When the National Theatre of the Deaf was started in 1967, there was no closed captioning for television, no certified interpreters, or affordable telephones for deaf people. Fifty years later, and four years after it returned to the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, where it was founded, NTD continues to build bridges between cultures.

Betty Beekman, executive director, said the group is proud to be a catalyst for change by showcasing the legitimacy and beauty of American Sign Language and Deaf culture.

“Our major tool is our language,” she said. “We use ASL as our artistic medium to perform the stories.”

Deaf theater is an interpretive form of theater created by NTD and incorporates both speech and ASL. Since it focuses on the artistic merit of ASL as both a language and a visual form of storytelling, she said it’s the only form of theater that gives both deaf and hearing audiences the same experience.

The emphasis on the visual storytelling of deaf theater also allows NTD to perform anywhere from schools to professional theaters. Beekman said school programs are especially popular because the kids can learn ASL in a fun way while also learning about Deaf culture.

Every summer since the group came back to the Monte Cristo Cottage in New London in 2012, actors with NTD have collaborated with the American School for the Deaf in West Hartford on the Theatre Immersion Program, where students could learn NTD’s style of theater. The program concludes with a series of performances at the Hygienic Art Park in New London.

NTD has performed in all 50 states and abroad. Most recently, the group was in Washington, D.C. at Gallaudet University to perform “The King,” a play by John Basinger that focuses on the titular character in Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” Gallaudet held a month-long program about the contributions of Deaf artists to Shakespearean theater in honor of the Folger Shakespeare Library’s traveling exhibit “First Folio!”

The group is touring until June and will hold its Summer Storytelling series at the Hygienic again next summer.

Beekman said she hopes the program can stay here and grow.

“It was nice to come home again,” she said.

a.hutchinson@theday.com