About
Since 2004, Alan R. Abarbanell has toured the United States with his critically acclaimed, one-man show, "The Abababa Road Tour" chronicling his experiences growing up hearing in a Deaf family. ABABABA--a name given to him by a friend who could not pronounce Abarbanell--is a proud coda (Child of Deaf Adults) and member of CODA International (www.coda-international.org) Alan wrote this show as a loving tribute to his Deaf heritage and coda family. Each performance is dedicated to Alan's parents Joe and Yetta Abarbanell whom he credits with his sense of humor, creativity and love for his community.
Abababa takes his audiences on a rollercoaster ride of emotion; first pulling them through the hilarious rush and shocking twists of his youth, then plunging them into the tragedy and loss that followed, only to hurl them upwards towards uncontrollable laughter once again! With the simple wave of a hand, Abababa renders each audience exhausted from gales of laughter and torrents of tears by evening's end.
Alan is a veteran sign language interpreter originally from Chicago who, in addition to his 25 years of freelance work has lectured nationally on the issues of interpreter ethics and Coda Family issues. Alan lives in Rockville, Maryland with the love of his life, Helsa Blumenthal Borinstein. Both are thrilled to be working with John Yeh and Viable, Inc (www.viable.net) providing superior video communications technology to the Deaf community. Alan has three children, Erinn (17) Rachel (15) and Jacob (11) who have formed their own organization known as COED which stands for Children of Embarrassing Dads.
