Deaf Side Story the problems having to get hearing members of the audience to understand the Sharks’ signing in their scenes. Rigney follows Brewer on how it all started and the challenges they all faced. Deaf Side Story Deaf Side Story is a musical based on "West Side Story", itself an adaptation of William Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliet". Takes place in New York City during the mid-1950s, the musical based on West Side Story explores the rivalry between the two gangs Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different cultural backgrounds (Deaf and Hearing). The members of the Sharks from
Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble to put on a play. In rehearsing a play for performance the rehabilitative side-effects become manifest: the project develops emotional bravery and self-awareness, social skills and self-confidence, individual dedication as well as the commitment to work as a member of a team. QSE's Prison Project shares many similarities with Prison Shakespeare projects in the United State of America, the best known of which is "Shakespeare Behind Bars", though it was not directly based on any of them. In 2011, the founder of "Shakespeare Behind Bars", Curt Tofteland, visited QSE on a Fulbright Fellowship and traded skills with the facilitators of