Rebecca A Withey: Introducing UNIFY – an all-deaf sign performance group

In January a television producer got in touch with me to ask if I could point them in the direction of a signing choir. Not just any sign choir, mind you. They wanted all of the members to be deaf.

Well, I was flummoxed. I knew of a few choirs across the country who have a couple of deaf people in their group but the majority were made up of all-hearing members.

The producer was looking for a sign choir to perform on a musical show for ITV, hosted by Jason Manford. They were keen to get some BSL representation on stage and for the show to become more accessible for deaf and hard of hearing viewers. With only five days until show was due to be filmed, it was deemed an impossible task so we binned our plans and the producer told me they would be in touch as soon as another opportunity arose.

True to their word, in early April I heard from the producer again about performing for the National Lottery’s Big Jubilee Street Party, which would be aired on ITV. This time I was given 4 weeks to put together a brand new all-deaf sign performance group, with the producers wanting at least 20 people involved.

I put a call out on all of my social media pages and also told the members of the sign song groups I taught all about this brand new performance. I had email after email from interested applicants, most of whom had never even stepped foot on a stage before.

I managed to find the 20 group members. Everyone came from across the UK and so we held all of our rehearsals over Zoom before meeting in Manchester for the first time in person, the night before show day at the AO Arena.

During rehearsals, we discussed what the name for the group should be. So many ideas were thrown about. In the end, we took it to a vote and the name we chose – Unify – really sums up who we are.

Unify means to bring together, and this is what our shared interest in signed song has done – it’s brought us all together. Each group member is deaf in varying degrees. We have profoundly deaf members, severely deaf, hard of hearing and partially deaf. Some members wear hearing aids, a couple have cochlear implants. The only criteria we had for the group was you had to be a fluent/native BSL user, enjoy signed song and have some kind of deafness.

Meeting the night before our show, we spent several hours chatting and getting used to each other’s company, enjoying pizza and soft drinks as we contemplated the scale of the event we were due to perform in.

Nothing could prepare us for the fast paced frenzy of the show day. We arrived at the venue for 9am, passing through security and meeting our team of BSL interpreters. After being shown to our dressing room, we made our way to the stage for our first group rehearsal/camera run through and to meet the artist who we were performing with; Calum Scott.

Calum spent some time chatting to me and expressed how he wanted his music to be more accessible to the deaf community in the UK as he had previously worked with Deaf West in the USA. He was lovely and down to earth and he was so glad to have us on stage with him.

The next few hours went by in a blur of nerves and excitement. We received our outfit from the wardrobe department. We had our hair and make up professionally done. Runners took our tea and coffee orders whilst we continued to snatch moments to rehearse in our shared dressing room.

We discovered the Kaiser Chiefs dressing room was next door and we gasped as we saw Steps rehearse in the corridor outside our room. I met Mark Owen and Heather Small in the unisex toilets and I passed Jason Manford and Fleur East as they left the bathroom.

It was crazy, surreal and manic but I was grounded by the notion Unify were all in this together.

Out of the 20 group members, only 7 of us had actually performed on a stage before – yet none of us had ever performed to one this size (21,000!) whilst simultaneously being filmed for a mainstream channel such as ITV. To say we were nervous was an understatement!

After lunch, we had our first dress rehearsal and nothing seemed to go right. The reality of the situation kicked in and I could feel my heart pounding under the pressure. As the song started, Calum sang the first words much earlier than we anticipated (nobody told us the cue had changed!) and we stumbled suddenly into the opening line of the song.

Given the lack of light and fast pace to get on stage, we also lost our positioning so several members couldn’t see me or the interpreter for their initial musical cue. We were also surprised by some pyrotechnics that went off mid-performance, with a couple of members becoming visibly shaken by the unexpected closeness of the fire lights.

I called a last minute rehearsal for the group in the dressing room and we worked out a plan that would ensure everyone stayed in the right position and we bolstered each other’s confidence to ensure that we could stay calm and just give the performance our all.

I always think the worst thing about performing is the waiting to go on – this is when the anticipation and nerves start to build – so we warmed up by dancing together to some Steps routines and one of our members led us into a Latin themed warm up to get our bodies moving and loosening up!

Show time was delayed by 30 minutes so when we did finally go on stage, it was almost 10pm. What a long day!

Standing by the stage waiting to go on, I could see a sea of lights waving. Purple, blue and yellow lights in the audience were moving from side to side and people were holding Union Jacks and cheering. I felt an outpouring of love from the audience and an eagerness to share with them what we had been working on for the last four weeks.

We took our positions perfectly on the stage left, with Calum Scott centre stage and a gospel choir on stage right. I remember Calum turning to me as he composed himself and I gave him a thumbs up to say ‘we’ve got this.’

The music began, and with a cue from our wonderful interpreter, Jennifer Schneider-Lau, we began our performance. I remember thinking how slowly the first verse was going, and hoping that everyone else in the group was okay. Then as we got to the chorus, the beauty of it all just hit me and I beamed as I signed.

When the pyrotechnics went off this time around, I looked around at the audience in awe. What a tremendous sight! As the song came to an end, both Calum and the gospel choir signed the last line with us – two simple signs for the phrase “you are the reason.”

As we left the stage, Steps were waiting to go on and they raised their hands in a ‘deaf clap’ with all of the backing dancers and staff doing the same. We also got a standing ovation from a few rows in the audience – we knew it was for us as they also did the ‘deaf clap’ too!

I remember the joy as we hugged each other in exhilaration, pride and relief. “We did it!” we told each other.

I then thought to myself, ‘wow, something big has just happened here.’

It felt more than just the scale of the live audience and television cameras. I felt as though we had done something significant for the deaf community, as all-deaf BSL users on stage together – signing a song for a mainstream artist – for the very first time.

So many members of Unify have been told things in the past like, ‘you can’t be deaf if you like music,’ or ‘you’re not that deaf then’ or ‘music isn’t something you can be part of’ – we were always excluded or pushed out in some way or the other.

Thankfully we found each other and are living proof that you can be deaf and a BSL user and enjoy music. With the right attitude and the right access, there are no limits.

One member of Unify said to me ‘it may be the end of the show, but it’s just the start for Unify.’ She couldn’t be more right. Watch this space!

Unify’s performance of ‘You Are The Reason’ with Calum Scott will be on ITV on Sunday 5th June for the National Lottery Big Jubilee Street Party.
For more information about the group contact Rebecca at rebecca@rawithey.com