has made significant strides in that direction. For 23 years she has been teaching American sign language at College of Marin - mostly to hearing people.
For four years before that, she worked at a resource center for the deaf set up on the college campus. Among her outreach activities, "I would put on social events to bring people together."
She holds monthly get-togethers at the Tea Pod Organic Tea Bar in San Anselmo, so deaf people and signing students can learn from each other.
She loves it when students begin to comprehend the "deaf culture." She loves watching them conquer sign language, which she sees as a combination of hand positions and body language. In speech, she points out, tone
of voice conveys emotion. In sign language, it's usually facial expression. "We all become actors," she said.
Sirianni will demonstrate her skills as a signer - and actor - again this spring during three performances of Marin's famous Mountain Play, from May 24 to June 21 in the outdoor theater on Mount Tamalpais. She will sign "Man Of La Mancha," which she said is the most difficult of the 29 Mountain Plays she has signed, from 1980 ("Carnival") to the present.
In signing the play "I get to change from emotion to emotion," she said. "I don't translate word-for-word, but try to paint a picture of what's happening onstage."
"Man of La Mancha," based on Cervantes' tales of Don Quixote, is "a very complicated story," she said. "It's a real challenge."
At plays, she stands to the left of the stage, and deaf people are usually seated near her toward the front. But, she said, "I sign big, You can see me from the back of the theater."
She wears earphones so she can "hear" the play without looking at it.
Sirianni also teaches at the Stuart Hall School for Boys in San Francisco, interprets at the annual Italian Street Fair in San Rafael and for Kids Day at Marin County Fair.
A vivacious, dark-haired woman with a ready smile, Sirianni seems to hear effortlessly, thanks to two hearing aids and the ability to read lips, a skill she acquired long ago.
As a baby, she said, "I slept through everything. My mother thought she had an angel."
When she reached kindergarten age, doctors in her home town of Pittsburgh, advised that she be enrolled at De Paul School for the Deaf, where she stayed for nine years. There she acquired hearing aids (very bulky in those days) and learned how to lip-read in earnest.
When she enrolled in public high school, "it was hard being different, having to sit in the front row of every class. I decided right then I would do something to build a bridge between hearing people and the deaf."
The expectation in her family was that she would be so hampered in life by her handicap that she should "stay home and take care of my parents."
Sirianni rebelled. At age 22, "I broke my mother's heart and moved to California."
She settled to Marin, married and had a daughter, Vember Conner, now 35 and working for a software company in San Francisco.
Eventually she found her way to COM. She took a class from Milly Murrin, the college's ASL teacher, which introduced her to Marin's deaf community. Ultimately, she succeeded Murrin as the ASL teacher.
Her classes have always been a mixture of people who are newly deaf, or who have family members who are deaf, or people who just want to learn a new language. Ninety-five percent of her students are hearing people, Sirianni said.
ASL became part of the college's modern languages department in 2004, and many students take ASL to fulfill their language requirement. According to department chair Radica Ostojic-Portello, "we did a survey of high school students in 2003, asking what languages they would most like to take, and the most popular were Chinese and ASL."
Ostojic-Portello said Sirianni's classes are "always very popular, drawing as many as 38 students each time."
Sirianni said there is a great need for accomplished signers. "Deaf people need interpreters when they go to the doctor, they need signers when they go to a show or a play, More and more signers are seen on TV."
A "handful" of her students have been certified as sign language interpreters, she said.
"It is a beautiful language," one that the deaf and the hearing can share," she said. "When the students come to me, they don't know anything. By the time they have finished the second semester, they're talking back and forth.
"The connection is wonderful. I love bringing people together. It means the whole world to me."
IF YOU GO
- What: "Man of La Mancha," the 29th Mountain Play
- Where: Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, Mount Tamalpais
- When: 1 p.m. May 24 and 31, June 7, 13, 14 and 21
- Tickets: $25 to $40; discount if purchased online
- Information: 383-1100; Mountain Play
Contact Beth Ashley via e-mail at bashley@marinij.com
Pat Sirianni was born hard of hearing. She went to "deaf school" through eighth grade, but after transferring to a mainstream high school, she set her life's goal - to bring the deaf world and the hearing world together.
In the years since - she is now 63 - she has made significant strides in that direction. For 23 years she has been teaching American sign language at College of Marin - mostly to hearing people.
For four years before that, she worked at a resource center for the deaf set up on the college campus. Among her outreach activities, "I would put on social events to bring people together."
She holds monthly get-togethers at the Tea Pod Organic Tea Bar in San Anselmo, so deaf people and signing students can learn from each other.
She loves it when students begin to comprehend the "deaf culture." She loves watching them conquer sign language, which she sees as a combination of hand positions and body language. In speech, she points out, tone
of voice conveys emotion. In sign language, it's usually facial expression. "We all become actors," she said.
Sirianni will demonstrate her skills as a signer - and actor - again this spring during three performances of Marin's famous Mountain Play, from May 24 to June 21 in the outdoor theater on Mount Tamalpais. She will sign "Man Of La Mancha," which she said is the most difficult of the 29 Mountain Plays she has signed, from 1980 ("Carnival") to the present.
In signing the play "I get to change from emotion to emotion," she said. "I don't translate word-for-word, but try to paint a picture of what's happening onstage."
"Man of La Mancha," based on Cervantes' tales of Don Quixote, is "a very complicated story," she said. "It's a real challenge."
At plays, she stands to the left of the stage, and deaf people are usually seated near her toward the front. But, she said, "I sign big, You can see me from the back of the theater."
She wears earphones so she can "hear" the play without looking at it.
Sirianni also teaches at the Stuart Hall School for Boys in San Francisco, interprets at the annual Italian Street Fair in San Rafael and for Kids Day at Marin County Fair.
A vivacious, dark-haired woman with a ready smile, Sirianni seems to hear effortlessly, thanks to two hearing aids and the ability to read lips, a skill she acquired long ago.
As a baby, she said, "I slept through everything. My mother thought she had an angel."
When she reached kindergarten age, doctors in her home town of Pittsburgh, advised that she be enrolled at De Paul School for the Deaf, where she stayed for nine years. There she acquired hearing aids (very bulky in those days) and learned how to lip-read in earnest.
When she enrolled in public high school, "it was hard being different, having to sit in the front row of every class. I decided right then I would do something to build a bridge between hearing people and the deaf."
The expectation in her family was that she would be so hampered in life by her handicap that she should "stay home and take care of my parents."
Sirianni rebelled. At age 22, "I broke my mother's heart and moved to California."
She settled to Marin, married and had a daughter, Vember Conner, now 35 and working for a software company in San Francisco.
Eventually she found her way to COM. She took a class from Milly Murrin, the college's ASL teacher, which introduced her to Marin's deaf community. Ultimately, she succeeded Murrin as the ASL teacher.
Her classes have always been a mixture of people who are newly deaf, or who have family members who are deaf, or people who just want to learn a new language. Ninety-five percent of her students are hearing people, Sirianni said.
ASL became part of the college's modern languages department in 2004, and many students take ASL to fulfill their language requirement. According to department chair Radica Ostojic-Portello, "we did a survey of high school students in 2003, asking what languages they would most like to take, and the most popular were Chinese and ASL."
Ostojic-Portello said Sirianni's classes are "always very popular, drawing as many as 38 students each time."
Sirianni said there is a great need for accomplished signers. "Deaf people need interpreters when they go to the doctor, they need signers when they go to a show or a play, More and more signers are seen on TV."
A "handful" of her students have been certified as sign language interpreters, she said.
"It is a beautiful language," one that the deaf and the hearing can share," she said. "When the students come to me, they don't know anything. By the time they have finished the second semester, they're talking back and forth.
"The connection is wonderful. I love bringing people together. It means the whole world to me."
IF YOU GO
- What: "Man of La Mancha," the 29th Mountain Play
- Where: Cushing Memorial Amphitheatre, Mount Tamalpais
- When: 1 p.m. May 24 and 31, June 7, 13, 14 and 21
- Tickets: $25 to $40; discount if purchased online
- Information: 383-1100; Mountain Play
Contact Beth Ashley via e-mail at bashley@marinij.com
