Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 5, No. 0515. Wednesday, 8 June 1994. From: Steve Urkowitz <SURCC@CUNYVM> Date: Wednesday, 08 Jun 94 07:25:44 EDT Subject: 5.0506 Re: Signed Shakespeare Comment: Re: SHK 5.0506 Re: Signed Shakespeare Two 17th century texts might be interesting to a student of signed Shakespeare, Bulwer's CHIROLOGIA and CHIRONOMIA. Briefly described by Bertram Joseph in ELIZABETHAN ACTING, Bulwer went out into the streets with an accompanying artist to draw images of how people "spoke" or augmented speech with hand gestures. The illustrations offer delicious reminders of the possibilities of extra-lingual language. For each of his drawings (several hundred, I recall), Bulwer has a Latin title. I've had most of these translated for me, but it is fun to try to interpret the gesture without knowing the ascribed meaning. Ah, kinesthetics! Also, there is a group that has been working at the Joseph Papp NY Shakespeare Festival bringing three or four signers to a few performances at the Delacort Theatre. At one ill-directed production, the physically active signers were much more interesting to watch than the players onstage. (The signers were set off in the audience close to one section reserved for the deaf.) Good luck on your gathering of signs. Sincerely, Steve Urkowitz