Patti is Associate Professor in the Cultural and Creative Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. Durr was one of the founders of Lights On! Deaf Theatre, a community theatre company committed to plays about the Deaf experience, and served as artistic director for several years. She wrote the play, META, about a Deaf Jewish survivor of the Holocaust being befriended by an African-American college student, which was produced by NTID and Lights ON! in 1993. She was also artistic director of the first Deaf Rochester Film Festival (DRFF) in 2005.
Durr has made written and directed several educational videos for NTID/RIT:
- The Grey Area: His Date / Her Rape
- HIV and AIDS Prevention Video for Deaf Students
- Me Too (monologues on relationship and sexual violence)
- Deaf Artists Interviews (with Paula Grcevic)
Narrative films:
- Don’t Mind? (with Elizabeth Sorkin)
- Page Me (with Elizabeth Sorkin)
Documentary film:
- EXODUS: A Deaf Jewish Family Escapes the Holocaust
Durr has also been information architect, content expert / curator, and producer of three websites for NTID/RIT:
- Deaf Artists website – https://deaf-art.org/
- Deaf People and World War II website – https://deafww2.com/
- The Heart of Deaf Culture – https://heartdeaf.com/
