Phyllis Felich Research Paper

Close your eyes and imagine you are a very famous deaf actress and they just called your name as the winner of the Tony award. The whole audience is clapping and screaming for you but you can't hear it. This is exactly what Phyllis Frelich went through. Phyllis Frelich, the first deaf tony award winner, was born into the Pisces(zodiac sign) family on a leap year in 1944(February 29th) in Devils Lake, North Dakota. She was the oldest of nine. Phyllis and her siblings were born deaf to two deaf parents. Obviously her parents didn't make her go to a mainstream school, that would be cruel. Frelich attended North Dakota School for the Deaf in her hometown Devils Lake. She graduated from North Dakota School in 1962. She then went on to attend Gallaudet University, the first deaf college. Phyllis got a degree in library science while attending Gallaudet. …show more content…
They said she didn’t have a future in acting because she was deaf(The Washington Post). Upon graduating in 1967 she went out to start her acting career. She met Mark Medoff who was”fascinated with learning sign language”(The Washington Post). After meeting Phyllis, Mark wrote the broadway play “Children of a lesser God”.Phyllis was the the first deaf person Mark Medoff had befriended(The Washington Post). Phyllis was one of the leading roles in this play. She was nominated and won a Tony award for best actress in 1980. The Tony award got started in 1947 to celebrate excellence in theatre(‘An award for excellence”). The play also won a tony award. After this play she performed in more plays written by Medoff, Tv series, and movies. Phyllis was the first deaf actress to win a tony award. She was also nominated for an emmy. An emmy is the same as a tony but for excellence in the television industry. It really raised awareness for the deaf