Toward a crowdsourced model for ASL translations of Shakespeare's works

Includes bibliographical references (pages 86-90)Most theatre incorporating American Sign Language (ASL) uses written source\ud texts based in English, requiring a translation process. These translations are often a\ud result of collaborations that may involve any combination of actors, interpreters, sign\ud coaches, and/or Sign Masters. The translation process must contend with the time and\ud resource constraints that limit the pursuit of an ideal translation, and the complexities of\ud directorial/creative decisions and staging that influence the end-translation. There are few\ud surviving records of these translations, usually found in archived videos of performances,\ud or written notes or glosses in English, and they are difficult to obtain. To date, there have\ud been only a handful of major efforts at translating Shakespeare???s works, and only one\ud (Amaryllis Theatre???s Twelfth Night) has made its translation readily accessible via a DVD\ud of the performance. This thesis attempts to address the problem of lack of translation\ud material by proposing an internet-based crowdsourcing model to create and allow for a\ud multiplicity of and successive generations of ASL translations of Shakespeare???s plays to\ud exist