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On September 15, Garrett was thrilled and honored to direct and produce Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's INTO THE WOODS at Lincoln Center as Deaf Broadway's inaugural live performance. Selections from the first act were brought to vivid life in American Sign Language by 10 Deaf actors on the majestic Damrosch Park stage to headline the inaugural Restart Stages festival.
The weather was gorgeous, the audience was packed, and it was a tremendous success. Our goal is to eventually mount an ASL production of the entire show. "I wish..." For an article about the show and Deaf Broadway by the Hollywood Reporter, click here or the icon below right. (Photographs right courtesy of Conrado Johns Photography.) |
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Postproduction is nearing completion for Garrett's new short film, Flirting, with Possibilities, and we are currently applying to film festivals worldwide for 2022.
The trailer for the film can be seen to the left. |
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Garrett recently joined the New Play Exchange family. Check out his personal profile on the website HERE and read more about the many different plays he has written.
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Garrett's new full-length play, Alcestis 2020, which takes a look at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on a modern family from rural Georgia and the deeply-buried secrets that are finally brought to the surface, was recognized with the 2021 Zarkower Award from Hunter College's Theatre Department for exemplary achievement by a first-year MFA student.
In addition, it was recently workshopped under the direction of Mike Donahue and performed by a cast that included Rodney Hicks (original cast of RENT) and Christopher Hanke (TV's The Resident) as a mixed-race gay couple raising an adopted son. |
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Recently, Garrett was interviewed about Deaf Broadway for an article in the New York Times about the current ASL renaissance in the performative arts along with such prominent Deaf artists as Nyle DiMarco, Christine Sun Kim, Lauren Ridloff, Jeremy Lee Sanchez, and Millicent Simmonds.
The article can be accessed by clicking HERE. |
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This spring, Garrett's play HARD PLACES won the prestigious Jean Kennedy Smith playwriting award from The Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival, his second time winning the prize after his QUID PRO QUO in 2004.
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With his creative partner, Jared Johnston, Garrett participated in the 2021 Easterseals Disability Film Challenge: Home Edition 2.0, creating a short film from scratch in a matter of days.
The result was "The Chase," a film about a hearing man making a documentary about a Deaf filmmaker, who then turns the focus on himself and ends up analyzing his own privilege. Starring Garrett and Jared along with James Caverly and Jere Hunt, he film will be available for streaming starting this weekend. |
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On March 2, Garrett moderated a virtual Zoom conversation between Nyle DiMarco and Lauren Ridloff about bridging the Deaf and hearing artistic worlds for the Hunter@Home series by Hunter College.
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A scene from Garrett's new play, HARD PLACES, was chosen to be featured as part of Roundabout Theatre Company's REVERB Festival, featuring actors Joshua Castille, Stewart Caswell, and Kimberly Hale. During the process, he was mentored by DJ Kurs, artistic director of Deaf West Theatre.
The performance itself was recorded and is currently streaming online for public viewing through May. You can see it to the right. |
#ReverbFest2021 #disabledartists #disabilityartistry #ReverbRepresent #ReverbVoices #ReverbRoundabout #representationmatters #devisedtheatre #creativeconfidence
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Garrett is currently in the final year of the MFA playwriting program at Hunter College, a member of the class of 2022. During his first semester in fall of 2020, he wrote four original plays that were featured in a public Zoom reading series during January 2021.
Garrett's primary goal as a playwright is to create more visibility, awareness, and opportunities for Deaf theatrical artists. For more information about these plays, please contact Garrett via the link in the menu at the top of this page. |
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The COVID-19 quarantine is certainly a complicated time for everyone, but that didn't stop Garrett from founding a new collective - Deaf Broadway - dedicated to utilizing Deaf talent to provide visual language access to popular and beloved Broadway productions. Its explosive success is keeping Garrett quite busy and he looks forward to seeing what the future has in store for this exciting new form of access created by the Deaf, for the Deaf.
For more information, please visit the website. You can also check out our production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show on YouTube HERE (please note that, for optimal viewing, you should watch it side by side with the original film on another device). |
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Recently, Garrett was interviewed about Deaf Broadway by Michael Kushner for his show, My Broadway Memory, on the Broadcast Podcast Network. You can watch it here:
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Several other articles about Deaf Broadway, including one by the Daily Beast, can be seen on the Deaf Broadway landing page HERE.
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In 2020, Garrett and his creative partner Jared Johnston won the very first KissFist 72-Hour Film Challenge by making a short film in one weekend, start to finish, entirely in American Sign Language (ASL).
Seen to the left, the film itself - based on the given prompts and required criteria - was written by Garrett in one hour on Friday night, filmed over a few hours on Saturday by Jared, and completed in post-production on Sunday. It was featured as part of the Seattle Deaf Film Festival. |
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Garrett's movie Flirting, with Possibilities is wrapping up post-production for release next year. In addition to writing and directing the film, he stars alongside Broadway talent such as Jason Tam (A Chorus Line, If/Then), Tom Berklund (A Chorus Line, The Addams Family, Gary), Andrew Keenan-Bolger (Beauty & the Beast, Mary Poppins, Tuck Everlasting) and Jared Johnston (RENT). For the film, a brand new version of the Hammerstein and Kern classic "The Song is You" was recorded exclusively for the film, specially arranged by Adam Wachter (Disney+ Encores) as a duet for Jason and Tom. In addition to producing this song, Adam will be composing an original score for the film.
Flirting, with Possibilities film is the inaugural production for Garrett's new company, Lake Five Productions LLC. |
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In autumn of 2015, Garrett had planned to direct A. R. Gurney's SYLVIA for New York Deaf Theatre when - literally hours before the auditions - the Broadway production was announced, which meant that the rights vanished before their eyes.
Four years later, Garrett's original vision finally bore fruit and he was thrilled and honored to bring the work to life with an tremendous cast including the astounding Amelia Hensley (Deaf West's Spring Awakening on Broadway). What made it even more meaningful was the fact that, four years ago, Garrett didn't have a dog. This time around, he did and she became the poster girl. That's his Page to the left, beautifully photographed by Jon Taylor. |
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Garrett's one-act play, A BAG OF SAND AT APPLEBEE'S, was chosen to be part of Phamaly Theatre Company's Come to Your Senses one-act play festival in Denver, Colorado from November 1-10, 2019.
Fortunately, he was able to make it out to see the show - which was fantastic, in case you were wondering - and catch up with many of his dear friends from CABARET. |
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And that's not all! Stay tuned for updates!