VX Labs: Creating A Playscript in BSL – Artists Interview: Rinkoo Barpaga
The VX Labs – Creating A Playscript in BSL part of our VX Labs programme, explored what it means to create a playscript conceived entirely in British Sign Language.
Delivered in partnership with and hosted at Sheffield Theatres.
At the end of the Lab, participating Deaf artist, Rinkoo Barbaga, shared this thoughts with us and his answer to the key question: is it possible to write a script in BSL?
Watch the video of the interview below (with subtitles). Scroll down for the BSL to English translation.
My name is Rinkoo Barpaga and this is my sign name. I’m a performer. Plus I do a variety of other artistic work.
1. What did you want to explore in this Lab?
The original plan was to work out how we can record our original sign language, BSL, on documents. Trying to avoid any reliance on English. We wanted to focus on sign language only. This is something that was new to us, creating ways to translate from the original sign language version to perform it in BSL. This was an interesting project.
2. What is your big take away from the week?
My key takeaway this week has been learning about subtext on a deeper level. It’s interesting. An example of this is when I say something, it can have a double or underlying meaning, which can be tricky. A lot of our discussions have been about this. This is something that’s been on my mind. Really, it’s up to the audience when they watch the performance, to identify whether there’s a double meaning or inference. This has been a new way of working for me this week.
3. Was there anything that surprised you?
One thing that has surprised me this week is that I’ve learned that hundreds and hundreds of years ago, when there were no cameras or videos. Back in the day some people drew pictures. But in the drawings of sign language, they only drew the hands. Back then a lot of people only drew the box around the hands. And mostly the alphabet, basic – like A, B and C, fingerspelling. But I was interested to know about the emotional expressions, not only fingerspelling, but the story. If you focus only on the hands, you’re not looking at the body language or the facial expressions. It’s really important for the deaf community to use body language with signing and facial expressions. It’s really important that we tie them together. Back in the day, a lot of the drawings were drawn by hearing people who were naive about deaf people and I was interested in that.
4. How has the Lab changed the way you think about creating a script in BSL?
What’s important is that first, we see our sign language on the document and as the basis for our story. The most important thing is to be able to create in BSL on the document which we can then further develop. I’m not sure about how we would work with emotions and different regional signs. This is something that we need to delve into further to understand how it can work.
5. What’s the one thing you would ask theatres to change to support Deaf playwrights?
We need theatre directors to accept that we want BSL in our scripts. Maybe they prefer having English scripts, but why isn’t it possible or acceptable to have BSL scripts too? You can have both. I need the hearing directors to be more aware, more open-minded. They need to be open minded and think about how they choose a writer based on their signing. With all the differences and regional variations, gender differences, so much variation. This is something that directors need to investigate and understand closely. So they can understand the rich textures and qualities of BSL that is needed when choosing scripts. This is why it’s important to have BSL scripts as well as English working from both.
Video interview credits:
Storytelling visuals: Beka Haytch
Video editing and photgraphy: Charlie Swinbourne
VX Labs is a cutting-edge three-year research programme by Vital Xposure, supported through Arts Council England, the programme is delivered in partnership with the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama as well as regional theatres.
