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Subject: Technology helps deaf and blind experience broadway Theater
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In New York, technology helps deaf and blind experience
Broadway theater
WNYC-FM [New York Public Radio], 5/30/11
The Alliance for Inclusion in the Arts is spending $240,000
to outfit four Broadway theaters with two pieces of technology called I-Caption
and D-Scriptive that will expand theater-going options for the deaf and the
blind. Funding came from a grant from New York City and from the NYC Theater
Sub-district Council. I-Caption is a hand-held device that displays text
real-time as the actors are speaking and singing. D-Scriptive [gives] blind and
low-vision theater-goers audio descriptions of what's happening onstage. Both
devices will be automatically synchronized to the theater's master cueing
system. The Alliance brought in blind actor and artistic director Christopher
G. Roberts to help craft descriptions. "It's incredibly challenging," said
Roberts. "There are some people who are blind and have no conception [of] what
color is. Describing a red or yellow costume is almost pointless. So, I would
advise them to add adjectives like 'vibrant green,' or 'exciting yellow' or
'spectacular red,' so you give the color a texture they can understand."
I-Caption and D-Scriptive were developed by Sound Associates [and] are already
in place at five [other Broadway] theaters, including where Wicked and Billy
Elliot are playing. Producers for those shows paid about $40,000 to design and
install [the devices]. The high cost has made Broadway shows hesitant to invest
in the services, meaning the options for the deaf and the blind on Broadway are
few. [T]he disabled are a huge demographic," said Carl Anthony at Sound
Associates. "...it's about serving an audience that would otherwise not be able
to see your show. The great thing here is with the funding... we don't have to
wait for [a show] to be a hit, we can set it up immediately and disabled people
can see the show no matter what."
In Chicago, a free service offers audio descriptions for
blind theatergoers
WBEZ-FM [Chicago Public Radio]. 5/27/11
Theaters talk about accessibility all the time. Sometimes it
means affordability; sometimes it means clarity; and sometimes it means
removing physical obstacles: providing ramps for wheelchair access and signed
performances for people with hearing impairments. Rarely, though, does a
theater talk about providing access to people who are blind. It may seem an
overwhelming task to describe what the set looks like, what the actors look
like, how the movements ebb and flow. But it is possible -- in fact, Victory
Gardens, Steppenwolf and Broadway in Chicago all provide audio description--and
now a pair of Chicago actors has created a service that will offer audio
description of a single performance at any Chicago theater for free -- if they
can raise $35,000 by mid-July. To accomplish this, DiAnne B. Shaw and Victor
J. Cole have established a Kickstarter account. Shaw explains, "Victor has
been doing audio description for ten years at Victory Gardens, which is really
at the forefront of this total access movement. This really is the last stage
-- everyone understands that you need wheelchair access, everyone uses signers,
but very few places do this.... Every theater [should] already have this as a
part of what it's doing. [Audio description is] about $100 a show, so it's not
cost-prohibitive. And for this season it'll cost nothing."
U.S. movie chain to equip its theaters for deaf, blind guests
Associated Press, 5/4/11
Movie theater chain Regal Entertainment Group will equip its
digital theaters with technology that helps deaf, hard of hearing and blind
guests enjoy going to the movies. The technology will provide captions for
those hard of hearing and descriptive narration for the blind. Regal said it
plans to roll out the system over the next 12 to 18 months. It expects every
one of its 535 theater locations in the U.S. to have digital equipment and be
able to offer the technologies for every show time by the end of 2012. It is
teaming up with Captionfish, a unit of Zero Gravity Captions LLC, which is an
online search engine for finding captioned movies across the country.
In China, a blind acting company is featured in French
theater festival
The Global Times, 5/18/11
As part of the fourth French Theater Festival, [the] play La
Princesse Maleine, performed by a blind troupe, will take the stage in Beijing.
Written by Nobel Prize-winner Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), the work tells
the romantic story of Princess Maleine's search for her beloved prince after
defeat in war, and her encounters along the way. "It is a tragicomedy about
life, about wandering, misunderstanding, unconfirmed appointment and all kinds
of unfairness, unseen or seen... We have a deep emotional resonance with our
blind performers," said French director Jean-Christophe Blondel, who met his
performers after they had worked with well-known Chinese drama director Lin
Zhaohua in Les Aveugles (The Blind) in 2008. Last year, the actors launched
their own troupe, Xinmu Drama Studio, to help blind theater fans find their own
stage. "We can feel their love towards movement and also their worry about
space. They have to imagine, and present the image by imagination, a real
connection between fantasy and artistic creation," said Malgven Gerbes, a
German choreographer. The play will also be performed in Nanjing, Jiangsu
Province on June 2-3, and in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province on June 6 and 8.
In Israel, the world's only deaf and blind theater troupe
European Jewish Post, 5/3/11
Though they cannot hear or speak, the Israeli actors in
Nalaga'at stage full-length, professional performances -- the only shows like
this in the world. These actors can't see or hear. Nevertheless, their unique
theatrical presentation captivates audiences by blending touch, mime, sign
language and music in a show about dreams and disability. "It's everything
good theater actually is and should be and so seldom is nowadays," says Adina
Tal, director of Nalaga'at Center, an Israeli troupe made up of 11 deaf and
blind actors from Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In Hebrew, na lagaat means "please touch."
The only deaf and blind theater troupe in the world, Nalaga'at has also
performed in North America and Europe. There are two full-length shows in the
repertoire. The actors learn their parts slowly, each paired with a translator
who signs instructions into the palms of their hands. [You can watch a short
video about the troupe here.]
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