When the semester began, I had several ideas that I wanted to pursue for my capstone project. I knew I wanted to include research on theatre, storytelling, narrative, identity, Deaf culture, American Sign Language, and the list could go on. After creating my syllabus, I realized that an in-depth look at each of these components would be difficult. But it is possible to survey a selection of research from each of these fields and find my own connections.

My syllabus started as a reading list accompanied by various questions about each topic. While I’m still searching for answers to many of these questions, the readings have changed slightly and focus has shifted as well. As I read the selections I choose in August, I’m analyzing these documents in terms of creating my final project of a play. Rather than going through these readings and just interpreting them, I’m also looking for ways to use the methods presented in my own work. Hopefully, I will complete all of the readings on original syllabus. Some new works have made their way in throughout the past few weeks. But I plan to condense some of the skipped reading into the upcoming weeks, in order to utilize them in my project.

I’m really excited that my topic proposal has been able to incorporate most, if not all, of the ideas I had at the beginning of the semester. Taking a manageable subset of information from each of the topics will allow me to include them as elements of my final project. Once I line up willing interviewees for the playwriting process, I think I will be on track to complete this project. It’s been quite a ride so far and I can’t wait to see the final product!