THE Autumn/Winter run of productions at The Royal Exchange Theatre is introducing ‘STAGETEXT’, a series of performances to help improve access for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audience members.
The company will perform one STAGETEXT performance for each production starting with a showing of the William Wycherly’s Restoration comedy ‘The Country Wife’ on Thursday 11 October.
Captioned live performances will work in a similar way to subtitled television programmes. During the performance the words will appear on a screen as they are being spoken or sung in real time, including character names, sound effect descriptions and off-stage noise directions.
Stagetext - Wizard of Oz
STAGETEXT aims to develop new theatre audiences and open up performances for those who may have previously disregarded attending productions. The events also hope to provide an enjoyable show for current audiences whether they have a hearing loss or not.
STAGETEXT is a registered charity which provides speech-to-text services at many cultural events. The first captioned performance is being dedicated to the memory of Geoff Brown – who sadly died last year - one of the three founders of Stagegtext, who lived near Manchester and had been pushing for many years for captioned shows at the Royal Exchange.
A signed performance is also available for each production in the season. This is the usual full production with the addition of a British Sign Language (BSL) interpreter who interprets the shows for deaf audiences.
Anyone wishing to book for a captioned performance at the Exchange should call the Box Office on 0161 833 9833 as these seats are specially allocated.
More information about access at the Royal Exchange is available at www.royalexchange.co.uk
