Deaf Broadway Presents ASL Production Of VIOLET At Lincoln Center

Deaf Broadway presented Violet at Lincoln Center as part of composer Jeanine Tesori’s Visionary Artist year, featuring an all-Deaf, all-ASL cast. See photos of the performance.

The musical, with music by Jeanine Tesori and book and lyrics by Brian Crawley, was originally workshopped at Lincoln Center Theater in 1995. The presentation marked a return of the work to the venue in a new format.

Deaf Broadway’s approach centers on fully ASL-performed productions, with each actor signing their own role. Unlike traditional performances with interpreters, this method provides character-specific signing, allowing Deaf and ASL audiences to experience the full narrative through visual language.

The production also incorporated accessibility-focused technology, including dynamic captioning with variations in font, color, and timing aligned to the music, as well as an iMAG system that projected close-up views of performers’ signing onto screens in the theater.

The cast featured Erin Rosenfeld as Violet, Alona Jane Robbins as Young Vi, Tyrone Giordano as Father, Chris Corrigan as Monty, Rayly Aquino as Flick, and an ensemble including Nikolya Sereda, Nkiruka Akunwafor, Mervin Primeaux-O’Bryant, Samuel Langshteyn, Brett Shaffer, and Frank L. Dattolo.

The creative team included director Anne Tomasetti, who also served as co-director of artistic sign language alongside Joshua Castille. Additional credits included dynamic captioning design by B. Stewart Caswell, lighting design by Annie Wiegand, dramaturgy by Jackson Torii Bart, and production management by Garrett Zuercher, who also serves as Artistic Director of Deaf Broadway.

Photo Credit: Lawrence Sumulong, Lincoln Center