66 AMERICANTHEATRE MAY/JUNE13

USSELL HARVARD DECIDED TO BE AN ACTOR

at the age of seven when he saw his cousin playing the Wicked
Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. That ambition was con-
rmed when his aunt took him at 13 to see his rst Broadway
show, Cats, during its tour to their hometown of Austin. But
a couple of decades later, when his aunt traveled to New York
to see Harvard himself starring in Tribes, the Off-Broadway hit
directed by David Cromer about a deaf man whose hearing
family makes him feel excluded, she was disappointed. This
show is for hearing people, his aunt signed to him. She fell
asleep during the show, Harvard recalls.
Harvards aunt, his actress cousin, and Harvard himself are
all deaf. The Wizard of Oz he saw at age seven was performed by
a high school for the deaf. Cats had a sign-language interpreter.
But there was no interpreter during the performance of Tribes
that Harvards aunt attended. The only captioned moments
came when the deaf characters were using sign language with
one another, for the benet of the hearing audience.
It is a small irony that the growing number of shows about
the disabled, or featuring disabled performers, are not them-
selves fully accessible to audience members who are disabled.
It has been more than two decades since the passage of the
Americans with Disabilities Act, the worlds rst civil rights act
for the disabled, which mandated that theatres (among other
places of public accommodation) stop discriminating against
the disabled and allow them full and equal enjoyment. Yet, to
cite one measurable statistic from Theatre Development Fund
in New York, no theatres in 31 states offer even one captioned
performance at any time during their seasons.
Theatres are required to make reasonable accommo-
dations, but its largely left up to the theatre as to what that
means, says Lisa Carling, director of accessibility programs
for TDF, the not-for-prot service organization responsible
for many of the pioneering efforts at access. The reasons for
the lack of effort, Carling explains, are lack of interest and lack
of money. Its not on their radar. With tough times forcing
so many theatres to juggle and multitask, accessibility is the
last thing that they think about.
This may be true even for institutions with recently
constructed buildings. New theatres that consider themselves
state-of-the-art may have all the latest technology, but they
might not have even thought of all the services they can offer
to people who have obstructions in attending the theatre, says
Carl Anthony Tramon, director of Special Services for Sound
Associates, a company that has been developing devices for
the disabled to use in theatres since 1946.
Despite such obstructions, new technology is already
available to audience members with barriers to sight and sound.
A new approach to inclusivity is making theatregoing easier
for autistic audiences. And many more options are in develop-
ment. These advances make theatregoing more convenient,
and thus more attractive, for audience members who may not
otherwise be able to experience it.
ON BROADWAY, THE TIMELINE OF PROGRESS FOR
those facing barriers to communication (rather than physical
barriers; mobility access is a huge subject of its own) looks
something like this:
n
1979: First performance with infrared listening devices for
the hard-of-hearing, Peter Pan. The law now mandates these
headsets, or something similar, for all theatres that have either
more than 50 seats or a sound system.
n
1980: First audio-described performance for the blind,
Children of a Lesser God. Also, rst performance with a sign-
A simultaneously open-captioned and signed performance, sponsored by Theatre Development Fund, of Broadways Sister Act.
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The Circle of
Inclusion
A wave of
new technology is
making theatre accessible to deaf,
blind and autistic audience members
BY JONATHAN
MANDELL
R
CURRENTS
language interpreter, The Elephant Man.
n
1997: First open-captioned performance
for the deaf, Barrymore.
n
2011: First autism-friendly performance,
The Lion King.
Whats been done on Broadway can
easily be replicated, Carling says. According
to Tramon, There are millions of people with
disabilities who would come to the theatre if
these services were available to them.
For proof, visit one of TDFs autism-
friendly performances, such as a matinee of
Elf this past January at the Hirschfeld Theatre.
Gary Hagopian had long wanted to
take his 19-year-old stepson Jonathan to
a musical. Ive always been apprehensive
because I didnt know if he would sit right,
make noise or even enjoy the performance,
he says. The theatregoers were not the only
ones who were nervous.
It was slightly scary going into it,
remembers Elf actor Josh Lamon. We wanted
to give them a great show, but we did not
know what challenges we were going to face.
As it turns out, within the rst moments,
a child stormed down the aisle and threw
something at the stage. Ironically, what he
threw was a dget, handed out by volunteers
to keep everyone calm. An elf onstage caught
the dget as if it were part of the show.
The theatre also handed out cards show-
ing the characters, as well as earplugs (some
on the autism spectrum are very sensitive to
sounds), and they set up a quiet room for any
autistic theatregoers who got upset; only about
25 wound up using it, in a 1,424-seat house
that had been entirely reserved for people on
the autism spectrum and their families. As for
the musical itself, the sound and lighting were
softened. And the houselights were not com-
pletely shut off. Ilaina Leavitt, who brought
her seven-year-old son to Elf, explains: Some
children on the autism spectrum have a very
difcult time being outside the comforts of
their own environmentthey have sensory
challenges with loud noises and lights.
But the theatregoers seemed to enjoy
the performance, even the ones (including
Jonathan) who were escorted frequently into
the lobby. It was a pleasant learning curve
for all of us, Hagopian says.
Autism-friendly performances are one
of the two fastest-growing services for people
with communications barriers. One in 88
children in the United States are diagnosed in
the autism spectrum, says Carling. This is
too big a community to ignore. Since TDFs
rst autism-friendly performance in October
2011, the initiative has attracted a mailing list
of some 4,000 new theatregoers. Theatres
nationwide have contacted Carling in hopes of
setting up similar programs. Her advice: Give
yourself six months to a year to plan. Rely on
autism experts to take a look at the production
to see if its appropriate for people with autism.
Designate a day for that performance; dont
sell to the general audience.
Autism-friendly performances have been
proliferating around the country, such as The
Lion King at the Hobby Center in Houston in
2012, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! at the
Old Globe in San Diego, Calif., in 2012, and
Annie at Open Door Theater in Massachusetts
earlier this year. In May, Chicago Childrens
MAY/JUNE13 AMERICANTHEATRE 67
A special activity area at a TDF-sponsored autism-friendly performance of Elf.
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Theatre and Redmoon Theater will be
co-presenting an autism-friendly perfor-
mance of The Elephant & the Whale and
Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey will
present The Little Mermaid in June.
These performances give families
the opportunity to have the experience of
going to a show in an environment that
is very accepting, opines Leavitt. No
one is going to judge them.
Another other fast-growing service
in theatre technology is open captioning.
Thirty-ve million people are hearing-
impaired in the United States: Thats one
in seven Americansand after the age of
65, its one in three Americans, captioner
Mirabai Knight cited as she unloaded
what looked like 75 pounds of equip-
ment at the Barrow Street Theatre for the
sixth and nal open-captioned performance
of Tribes in January. She set up a tripod and
laptop computer; attached the various cables,
cords, wires and tape; and nished with the
LED display, which looked like the temporary
signs put up when there is construction on
the highway.
Although Russell Harvards aunt did
not think Tribes provided this service often
enough, most shows that offer open captioning
provide it only once during the runbecause
of the expense and the assumption that it
will disturb much of the audience. I have
gotten complaints that the sign is in the way,
Knight said. But thats rare. Most people are
excited. Even those who dont identify as
hard of hearing can benet, especially in a
show like Tribes, which was in the round
and was performed rapidly with thick
British accents.
A community has developed around
the captioned performances, one that
includes Robert and Debbie Wolfe, a
married couple who, despite their deaf-
ness, are longtime regular theatregoers
(they attended captioned performance of
Tribes). Before captioning began in 1997,
Debbie Wolfe says, I had difculty with
serious shows and would miss out a lot
on what was being said. I avoided them
for that reason. Now that the captioned
performances are available, I am able to
enjoy both musicals and dramas, and do
not miss anything.
ADVOCATES FOR DISABILITY RIGHTS
do not seem to cringe at what could be labeled
as the separate but equal doctrine underlying
accessible performances. But much recent
technology aims to integrate audiences. A
Kindle-like device called the i-Caption, which
is about twice the size of a cell phone, presents
the script in real time as it is performed.
D-Scriptive provides audio descriptions of
68 AMERICANTHEATRE MAY/JUNE13
At The Lion King on Broadway, theatre employee Rusty
Thelin holds an i-Caption device in his hand. Behind
him are infra-red assistive listening devices.
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24th STreet Theatre
Los Angeles Daring Theatre for Young Audiences
24thSTreet.org 213.745.6516
For touring information, contact theatre@24thstreet.org
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CURRENTS
MAY/JUNE13 AMERICANTHEATRE 69
the sets, costumes and action for the visually
impaired via an earpiece. Once the scripts are
prepared, neither service needs live opera-
tors; they can be run automatically, timed to
the shows lighting cues. Like the infrared
headsets, these services can be used during
regular performances.
NYCs Sound Associates developed
i-Caption and D-Scriptive about a decade
ago (they now offer both services on one
device), and they are available at a half-dozen
long-running Broadway shows, as well as at
the year-old Smith Center for the Performing
Arts in Las Vegas and the Benedum Center for
the Performing Arts in Pittsburgh.
An even more integrated system sets
up permanent caption devices on the back of
every seat. There has been a lot of interest
in the system as a means of discreetly display-
ing captions for the hearing impaired, says
Geoff Webb, president of Figaro Systems of
New Mexico, which developed the Simultext
Seatback Captioning System. In an ironic
twist, the device has wound up being installed
largely in opera housesvenues where almost
no one can understand what is being said or
sung onstage, so everyone uses our system
to follow what is happening. Webb and his
colleagues founded the company to bring more
hearing-impaired people into the theatreits
a modern-day echo of the story of Alexander
Graham Bell, who was looking for ways to
help the deaf (including both his mother and
his wife) when he invented the telephone.
REPERTORIO ESPAOL, A SPANISH-
language theatre in New York, installed Simul-
text captioning to attract English-speaking
theatregoers, but it is also reaching out to local
organizations that serve the hearing impaired
to make them aware of the new system. In the
past, when we had the infra-red headphones
for the translation system, approximately
10 percent of our audiences used it, says
associate producer Jose Antonio Cruz. Now
that we have both the audio amplication and
the Simultext systems, were hoping that the
number of people visiting our theatre that
may benet from the technology increases.
Technology has been developed in other
forms of entertainment as well; for example,
Sony Access Glasses are currently available
in movie theatres around the country. They
are slightly enlarged eyeglasses that pro-
vide captions that look as if they are oating
between the viewer and the screen. Emerging
technology could adapt glasses like these for
live performance.
And technology already exists to enable
personal cell phones and tablets to present
captions; these reportedly are used in some
sporting venues. But they are resisted by those
who service theatres, because there is no way
yet of stopping the user from photographing
or videotaping the performance. Cost, then,
is not the only barrier to realizing full and
equal enjoyment of the theatre. There are
technical issues and copyright concerns. But
above all there is the question of attitudes.
It was a change in attitude that allowed
theatregoers to start feeling comfortable being
seen wearing the assistive listening headsets;
the advent of similar-looking devices like
iPods helped with that. But audience attitudes
have also changed in the direction of greater
intolerance toward any distraction in the
theatregoing experiencean attitude likely
brought on in part by the steep rise in ticket
pricessuch as cell-phone usage and leaving
early at curtain calls.
Overall, most Americans have come to
accept the benets of integration and diversity.
To learn rsthand how accessibility applies to
those with communication barriers, ask for
the free D-Scriptive device at The Lion King
on Broadway, and listen to Tramons clear
and soothing voice before the show even
begins, as he describes rst the theatre, then
each of the characters one by one (Mufasa
moves majestically and with purpose, but
when he is angry or frustrated, he hunches
over and swings the lion mask down in front
of his face), and explains the intricacies of
the puppetry and the set.
As the musical begins with a melliuous
chant from the ensemble, Tramon says softly
in the earpiece: A fog crawls in from the back
of the stage as a warm light begins to glow
red. His voice gains speed. Three zebras
prance in a circle on the stage. Four men
with a gazelle on their head and one on each
arm enter and leap...Pride Rock spirals up.
By the time of the curtain call (Three
hyenas enter and bow. Everyone bows
together again. The light in the audience
brightens), the Circle of Life is richly illu-
minated, for the blind and the sighted alike.
New York Citybased arts writer
Jonathan Mandell is a frequent con-
tributor to this magazine. He tweets
as @NewYorkTheater.
H O M E O F T H E M E I S N E R T E C H N I Q U E
It all began at The Neighborhood Playhouse.
I have so many fond memories of my time there. It still resonates with me today. I came in
with the dream of being an actress, and I left with the skills I needed to pursue that dream.
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theatre, film and television
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