If you'd like to see the play:
Show runs through Saturday at Roanoke Civic Center
Thursday, Dec. 3rd performance also for hearing impaired
In the theatre, words are just as important as the actions of actors.
That makes a Roanoke College graduate's job that more difficult.
Betsy Foster lost her hearing at age 16, but it's not stopping her from doing what she loves. Directing plays.
Roanoke's New Century Church hired Foster to direct its "Scrooge" production. It's her first big scale production, and the church's first time hiring a professionally trained director taking on the responsibility of directing the play.
Betsy says she's been involved in theatre for about five years, and started with acting in her sophomore year of college.
"I'm getting cast in shows at school, and then it just progressed into a love of it enough to turn it into a major," Foster said.
"I hadn't thought about it before until I got into it, mostly because of my hearing loss. I didn't think it was something I was going to be able to do," she added.
Foster says she got cast in a show, and the director of it helped her learn how to do things differently, and find different ways to be cued. Those cues involve visual things or tactile things.
"I think one of the biggest challenges is that although I can lip read, it means that I can only look at one person at a time, and I have to be looking at that person to hear what they're saying," Foster said.
The new director thanked her cast and the church for being extremely encouraging and supportive.
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