Strike a Chord: Bringing Broadway to a Deaf Audience
Strike a Chord: Bringing Broadway to a Deaf Audience
The Broadway stage is a feast for the senses. But what if one of those senses--like hearing--was not there?
That is where the organization Hands On can help. They use sign language to translate the shows for deaf and hard of hearing audience members. Beth Prevor is the director of Hands On. She said a lot of theaters want their deaf audience members to feel welcome.
"It's always been that the theaters that have been interested in providing these services have been wanting to provide those services because they want to provide," said Prevor.
Candace Broecker-Penn is one of their sign language interpreters. She said they usually work in groups of three, and the first step is going to see the show.
"We want to experience the show as an audience member, because that's going to be the goal of our interpreted performances," Broecker-Penn said. "Hopefully the deaf audience is having the same experience as the larger audience."
Broecker-Penn said they then divide up all the roles and start practicing. She said that sign language uses more than just the hands to communicate. They use the entire upper body to get across the subtleties of the lines.
"The grammar of sign language--pauses, question marks, exclamation points--all of that's depicted on the face," explained Broecker-Penn. "So the tone, the mood, all of that information happens on the face."
However, Broecker-Penn does not want to distract from the performance. They just want the action onstage to be accessible to everyone.
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See our other stories in the Strike a Chord series here
Making Communication Accessible, One App at a Time
