Dawn Jani Birley is the visionary founder of 1S1 Theatre...
...and she is on a mission to create theatre at the intersections of the Deaf and hearing worlds, always from a Deaf-led perspective. 1S1 was established with the goal of bringing balance in how to tell a story and whose stories are told. To create theatre for a hearing audience is one thing, to design theatre for a Deaf audience is another, but to put both together is where the excitement is. 1S1 aims to tell a story from a Deaf-led perspective so we are constantly creating new theatrical languages.
Dawn was born to a third-generation Deaf family in Saskatchewan and identifies herself as culturally and linguistically Deaf. She is a multi-award winning professional Deaf actor with more than 15 years of experience working all over the world. Holding a Master of Arts degree in Physical Theatre from London, it is her desire to continue creating work that challenges people’s perception of Deafness as well as rebutting ideologies and myths surrounding Deafness. Provoking the hearing world is one of the ways to push for positive changes for us as a society.
1S1 Theatre is created in collaboration with Why Not Theatre.
Her performance of Ithaka is part of the permanent installation at Luce LeBlanc Theatre Main Stage https://www.luceourlight.org/luce-leblanc-theatre.
More about Dawn Jani Birley:
https://www.instagram.com/dajabi/
About 1S1 Theatre: https://whynot.theatre/work/1s1/ https://www.instagram.com/1s1theatre/?hl=en
About her work on "I am Puff" https://whynot.theatre/work/puff/
Puff Interactive APP
Want to learn ASL with Puff? The app is available for purchase on the Apple Store for iPad only. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/puff-and-the-magic-binoculars/id1605192743
UPDATE ON PUFF 8/17/22: Puff was added to the VL2 storybook apps website today: https://vl2storybookapps.com/puff-and-the-magic-binoculars
