The emotional climax of "A Strange Loop," now playing through August. 10 Atlas Performing Arts Center, unfolds in a fierce and vulnerabe silence. Usher, the narrator (played by Gabriel Silva), is confronting his father (Wade Green) about a lifelong pileup of misunderstandings and resentments. Audience members can either read the heated dialogue in captions projected on the set or, if they understand American Sign Language, watch the actors' impassioned geatures.

 A new production at Atlas Performing Arts Center, done as a collaboration between Visionaries of the Creative Arts and Deaf Austin Theatre, adds a further twist to this already twisty play by casting a mix of deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing performers and filtering the whole thing through an accessible lens. The result is a triumph that not only opens up musical theater to audiences who might not otherwise get to enjoy it fully, but enhances and deepens the meaning of the original work. 

The opening number of Michael R. Jackson’s musical A Strange Loop has always plunged me into a dizzying mirror world: I watch cruel reflections of myself as a queer man of color in the theater, and then the people staring back at me transform wildly. The musical opens with Usher, who introduces himself as a fat gay Black man attempting to write a “BIG BLACK AND QUEER-ASS / AMERICAN BROADWAY SHOW.” An all-Black, six-person chorus of Thoughts stands at his side, manifestations of Usher’s aching psyche. In one song, we realize Usher’s musical-in-progress is actually the very show we’re watching. And because Jackson (who wrote the show’s book, score, and lyrics) shares the same identities as Usher, we also realize A Strange Loop is a metafictional staging of Jackson’s own aching psyche.

This innovative co-production marks the first time two Deaf theater companies in the United States have joined forces to stage a performance, bringing a fresh perspective to Jackson’s critically acclaimed work. A Strange Loop will be performed by a company of Deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing artists in ASL and spoken/sung English.

Visionaries of the Creative Arts® (VOCA), a Deaf-led nonprofit dedicated to inclusive and accessible performing arts, has been selected as an ArtsHERE grant recipient. The grant will support The ISM Project, a social impact curriculum based on VOCA’s original stage play that explores racism, audism, sexism, and other systemic “isms” through the voices of Deaf BIPOC artists.

VISIONARIES OF THE CREATIVE ARTS (VOCA) is delighted to announce its selection as a recipient of a substantial grant from Walmart's Local Community Grants Program. This grant, amounting to $500.00, bolsters VOCA's ongoing commitment to empower the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (Deaf/HoH) BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) community through the transformative power of the creative arts.

VOCA is the proud recipient of the Borealis Philanthropy grant. The Disability Inclusion Fund is one of ten funds that work collaboratively to enhance the collective impact within movements across the United States. The Borealis Philanthropy collaborative funds offer funders an opportunity to work together on central issues and combine resources, energy, attention, and expertise to exponentially increase the impact of coordinated efforts. The awarded $75,000 grant will support various projects and programs designed to spotlight and put into action solutions in support of diversity, equality, and justice that include the BIPOC Deaf/hard of hearing community.