Kayla is a wonderful woman who has been dealt a terrible hand. At the age of five she lost most of her hearing due to fluid in her ears. She speaks poetically about the life that she had, what she could remember of her childhood and a special connection to music, the most important sound she can’t hear anymore. When she finally looses her hearing she begins a journey of strength. Overcoming things that she never she had the strength for. With the support of her sister Judith she is able to learn sign language and reconnect with the ability to communicate. At a New Years party her eardrums are ruptured and the little bit of sound she did have was completely taken away. When she woke after her surgery she had been given the greatest gift, the gift of sound. Kayla only has sound for two weeks before history repeats itself and again her ears go numb to life. But it is through the journey of having sound, loosing it, gaining it and loosing it again that she realizes that she is enough, for anything. (*Actress must know sign language)
DI/ Female- Blossoming Rose
- (The scene opens with Kayla standing in the mirror. She is humming a song that she enjoys as she uses sign language to express the words. The song can be fast or slow but it needs to show her personality and positive attitude toward life. *Preferably a song of the time we are referring 1990’s. She speaks to the audience.) 1995 was a great year for music. My favorite song was kiss from a rose by Seal. “I’ve been kissed by a rose on the grey.” I can’t really remember the way he sings it, but I have a distant memory of the melody in my head. (She tries to find the melody but can’t get the rhythm right.) It’s the last song I listened to before things changed. Change is one of those words that could mean the best experience in your life, like I got married and my life has changed. (Laughs) But I didn’t and that wasn’t the change that I speak of. My change was like waking up in someone else’s bed laying naked next to someone else’s husband. (Beat) Then he looks at me and I…I feel so exposed, bare, terrified. (Beat) I have been deaf since January of 1996. (Throughout the remainder of the piece she speaks to the audience but it can clearly be heard that she is deaf. Her voice is altered, still understandable. She at times also signs words for clarity or if she gets caught up in the moment. Her emotions pour out through her fingers.) As a child my mother told me I retained liquid in my ears, so I had to have a surgery when I was five. Do you see these little tubes? (She leans over and points into her ear so that the audience can see the tubes inside of her ear.) They have been there since the surgery. I hear these tubes give me character, like the third eye of a Cyclopes or the horn of a unicorn.