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 Open Captioning for Fully-Accessible Theatre:
Open captioning makes live theatre performances accessible for the estimated 30 million audience members in the United States who are hard of hearing and deaf. By using a non-intrusive caption board at the front of the House which scrolls the entire text of the production, open captioning provides enjoyment for audience members who are not self-identified as hard of hearing or who merely wish to catch a missed word or phrase. The "passive assistance" nature of open captioning allows patrons to enjoy captioning discretely, as part of the general audience at large - without requiring special equipment or knowledge of American Sign Language.
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Kevin Carroll and Brenda Pressley
in August Wilson's Seven Guitars. (Carol Rosegg)
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About Signature's open captioning:
For the past three years, Signature Theatre Company has partnered with c2 (caption coalition) inc. in offering open caption performances as part of Signature's accessibility programming. c2 was formed in 2002 by David Chu and Donald DePew as a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocate for the provision of professional Live Performance Captioning (sm) for the arts. c2 holds the distinction of being the first ever to caption live theatre, and now, a decade later, boasts an impressive roster of prestigious venues across the country now offering this vital access program. For more information, please visit www.c2net.org.
Signature's 2009-2010 Season
Currently, there are two open caption performances scheduled for The Orphan’s Home Cycle: the 2pm matinee of Part 1 “The Story of a Childhood” on Saturday, November 21st, 2009; and the 7pm performance of Part 2 “The Story of a Marriage” on Thursday, December 17th, 2009. The open caption performance date for Part 3 “The Story of a Family” is being determined.
To book seats for these performances, please contact Flora Pei, Marketing Associate at 212-967-1913 ext. 14 or fpei@signaturetheatre.org. We have reserved a select number of seats in theatre to give audience members the best possible view of the caption screen. If you would like to sit in this section, please indicate that when making your reservation.
A limited number of assistive listening devices are also available, free of charge. These devices can be picked up at the concessions counter and are offered for every performance - captioned and non-captioned - at Signature.
Funding for open captioning at Signature Theatre Company is provided, in part, by a grant from Theatre Development Fund's TAP Plus program in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts.
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