Who’s devising your theatre experience? A director’s approach to inclusive theatre for blind and low vision theatregoers

Naraine, Mala D.; Whitfield, Margot; Fels, Deborah I.

doi:10.1177/1470357217727678

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…Different approaches are being piloted across the country as venues and organizations in and beyond the theatre sector attempt to meet (and hopefully exceed) accessibility standards. Approaches to enacting access include, but are not limited to, audio described performances (e.g., Naraine et al, 2018;Whitfield & Fels, 2015), live captioning, and RP (Fletcher-Watson, 2015;Fletcher-Watson & May, 2018;Kempe, 2014Kempe, , 2015Simpson, 2018).…”

Section: "Creating Access" In the Artsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Letting Bodies be Bodies: Exploring Relaxed Performance in the Canadian Performance Landscape

LaMarre

Rice

Besse

2021

SSJ

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There is an increasing movement toward accessibility in arts spaces, including recent legislative changes and commitments at individual, organizational, and systemic levels to integrating access into the arts across Canada. In this article, we explore Relaxed Performance (RP) in the context of this movement. We present the results of a reflexive thematic analysis of interviews conducted with participants who completed RP training offered by the British Council to . understand the training’s effectiveness and impact. We explore the significance of the training, and of RP in general, and in relation to disability studies and cultural and political activism. We undertake this exploration against a backdrop of interrogating who RP is for and by. The themes we describe are: Committed to Access, Training is Critical, Inviting Bodies to be Bodies, and Imagining Audiences. These themes tell a story of how RP relates to broader access work, the importance of training grounded in and led by disability/difference, the need to consider the relationships between bodies and spaces, and the tensions inherent to billing RP as “for all.” We conclude with an exploration of possible modifications, enhancements, or theoretical imaginings that could help RP to become more radically open to difference as it emerges, shifts, and changes.

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Section: "Creating Access" In the Artsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Letting Bodies be Bodies: Exploring Relaxed Performance in the Canadian Performance Landscape

LaMarre

Rice

Besse

2021

SSJ

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“…I don't like boring voices, so I need emotional connection as well" (Cavallo & Fryer, 2018, p. 21). TAD is independent in the sense that decisions about content (content selection and the choice of words to describe it) are taken by the describers in collaboration with each other, rather than with members of the artistic team (Naraine, Whitfield & Fels, 2018). When the process is explained, doubts have been raised in users' minds as to the reliability of this third-party source of information (Lopez, Kearney & Hofstadter, 2018).…”

Section: Traditional Admentioning

confidence: 99%

The independent audio describer is dead: Long live audio description!

Fryer

2018

JAT

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Traditional audio description (AD) is giving way to integrated audio description in which media accessibility is no longer an add-on but built in from the start in collaboration with the artistic team. As directors and producers take a greater interest in making their work accessible to audience members with a sensory impairment, how are the power dynamics altered between the stakeholders? The idea of abusive forms of translation advanced by Lewis (1985) and Nornes (1999) is reconsidered, together with the sanctity of the source text (ST). Also assessed is the impact on the role and hence the training needs of the professional audio describer. Using data from research projects developed by Extant, the UK’s leading professional performing arts company of visually impaired people, and from the European research project ADLAB PRO, this paper concludes that a describer’s skills and competences are still required even with the evolution of integrated AD.

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Culturally-responsive devising as performance

Harris

2023

Text and Performance Quarterly

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Who’s devising your theatre experience? A director’s approach to inclusive theatre for blind and low vision theatregoers

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

Letting Bodies be Bodies: Exploring Relaxed Performance in the Canadian Performance Landscape

Letting Bodies be Bodies: Exploring Relaxed Performance in the Canadian Performance Landscape

The independent audio describer is dead: Long live audio description!

Culturally-responsive devising as performance

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