Deaf Teen Headed To Top Acting School

Mike Fox’s eyes and fingers scan the humorous essay like radar, registering every nuance, every emotion.

He’s still for a moment while his brain digests the material. Then his dance resumes with the lift of one graceful finger.

“There was this kid, a creepy little jerk next door,” he signs, his head tilted and eyes narrowed with scorn to match the dialogue.

Mike is no interpreter for the deaf. He is an actor. He infuses new life into everything from Shakespeare to Saturday Night Live for the deaf and the hearing.

The National Theater of the Deaf recognized Mike’s talent last month and accepted him into its prestigious Professional Theater School in Connecticut. The program accepted 30 of 100 applicants from around the world. Mike, an 18-year-old senior at Post Falls High School, is among the youngest.

“It’s amazing,” Mike says, his voice full of the appreciation he feels but can’t hear. “I feel important, feel really good about it.”

Mike deserves to feel good. He’s paid his dues for 18 years in a world that often doesn’t tolerate disabilities. He’s learned to hide his deafness so well that many of his classmates have no idea he can’t hear them.

His parents didn’t recognize his hearing problems until he was 6. He could hear just enough to learn to speak deceptively well. Every year, his hearing worsened.

Finally, his parents realized he wasn’t obstinate when he wouldn’t do what he was told. Mike’s family had no history of deafness; his parents blamed his hearing problems on his father’s exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Speech therapists in school connected Mike to the world. They helped him develop his voice and taught him to read lips - a skill he has mastered.

Hearing aids helped until he reached middle school. He quit wearing them after kids chased him down, slammed his head against a fence and one of the hearing aids broke in his ear.

“I still have a scar in my ear from eighth grade,” he says.

Television and sports filled in for friends in middle school. Football coaches liked his intimidating size - he was 5 feet 8 inches tall and 215 pounds in eighth grade - and made him a linebacker, defensive tackle and fullback.

At home, Mike imitated everything on TV. Acting satisfied something deep inside him. He wanted more, but his public school wouldn’t enroll him in drama classes.

“They told me I couldn’t sing, talk. They said I’d fail the class,” he says. “I just wanted to be a part of it, but I lost faith.”

As a freshman at Shadle Park High in Spokane, Mike learned of the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind in Gooding. He enrolled the following year after his family moved to Post Falls.

“Deaf school changed my life,” he says.

In Gooding, Mike’s personality emerged. He discovered his knack for leadership, his common sense and a rich sense of humor. He won a part in the school play, but gave it up voluntarily because he was junior class president, president of his dorm and in charge of the prom.

Still, he never missed a rehearsal. Acting was as wonderful as he had imagined.

“It’s fun to make people happy, laugh, have a good time,” he says. “I want people to learn from me.”

After his junior year in Gooding, Mike decided to stay in Post Falls. The deaf school had boosted his self-confidence, but he was tired of commuting every weekend. He wanted a car, a job, local friends.

Job Service offered him two choices for summer work: the U.S. Forest Service or the Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre. Mike couldn’t believe his luck.

The summer theater magnified in Mike the growth begun at the deaf school. He built sets and ushered. He rubbed shoulders with actors Jack Bannon and Ellen Travolta and pumped them for advice. He watched and imitated.

“The single most fulfilling thing I’ve done since I’ve been here is working with Mike and seeing his confidence level go through the roof,” says Roger Welch, the theater’s artistic director. “This kid who was shy, reserved, quiet - directly because of the theater he is starting a new life.”

By summer’s end, Mike had decided to perform in the theater’s wrap-up show. In front of hundreds of people, he signed a song that expressed his gratitude to his theater family.

“They put the fire back in me,” he says. “They restored my faith.”

After he finished, he saw the audience standing and felt its thunder.

“I had to say, ‘Don’t cry, Mike,”’ he says.

Actress Bobbi Kotula gave Mike information on the National Theater of the Deaf. The 30-year-old group has performed around the world and at the White House. Its alumnae include Tony Award winner Phyllis Frelich and actress Marlee Matlin.

The theater blends sign language with the spoken word to add a new visual dimension to stage art.

“Oh man, it was a dream come true,” Mike says. “The very next day I called for information.”

He prepared three monologues for his audition tape, including an act from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.” The toughest part was modulating his voice, which he can’t hear.

Mike sent his video in January with several recommendation letters.

His answer came in March on his parents’ answering machine. A friend who had come home with Mike heard the acceptance message from the National Theatre’s artistic director.

“He said, ‘Mike, you’re going,’ and I replayed the message and put my ear on the machine,” Mike says. “Then I started screaming and jumping up and down.”

He’ll leave for Connecticut just before graduation and spend six weeks in acting workshops. Near the end, Mike will audition for one of the yearlong positions with the touring company.

If he doesn’t make the cut this year, Mike plans to enroll in college, study theater and try for a touring company position another year.

“Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity to go on tour this year,” he says. “I don’t want to stop. As long as I’m doing what I do best, everything will be OK.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo