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1. Theatre Captioning Making theatre accessible to deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audience members

2. What can you make out from this piece of spoken text? Credit: University of Manchester

4. Amplification would not help

6. Credit: Makes Sense www.makesensedesign.com

7. Who uses captions? Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people who wish to access plays in English 1 in 7 of the UK population, 9 million people People whose hearing is not as sharp as it used to be 55% of people over 60 have age-related hearing loss Hearing audiences Anyone who has difficulty following strong accents Students who are studying the text of a play People whose first language is not English

8. 359 people in audience 17 people booked for captioning with box office (4% of total audience) 103 people returned the card to say that they had found the captions useful (29% of total audience) CONCLUSION:25% of people using captioning do not request the service The undeclared audience New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich

9. Preparation of captions

10. Delivery of captions Speech appears as text on caption unit(s) at exactly the same time as words are spoken or sung. Full text, speaker names, sound effects, music and offstage noises are shown Similar to television subtitles & opera surtitling but crucial differences: Opera surtitles are above the stage & often difficult to read Both television subtitles & opera surtitles can be edited down from the full dialogue Television subtitles can come up ahead of the dialogue and spoil punchlines / important plot points.

11. Benefits of captions Makes theatre accessible to deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people To enable a person with a hearing loss to appreciate the spirit, meaning and intent of the performance and obtain the same experience as a hearing person obtains in a theatre Fosters social inclusion A theatre is truly accessible to customers with a hearing loss if it has captioned performances, sign language interpreted performances and a good working sound enhancement system

12. STAGETEXT captioner at Bristol Old Vic Photo: Mike Lusmore The Captioned performance

13. Technical possibilities Caption Unit Plasma Screen Projection Centre photo from Chelmsford Civic Theatres

15. As close to the action as possible

16. At about actors’ head heightCaption unit model from New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich

17. Deafened actor Tim Barlow as Tybalt, prior to the captioned performance of Juliet and Her Romeo, Bristol Old Vic (April 2010). Photo: Mike Lusmore

18. Captioned performance of Little Women Sadler’s Wells 15

19. Captioned performance of Aladdin, The Wok ‘n’ Roll Panto New Wolsey, Ipswich. Photo: Mike Kwasniak 16

20. Speech-to-text transcribed post-show discussion after Yellowman Hampstead Theatre 17

21. Warm-up prior to the captioned performance of Life is a Dream Donmar Warehouse Photo: Matt Humphrey 18

22. Captioned performance of Miss Saigon at the Bristol Hippodrome Captioned performance of Miss Saigon at the Bristol Hippodrome

23. Captioned performance of Hansel and Gretel Northern Stage Photo: Linda Borthwick 20

24. Making captioning work Making a commitment Captioning works best when whole organisation is committed Giving proper support to captioners Promoting the show effectively Include prominently on all marketing Making links with local older people’s groups and so on Making it easy for caption-users to book tickets Making sure it’s All Right On The Night! Installing & running technical equipment early Double checking position of text & caption-user seats Customer care for audience members including deaf awareness training for front of house staff

25. Feedback from our users “We didn’t talk about the captions. We talked about whether or not the death throes of the performers were realistic.” “ STAGETEXT has enabled me to go to the theatre with my family once more. ” “This has opened up an entirely new world for me. The sheer delight in being able to fully understand a play is difficult to convey to a hearing person”

26. Questions?

27. Thank you!

28. For more information Visit www.stagetext.org Email Lissy Lovett at lissy@stagetext.org