‘Everything I’ve accomplished in life is because I’m deaf’

Communication

'Everything I've accomplished in life is because I'm deaf'

After two decades, the first deaf student to graduate from Marquette's theatre program returns to be reunited with a treasured prize

It's been over 15 years since alumnus Garrett Zuercher stepped foot on the Marquette University campus. In April, he was invited back to the Diederich College of Communication's 100 Years of Theatre celebration, and he left Marquette with something special to him. His Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts plaque had been on display in the lobby of the Helfaer Theatre for the past two decades - now it's rightfully with its honoree.

"They formally presented me with the award during the gala ceremony," Zuercher says. "Stephen Hudson-Mairet, professor of theatre arts, called me up from the audience and pointed out that it was exactly 20 years ago that week that my show had been at the Kennedy Center, which I didn't realize until he mentioned it."

The 2003 theatre graduate was the first deaf student to go through the program. During his time at Marquette, he wrote a play that displayed his culture and language as a deaf person.

"I created a play called QUID PRO QUO," Zuercher explains. "It wasn't for an assignment or for credit. I just decided to do it on my own."

Encouraged by the late Phylis Ravel, former head of Marquette Theatre, Zuercher submitted the play to the American College Theatre Festival in 2004, where it won the Jean Kennedy Smith and John Cauble Awards - it was one of only six plays nationally to play at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Initially interested in computer science, Zuercher felt a pull toward the performing arts. Every time he would pass the theatre on campus, his heart ached, knowing deep down that's where he belonged. By the end of his sophomore year, he wrote a letter to Ravel, explaining that he was deaf and wanted to be a theatre major too.

"Everybody kept telling me that I couldn't be successful in theatre, but I wanted it so badly. I needed it," Zuercher explained. "She called me to her office and we sat down. She said you can absolutely do theatre. And that shocked me. She never made me feel different. She supported me all the way."

After arriving on campus in 2000, Hudson-Mairet had a chance to work with Zuercher and was impressed with what he saw.

"I think that Garrett's play in 2004 was one of the most powerful student written pieces I have seen at Marquette," Hudson-Mairet says. "The support he received from Phylis and David Ravel to develop the work was critical. That's something I try to take with me - always keeping an eye out for each student's creative work and help them take it to the next level of professional success."

Today, the award is safely in its new home, in Zuercher's New York City house.

"The plaque is currently on my wall, right next to my diploma from Marquette and the Young Alumnus Award that I received from Marquette in 2007," he explains.

Zuercher currently works as an American Sign Language teacher at Google, but his true vocation remains in the theatre. He went on to get his Master of Fine Arts in playwriting from Hunter College, and today he's the founder and artistic director of Deaf Broadway, a collaboration of deaf actors who make iconic American musicals accessible to the Deaf community.

Among his many credits, he acted in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent with Vincent D'Onofrio, and he starred alongside actresses Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams in the 2017 film Wonderstruck. This summer, Deaf Broadway presents "Once on This Island," playing at the Lincoln Center for the Arts on July 31.

Zuercher says that his deafness is a gift that made him fight harder for what he wants. He says that there's nothing he would change about how his life has turned out.

"I believe that everything I've accomplished in life is because I'm deaf," Zuercher says. "It's funny because people are like, 'Oh, you've done this, this and this and you're deaf,' and I'm like, no, I did this, this and this because I am deaf."

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