Dame Edna Presents Sign Language Interpreted Performance 1/3

Dame Edna - Live and Intimate in Her First Last Tour will present a sign language interpreted performance on Saturday, January 3 at 3 p.m. at San Francisco's Post Street Theatre (450 Post Street).

Using hands, body and facial expressions, American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter Houston Davenport will translate the spoken and musical parts of the show into signs and rhythms. Davenport will be placed on the main floor and will have separate lighting, which will enable the audience to see them during low light moments.

In Dame Edna - Live and Intimate in Her First Last Tour, Edna displays her unique genius with a new and vibrantly stimulating theatrical infrastructure (to use her own vivid phrase), addressing an exciting range of cutting edge comedy solutions. Edna also welcomes her dysfunctional daughter Valmai on-stage.

Dame Edna - Live and Intimate in Her First Last Tour is playing through Sunday, January 4, 2009 at San Francisco's Post Street Theatre (450 Post St., 2nd floor).

Tickets for the sign language interpreted performance range in price from $68 - $78 and are on sale now at the Post Street Theatre box office or by phone at 415-771-6900. TTY users may call the California Relay System at (800) 735-2929. Tickets are being held for hearing impaired audience members.

After becoming interested in the field of interpreting at the age of 16, Houston Davenport decided to follow in the footsteps of my mother, Lenora Faye Wietrzykowski, and become a professional American Sign Language Interpreter. He began his career as a professional interpreter in New York City, in the early 80s, after his tour of duty in the U.S. Navy as a member of the National Color Guard.

While in NYC, he studied artistic interpreting at Juilliard School of the Arts at Lincoln Center. After completing that course of study, he began interpreting Broadway and Off-Broadway productions for the Theater Development Fund and HandsOn. His Broadway debut was Dreamgirls followed by numerous other productions, such as...La Cage aux Folles, Snow White & An Evening of Adult Fairy Tales, West Side Story, The Little Shop of Horrors, Guys and Dolls, As Is, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Music Man, Chicken Little, and South Pacific. His acting credits include...the role of 'Orin Dennis' in Children of a Lesser God with the Players-by-the-Sea in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, as well as the role of 'Varrius' in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure for Jacksonville University. He then returned to New York City to appear in, Interpretations, a one-man show, in which he portrayed six characters; an ASL Interpreter and his interactions with 5 deaf individuals at the peak of the A.I.D.S. epidemic.

Davenport has also interpreted for many high profile individuals like: President Bill Clinton, Vice-President Al Gore, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Senator Barbara Lee, Senator Carole Migden and Mr. Sein Win, The Prime Minister of Burma, as well as numerous Governors and Mayors. He has also interpreted fundraisers with celebrities such as Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summers, Cheryl Lee Ralph, Roz Ryan, Barbara Walters, Beverly Sills, Derrick Jeter, Patrick Ewing and Oscar De La Hoya...and to top this list...the sweetheart of the Deaf community...Marlee Matlin.