A Look Back at John McGinty and His Persistence as a Deaf Actor on the Broadway Stage

About this episode

This episode features John McGinty discussing his journey as a deaf actor and the challenges and triumphs he faced in the theater industry.

As Why I’ll Never Make It approaches its tenth season, this special retrospective looks back at ten conversations that helped shape the podcast and transformed a simple interview into a meaningful message for us all. This episode features John McGinty, a deaf actor who lost his hearing at a young age and initially headed toward a career in finance, but theater kept calling him back. In this conversation, he shares the realities of auditioning and performing in an industry so dependent on sound and timing, and what it means to pursue this work on his own terms rather than stepping away from it. Recorded in 2018, this episode was also the first video interview ever produced for the podcast, with an ASL interpreter present to ensure the conversation could be fully seen and heard. John talks about making his Broadway debut in the revival of Children of a Lesser God, being the first deaf actor to play Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Sacramento Music Circus, and continuing to push for greater access and representation in the arts. It’s an honest look at a career shaped not by limitation, but by commitment—and by the belief that this industry can expand when artists insist…

People in this episode

Host: Patrick Oliver Jones

Guest: John McGinty

Topics covered

• deaf actors
• Broadway
• representation in the arts
• auditioning
• theater
• persistence

Keywords

• deaf actor
• Broadway debut
• auditioning
• theater industry
• representation
• John McGinty
• Children of a Lesser God
• Hunchback of Notre Dame

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Children of a Lesser God, The Hunchback of Notre Dame

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