Media Relations
William Woods University

The Missouri Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf (MO-RID) will hold its annual conference at William Woods University June 1-3. The conference expects 30-40 attendees, doubling its attendance size from last year.

Hilari Scarl will be the presenter for all workshops during the conference. Scarl is the director and producer of “See What I’m Saying, The Deaf Entertainers Documentary,” an award-winning documentary that follows four well-known entertainers in the deaf community: a comic, a drummer, an actor and a singer as they overcome personal obstacles and celebrate professional landmarks.

Scarl 's interest in the deaf community began in 1992 when she started working in deaf theatre in New York, and was cast as a voicing actor with the Tony Award winning National Theatre of the Deaf. She spent a year on the road touring with “An Italian Straw Hat” with an ensemble of 17 deaf actors that inspired “See What I’m Saying.”

Fluent in sign language, Scarl is a proud community partner with the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness (GLAD) and advocates casting deaf actors in mainstream roles.

The conference will begin Friday evening with registration and pizza party on the WWU campus. Afterward, the delegates will move to the Missouri School for the Deaf (MSD) campus theater for the preview of “See What I’m Saying, the Deaf Entertainer’s Documentary.”

The documentary is being shown in conjunction with MSD Alumni Weekend activities and to raise funds for the LEAD Institute of Columbia, a non-profit organization committed to providing services to deaf and hard of hearing individuals in the state of Missouri.

 

The conference will include  presenters Connie Herndon, the Registry of Interpreters of the Deaf (RID) representative from Region 4, and Angela Hernton of MO-RID Region 3. Herndon will speak about what is happening in Missouri and encompass which direction the MO-RID membership wants to take on a variety of topics facing interpreters today. Hernton will initiate a Missouri Interpreters Certification System (MO MICS/RID ) Skills Level Standard discussion and present various concerns of the membership.

 

The conference strives to provide workshops and promote camaraderie for Missouri interpreters. Others attending are from as far away as South Dakota and Minnesota.

Sessions will include workshops such as “Voicing for Everyone,” Part I and II and “Improvisation for Interpreters.”

 

“With our organization [MO-RID] just being two years old and this being only our second conference, I feel that we are making great strides in Missouri,” says Malissia Brooks, MO-RID Region 4 representative and MO-RID Interpreters in Educational and Instructional Settings (IEIS) chair.

 

For more information on MO-RID or the conference, refer to the site www.mo-rid.org.