"They paint pictures in the air; it is language." With this simple description, Time magazine's review in October 1967 of the first tour of the National Theatre of the Deaf (NTD) captured the essence of the mesmerizing performances by this celebrated repertory company. The book Pictures in the Air retraces the fascinating, winding road traveled by the many persons involved in making NTD possible.

Before the 1950s, most people were unaware that deaf people had their own culture and native language, sign language that they naturally used in entertaining skits and plays for their own enjoyment. Toward the end of the decade, however, various deaf theater groups began to sprout, while the general hearing population was exposed for the first time to sign language and true depictions of deaf people in the play The Miracle Worker. Suddenly, such rising stars as Anne Bancroft and Arthur Penn began to advocate the formation of a theatre group that used deaf and hearing actors together with both speech and sign language as the media of expression.

Pictures in the Air presents the story of NTD in complete detail, weaving a colorful tapestry of influence, coincidence, and determination. While several deaf groups expanded the potential of signed performances in New York City and at Gallaudet College, David Hays worked with Japanese Kabuki theatre, an invaluable experience for him as the founding and long-time Artistic Director of NTD. Demoralizing grant rejections are relived in these pages, as well as the exuberance felt from relief provided by various "angels," such as George C. White, who offered his new O'Neill Center as NTD's home. This engaging story opens a wide window on NTD's growing pains in finding qualified people to translate well-known masterpieces into sign language, and in handling the early crisis of terrible reviews for its initial production of The Man with His Heart in the Highlands. The controversy experienced by NTD over the critical distinction between theater for the deaf and theater of the deaf is explored, too.

Most of all, Pictures in the Air portrays the true, ongoing heritage of the National Theatre of the Deaf - the fine performers, directors, and playwrights that for the first time had a national stage of their own upon which to showcase their skills. This book shows that they have succeeded, in triumph after triumph, for the past quarter of a century.