[1] The group was founded after a 1959 Broadway production of The Miracle Worker, which is about Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan.
[2] In 1957, the Russian government helped to fund various post-war investments, one of which was deaf cultural engagement.
[3] In the second half of the 19th century, various groups performed Shakespearean plays entirely in British Sign Language (BSL).
[7] In 2002 Deafinitely Theatre[8] a modern company that uses a bilingual method of performance with both spoken English and BSL.
[13] The Norwegian Association for the Deaf began hosting annual culture days in 1967, which featured signed performances.
[14] Teater Manu began in 1999 because a high school and Deaf center wanted to establish a professional sign language theatre.
After 2 years of trial performances, the organization received state funding and was officially stationed in the capital of Oslo.
[16] The first European Theatre school to have a sign language specific program was École de Théâtre Universelle.
[18] In 1979, the Visual Theatre Foundation gave Deaf people opportunities in smaller projects.
[19] After an international conference surrounding deafness and culture thereof, the theatre was officially founded by Couprie, Emmerick, and others.
The two performers, Wim Emmerick and Jean Couprie desired work in Dutch Sign Language but it was not widely known enough still.
By 2015, their office was moved back to a smaller location, and after being rejected a request for more money, they announced their closure at their 25th anniversary.
In 2008, the company added a youth component for young Deaf people to practice the arts.
The company states that for hearing and non-signing audiences "dramatic art [is made] accessible by subtitling performances, providing voice interpretation or other innovative solutions."
In 1973, Nick Neary worked with a Deaf society to open up an amateur theatre at a stage.
The group started recruiting professional actors to become just the Theatre of the Deaf, with the NSW TOD still operating separately until 1982.
[24] And in 2018, the ATOD ended, though they are still active on social media, promoting Deaf acting and theatrical opportunities.