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VOL.20, NO.5
F O R
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O V E R
MAY 2023
More than 125,000 readers throughout Greater Baltimore
Playwright opens eyes, not ears
I N S I D E …
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLY CONLEY
By Margaret Foster If you like Charlie Chaplin films, you’ll enjoy an upcoming production from The Performing Arts at Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville. Although Goya: en la Quinta del Sordo (Spanish for “in the house of the deaf man”) doesn’t have any words, it has a little bit of comedy, music and food for thought. It’s a play about the works of Francisco de Goya (1746-1828) — a Spanish painter who produced his best works after he went deaf at age 46. The nonverbal play was written and directed by Willy Conley, a Deaf photographer, painter, educator and theater artist who lives in Hanover, Maryland. Conley, who has written dozens of plays, hopes this performance will help audiences realize “that there are other avenues of communication to explore and use when faced with a language barrier,” he said in an email to the Beacon. “I think this is a dream that most Deaf people have — that those who do not know sign language become flexible and creative enough to find alternative ways to communicate and work together.”
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Baltimore County roots Conley was born and raised in Lutherville by hearing parents who “are amazing people — well-educated, worldly, gregarious and incredibly resilient,” he said. Both educators, they encouraged Conley and his sister, who is also deaf, to get a good education and pursue their talents. Conley’s father, who was an elementary school principal, helped him build a darkroom where Conley could develop his photographs. His mother, a special education teacher, “turned me on to literature and often proofread my writings while offering
Willy Conley’s play Goya: en la Quinta del Sordo will be performed at the Community College of Baltimore County Performing Arts from April 27 to May 1. Conley, a retiree in Hanover, Maryland, has written 45 plays and published his eighth book this month.
encouragement along the way.” Conley earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biomedical photographic communications at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and initially worked as a pathology photographer.
During his college years, he attended high-quality stage plays at RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf. “It was the first time theater became accessible to See PLAYWRIGHT, page 20
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