SignIn’ performance to combine popular music, ASL

The IUP Sign Language Club will hold the annual SignIn' performance Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's performance begins at 7 p.m.; Sunday's begins at 2 p.m. Performances will take place in Zink Auditorium.

"SignIn' began 25 years ago, when deaf education majors asked the newly arrived professor, Rich Nowell to help them to organize and present performances in American Sign Language," said Sign Language Club President Murphy Bennett. "Dr. Nowell was assisted for several years by Cindy Rogers, a special education teacher and interpreter for deaf people."

The purpose of this event is to bring those with an interest in sign language together with the arts.

The club also tries to generate more awareness of sign langage and the deaf community.

Dr. Nancy Benham served as the faculty advisor for SignIn' for six years; upon her departure from IUP, Dr. Nowell took charge again. He is assisted by Dr. Wendy Sink, a first-year professor of deaf education. Sink will become the group's adviser as of fall 2011, after Nowell's retirement.

Tickets for the show are $5 with an I-Card, $7 without.

Some of the students prefoming tomorrow and Sunday are as follows: Paige Douglass (junior, special education), Julia Ihrig (junior, deaf education), Erika Fine (junior, deaf education), Lindsey DePra (senior, deaf education and art education), Anne Fultz (junior, deaf education), Christy Passaratti (junior, special education) and Megan Gilespie (junior, deaf education).   

"The SignIn' show is nothing like anything you have ever experienced before," Bennett said. "We take songs of all different genres and use American Sign Language to interpret the lyrics so that individuals who may be deaf or hard of hearing can enjoy them as well.

"However, this show is not only for those with a hearing loss. If you appreciate music and performance you will enjoy the show."