07/02/06  -  Theatre captioning comes to Scotland!

Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing theatre audiences are in for a treat thanks to a two-year grant from the Scottish Arts Council and the ADAPT Trust to set up a captioning service in Scotland and funding from the Gannochy Trust and the Hugh Fraser Foundation to buy the equipment. 

STAGETEXT, which pioneered theatre captioning in the UK in May 2000, is initially working with theatres in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to develop the service, and has trained three local captioners.  Fifteen captioned performances are planned for the first year, with 20 in year two. Seven have already been scheduled - Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, Miss Saigon, Private Lives, Starlight Express, Romeo and Juliet, and Mum’s the Word, and booking is now open.  

“Having a captioning hub in Scotland will ensure that venues can afford to offer more captioned performances,” said Tabitha Allum, Chief Executive of STAGETEXT. “It is obviously far more cost-effective to have local captioners, equipment and technical support rather than having to send people up from London. It will also mean that responsibility for developing audiences will lie locally.” 

What is captioning? 

Captions are similar to television subtitles; character names, sound effects and offstage noises are also included. A trained captioner prepares the script in advance so that it mirrors the rhythm and flow of the dialogue.  They then send the captions to the display unit at the same time as the actors speak or sing, giving deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people equal access to the performance. Timing the captions is crucial so as not to pre-empt any joke punchlines or dramatic effects.  

The caption unit shows three lines of text, in amber lettering, and is installed in the set or next to the stage. The captions can be seen by the whole audience, so you can sit with your family and friends in seats which have been specially reserved for viewing the captions. 

"The isolation that comes to you when deafness arrives is entirely removed with captioning. It lets you join with your hearing friends and family to enjoy an evening of entertainment, and that's exactly what equality is all about,” says deafened theatregoer Gillian Wilson.  

Note to editors:

For further information on captioned performances in Scotland, please contact Anna Castle, Programme Manager, STAGETEXT, York House, Empire Way, Wembley HA9 0PA. Telephone/Textphone: 020 8903 5566  Fax: 020 8903 8647

Email: [email protected]    Website: www.stagetext.org

STAGETEXT captioned performances in Scotland

ABERDEEN

HIS MAJESTY’S THEATRE

Ticket sales: 01224 641122

 Miss Saigon on Monday 22 May at 7.30pm

Set in 1975 during the final days leading up to the American evacuation of Saigon, Miss Saigon is an epic love story about the relationship between an American GI and a young Vietnamese woman.

 EDINBURGH

 FESTIVAL THEATRE

Box Office: 0131 529 6000  Textphone (via Typetalk): 18001 0131 529 6003  

Fax: 0131 662 1199

 Anything Goes on Saturday 4 March at 2.30pm

Mismatched lovers and mistaken identities create waves of laughter and the cast sing and dance up a storm but this show is unsinkable - it will send you sailing happily into the sunset!

KING’S THEATRE

Box Office: 0131 529 6000 Textphone (via Typetalk): 18001 0131 529 6003

Fax: 0131 662 1199

Private Lives on Friday 17 February at 7.30pm

Honeymooning in Deauville with their new partners, divorcees Elyot and Amanda are at first horrified to find themselves contemplating the sea view from adjacent hotel balconies. However, their passion promptly reignited, the capricious couple elope to Amanda's Paris flat where they resume the slanging match which drove them apart in the first place.

GLASGOW

KING’S THEATRE

Box Office: 0141 240 1111 Fax: 0141 240 1301

Anything Goes on Wednesday 15 March at 2.30pm

See Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, for show information.

Mum’s the Word on Thursday 15 June at 7.30pm

It is 10 years on from the first show and the mothers are now managing the hopes, dreams and tantrums of their teenage offspring, dealing with everything from sex and drugs to their own marriages, illnesses and dreams, lost and found!

THEATRE ROYAL

Box Office: 0141 240 1133 or 0141 332 9000

Romeo and Juliet on Thursday 16 March at 2.30pm

This fast paced, raw but stylish production is directed by Bill Bryden. As Associate Director at the National Theatre his credits included The Iceman Cometh, Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo and the landmark production of The Mysteries. Romeo & Juliet is the latest in a series of highly regarded collaborations between Birmingham Repertory Theatre and The Touring Consortium.

Starlight Express on Saturday 22 July at 2.30pm

This futuristic tale of the triumph of love and hope in the face of adversity is a feel-good musical with something for everyone, including over 20 of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s greatest songs and all the thrills and spills of roller-racing action. Starlight Express brings audiences a performance with speed, spectacle and turbocharged excitement.

When booking, please ask the Box Office which seats are most suitable for reading the captions.