Harri Marshall is a great example to anyone who feels a pull towards the performing arts but feels that having hearing aids will make this profession impossible. She started out as a performer and is now a successful deaf director.
Hearing Loss Diagnosis
When deaf director Harri Marshall first informs people that she’s deaf, “You don’t look deaf” is often the response she gets.
“I suppose to some extent it’s true, she says. “No one is quite sure whether I was born with unilateral hearing loss in my left ear, or whether it developed over time. Either way, when I was about eight, I was diagnosed. Back then there was no technology for my type of hearing loss, so I just had to make do.”
Knowing that she was living in a hearing world, Marshall quickly learned to lip read. At the age of sixteen, she got her first set of Phonak Cros hearing aids.
“It was so bizarre because I never realized on how much I wasn’t picking up on,” she says. “For example, did you know bicycles tick when they move?”
Becoming a Deaf Director
Marshall was a shy child, but theatre brought her out of her shell and enabled her to express her feelings. In the beginning, being a performer was all that appealed to Marshall. By the time she was 18, the pull to be behind the scenes was strong.
“I realized that directing was much more tantalizing,” Marshall says. “As a director, you have the power to really express and share untold stories.”
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