EarSighted Service Provides
Audio Description in Vancouver
To contact EarSighted Audio Description or be notified of upcoming Audio Described performances please email: programs@kickstart-arts.ca.
SPINE
Tuesday March 16, 8:00 pm
A live Audio Described performance of SPINE
Audio Description begins at 7:45pm, please be at the theatre by 7:15pm.
Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre,
SFU Woodward’s, 149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Tickets with Audio Description March 16 only are 2 for 1: $35 and attendant is free.
Book Tickets through Vancouver Playhouse: 604-873-3311
Please inform the Box Office you are booking for Kickstart's EarSighted Audio Description, if you will be accompanied by a guide dog, or if you require wheelchair seating.
ABOUT SPINE
From the creative trio that produced the wildly popular action-adventure-comedy Skydive in 2007. University of Alberta’s Kevin Kerr, Simon Fraser University alumnus James Sanders (Realwheels) and award-winning Vancouver actor Bob Frazer. SPINE takes audiences into a virtual universe where avatars provide a seductive opportunity to reinvent one’s body and soul, free from the boundaries of human physicality and conventional morality. It’s a modern exploration of our changing relationship with our bodies and our notions of identity, truth, and love in an increasingly mediated world.
Audio Description Provided by EarSighted - Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture. In partnership with SFU Woodward’s Inaugural Program and the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad 2010.
HIVE3
Thursday March 18, 7:00 pm
Live Audio Description of HIVE3 performances.
Audio Description begins at 6:45pm, please be at the centre by 6:30pm.
The Centre for Digital Media, 577 Great Northern Way, Vancouver
Directions: From Main Street follow 2nd Avenue east 4 blocks, it is on North side of the street.
Tickets: 604-629-8849 or http://vancouvertix.com
If booking online contact programs@kickstart-arts.ca first for ticket code.
Tickets with Audio Description $17. Attendants free. General Ticketing $25, $20.
Please inform the Box Office you are booking for Kickstart's EarSighted Audio Description.
ABOUT HIVE3
12 West Coast theatre companies perform innovative 15 minute pieces. Past HIVE events have been wildly popular affairs with stimulating work, music and dancing into the night. The theatres are: Boca del Lupo, Electric Company, Felix Culpa, Leaky Heaven Circus, neworldtheatre, The Only Animal, Pi Theatre, Radix, Rumble Productions, Theatre Replacement, Theatre Conspiracy and Theatre SKAM. With the support of British Columbia Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Government of Manitoba, the Government of Nova Scotia and the Government of Saskatchewan
Audio Description Provided by EarSighted - Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture. In partnership with HIVE3 and the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad 2010.
Audio Description in the Performing Arts, The Vancouver Sun, November 3 2009
More about Kickstart Festival 2010 Events on Facebook
Audio Description (AD) is a highly effective way to make theatre, opera, museum exhibits, sporting events and other cultural opportunities more available to people who are blind or partially sighted.
When a selected event or performance is Audio-Described, the receiving audience members are issued an earphone and small (3 by 4-inch) wireless receiver. The sender, through a portable transmitter, describes the sets, lighting and costumes in pre-show notes which begin 15 minutes before the performance. When the show itself begins, the onstage action and set changes are described in between actors' lines.
Describers communicate the essential visual aspects of a performance, in order to help listeners share the total experience of the production. Describers are reporters only; they do not try to interpret the performers’ actions. They only describe the actions, and allow the listeners to develop their own opinions and conclusions.
In a theatre or hall setting, the Audio Describer usually sits in a soundproof booth somewhere where they can both see the stage and hear the onstage dialogue, through headphones or a speaker into the booth.
Audio Describers attend one or more performances, prepare detailed notes on the set, costume and lighting design. On the night of the performance, they provide pre-show notes about the production drawn from their own research as well as the programme.
Kickstart determined in 2008 that it would take the lead in introducing the practice of Audio Description for live performance in Vancouver and Canada.
Early in 2009, Kickstart selected 8 individuals for initial training by leading North American AD consultant and trainer, Deborah Lewis. The first stage of training was completed in March 2009, and included input from Tamara Tedesco, Board member of ASIC – Access for Sight Impaired Consumers.
Kickstart has since been introducing AD to the theatre community, arts administrators and potential funders. Part of this effort was to present a workshop about AD at the Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance’s Making A Scene Conference in October of 2009.
That same month, Kickstart offered a ‘sneak preview’ of live Audio Description, with a performance of The Miracle Worker at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre. The event was in collaboration with CNIB – Canadian National Institute for the Blind – and received rave reviews from the community:
“I attended the Vancouver Playhouse's performance of The Miracle Worker. I was extremely impressed with the live audio description. Not only was the service beneficial for me as a blind patron, but it was also beneficial for my sighted companion. Without the AD, my companion would be trying to provide the description. This is distracting to him, since he is not able to fully focus on and enjoy the play himself, but it can also be annoying to other patrons sitting nearby. In addition, my companion would never be able to provide as much detail about the set design, costumes, and physical attributes of the actors. Most importantly, the AD allows me the independence and choice to attend a live theatre production without having to rely on a sighted companion. I would be interested in attending more live theatre presentations that were accompanied by AD, and to pass on information to my sight impaired friends and acquaintances”.
“The audio support made the play for me. I didn't miss a thing and I think we had more information than the general public. Please notify me if the Playhouse has a similar presentation. Thanks for the enjoyment.”
Kickstart is preparing to work with Vancouver theatres to develop an Audio Description Season in 2010/11, in which a number of individual theatres provide one AD performance per run. A city-wide season will allow sight-impaired patrons to tailor a season from a selection of AD performances. The service will utilize existing assisted hearing systems or where they don’t exist, Kickstart’s newly acquired, 20-headset portable system.
