Worldwide Deaf community mourns Bernard Bragg, the ‘father of Visual Vernacular’

Over the last week, the Deaf community worldwide has been paying tributes to Bernard Bragg, the American Deaf actor, poet, writer, director, artist, and teacher, known as the ‘father of Visual Vernacular,’ who passed away on the 29th October at the age of 90.

Among his many achievements was co-founding the National Theatre of the Deaf in 1967.

Bragg came from a Deaf family with parents who were involved with amateur theatre, but his interest in performing professionally was sparked when he saw mime artist Marcel Merceau, going on to study with him in France.

Bragg went on to become a mime performer himself, combining mime with sign language, which later became known as Visual Vernacular, which he is often credited with being the father of.

Obituaries can be read at the following links:

Washington Post

New York Times

Playbill

Bragg also had his own website, and there is a Wikipedia page about him.

And here is a programme about Visual Vernacular from BSL Zone.

Several videos have been posted to Facebook featuring Bragg. Here are just a few of them: