Julianne Gold-Brunson

Davidson Community Players’ current production of “Children of a Lesser God” has brought a little bit of Broadway to Davidson, in the person of Julianne Gold-Brunson. Ms. Gold-Brunson originated the supporting role of Lydia on Broadway in 1980, and has been helping out as a consultant on the Davidson production.

“Children of a Lesser God” ran for more than two years on Broadway, and won a Tony Award for Best Play. Ms. Gold-Bruson later traveled throughout Europe reprising the role.

“Children of a Lesser God” runs through March 11 at Armour Street Theater in Davidson. See ticket info below.

Ms. Gold-Brunson, who has been deaf since early childhood, shares her insight into the script and the world of the hearing- impaired as the assistant director to Sam Parker and as a production consultant on the show.

Mike Corrigan and Rachel Nicol star in Davidson Community Players' "Children of a Lesser God," through March 11 at Armour Street Theater. (Davidson Community Players photo)

An accomplished actress and performer, she received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and is currently employed with RHA in Charlotte as a therapist and advocate for individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, late-deafened, and deaf-blind.

The Tony Award-winning play examines love, communication, and humanity through the relationship of a hearing man and a deaf woman. It is moving, witty, and very insightful. The play was written in 1979 when deafness was often associated with mental illness and before the Americans with Disabilities Act ensured that the deaf, as well as others with disabilities, would have equal access to employment, accommodations, and transportation.

“This show offers a vivid reminder that the deaf and hearing worlds are not the same. There is a divide that can only be bridged when the hearing and the deaf acknowledge that each group has its own valuable culture and that sound does not equate to superiority,” Ms. Gold-Brunson said.

“The play is set in a time when deafness was often mistaken for mental retardation. To the contrary, deaf people can have wonderful lives and careers. Do not be afraid of deafness as it is not a void or emptiness,” she said.

Like the play’s main character, Ms. Gold-Brunson rejects any hint of sympathy towards her or members of the deaf community. “Deafness is not death,” she notes. “The lives of the deaf are simply enriched in other ways though their heightened senses. I wouldn’t live any other way.”

The title of the play suggests the prejudice inflicted upon deaf people – that they are to be pitied because they have been deprived of sound and speech; they were made in the image of some lesser divinity than the one that made the hearing world. The main characters – one who is deaf and one who is not – eventually reject this prejudice and try to see each other as they really are, without imposing their own expectations or prejudices.

WANT TO GO?

Davidson Community Players presents Children of a Lesser God which runs through March 11 at the Armour Street Theatre in Davidson. Tickets are available by calling 704-892-7953 or at www.davidsoncommunityplayers.org.