Bernard Bragg was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 27 1928 to Deaf parents. Due to his father’s interest and involvement in the theater as an amateur actor and manager, Bragg became interested with theater at an early age. After enrolling in New York School for the Deaf, Bragg began to receive his first form of formal training from his mentor Robert F. Panara, who greatly encouraged his interest in the arts. After graduating in 1947, Bragg enrolled in Gallaudet College, where he played lead roles in theater dramas such as The Miser, The Bourgeois Gentleman, and Tartuffe for Deaf and hearing audiences, and for which he received many honors for his performances. During his years at Gallaudet, Bragg also pursued a verity artistic skills and went on to win the Teegarden …show more content…
Through these performances, Bragg works to not only relate to Deaf individuals across the nation who, previously, had never seen a televised Deaf performer, but also inform and educate the hearing community about Deaf culture. In order to introduce the hearing audience to ASL, the performers of “My Third Eye” would sign simple poems such as “Three Blind Mice” and invite the hearing audience to learn how to sign it. Additionally, the play explored the dreams and ideas of the Deaf performers themselves in order to connect with the Deaf audience. In a TV interview, Bragg shared that he initially was not sure how the hearing world would react to his performers with exclusively Deaf actors, saying “I had no idea until we opened in New York and I read the reviews, and they were all so positive.” This positive feedback from the audience and critics lead Bragg to continue in the Deaf National Theater for ten years. In 1977, the National Theater of the Deaf went on to receive a Tony award for theatrical