Deaf West Theatre and Pace University’s Sands College of Performing Arts are launching a groundbreaking artist-in-residence program that aims to reshape how musical theater education approaches access and inclusion. Beginning this fall in New York City, the collaboration brings together one of the nation’s most influential bilingual theater companies with a leading performing arts institution to build a more accessible future for musical training in American Sign Language.
At the heart of the residency is the ASL Music Theory Lexicon Project, a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to create a comprehensive American Sign Language vocabulary for music theory. Core musical concepts such as rhythm, pitch, harmony, and notation have long lacked standardized visual language, creating barriers for deaf and hard-of-hearing students pursuing musical theater. This multi-phase project, led by Deaf West Theatre, addresses that gap directly, beginning with Phase I during the fall semester alongside Sands College musical theater BFA students and continuing through the 2025–2026 academic year.
The residency emerged from a pivotal moment at Pace University, which recently admitted a deaf student into its musical theater BFA program for the first time. That milestone highlighted the urgent need to ensure equitable access to musical instruction that hearing students routinely receive. Rather than treating access as an accommodation, the partnership positions it as a creative engine that expands artistic possibility for everyone involved.
Through immersive classes and workshops, Pace students will engage deeply with Deaf West’s inclusive performance practices, learning how bilingual ASL and English storytelling operates from rehearsal to performance. The program introduces students to Deaf West’s artistic methodology, history, and industry impact, emphasizing collaboration between deaf and hearing artists as a foundation for innovation.
A significant hands-on component includes musical staging and choreography guided by acclaimed choreographer Jennifer Weber, whose work spans Broadway and Deaf West productions, alongside ASL choreographer Daniela Maucere. Students will explore how movement, rhythm, and visual language intersect, learning to adapt choreography to support clarity, expression, and narrative accessibility within a bilingual rehearsal environment.
The residency is supported by an endowed fund at the Sands College of Performing Arts that brings visiting artists to campus each semester, offering students real-world creative collaboration. Leadership for the ASL Music Theory Lexicon Project includes deaf and hearing subject matter experts working together to ensure both linguistic accuracy and musical integrity.
By the conclusion of the residency, students will leave with practical tools for inclusive theater-making, a deeper understanding of deaf culture within the performing arts, and a redefined view of access as an essential part of creative excellence. Together, Deaf West Theatre and Pace University are setting a new standard for how musical theater education can evolve through equity, collaboration, and imagination.