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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/w...,0,7755179.story?coll=ny-region-apconnecticut
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A federal grant that helped sustain the National Theatre of the Deaf for almost four decades has been eliminated, leaving the unique West Hartford group struggling to survive.
The group, whose members perform in spoken English and American Sign Language, lost $680,000 last year when the U.S. Department of Education eliminated a federal grant.
Organizers said this week that they have cut back considerably, ending theater performances for adults and focusing the theater's remaining $300,000 annual budget on a troupe that performs in schools and cultural organizations.
"We have had a struggle to continue as a viable organization," Harvey J. Corsons, head of the theater group's board of directors, told The Hartford Courant. "We are trying to survive."
Theater officials are unsure why the grant was not renewed, other than being told that the Department of Education would no longer be supporting deaf cultural programs.
They are turning to foundations and corporations for financial help. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., also pledged this week to try to help the group regain its funding.
The National Theatre of the Deaf began in 1967 with money from the federal grant program. It is the nation's oldest continually producing and touring professional deaf theater company.
Since its founding, theater members have performed on 31 international tours, 62 national tours and visited all 50 states. It won a Tony Award for theatrical excellence in 1977.
www.ntd.org
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A federal grant that helped sustain the National Theatre of the Deaf for almost four decades has been eliminated, leaving the unique West Hartford group struggling to survive.
The group, whose members perform in spoken English and American Sign Language, lost $680,000 last year when the U.S. Department of Education eliminated a federal grant.
Organizers said this week that they have cut back considerably, ending theater performances for adults and focusing the theater's remaining $300,000 annual budget on a troupe that performs in schools and cultural organizations.
"We have had a struggle to continue as a viable organization," Harvey J. Corsons, head of the theater group's board of directors, told The Hartford Courant. "We are trying to survive."
Theater officials are unsure why the grant was not renewed, other than being told that the Department of Education would no longer be supporting deaf cultural programs.
They are turning to foundations and corporations for financial help. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., also pledged this week to try to help the group regain its funding.
The National Theatre of the Deaf began in 1967 with money from the federal grant program. It is the nation's oldest continually producing and touring professional deaf theater company.
Since its founding, theater members have performed on 31 international tours, 62 national tours and visited all 50 states. It won a Tony Award for theatrical excellence in 1977.
www.ntd.org