ABLEnews Extra

                        See Hear

                         The play's the thing
          Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.
                                                (Hamlet)

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    Audio Description--Seeing Theater With Your Ears

John Miers
National Institute of Mental Health
JMIERS@AOAMH3.SSW.DHHS.GOV

When the lights came up on the Arena Stage production of Ibsen's The
Wild Duck, even people who cannot see perceived in the mind's eye a
rich variety of colors, lighting effects, levels and movements. Thanks
to Audio Description, all theatergoers were able to experience the
visually engaging production of this Ibsen classic.

Audio Description is a narration service that offers live commentary
and narration for patrons at participating theaters throughout the
Washington, DC area, one of a handful of areas in the country where
audio description is provided.  People desiring this service reserve
headphones attached to small receivers, about the size of a cigarette
pack.  An audio describer narrates the performance from another part
of the theater via a radio or infra-red transmitter.  The narrator
guides the audience through the production with concise, objective
descriptions of new scenes, settings, costumes, body language and
"sight gags," all slipped in between portions of dialogue or songs.

The audio describer is often referred to as a "verbal camera lens,"
faithfully and objectively recounting the visual aspects of a
production.  Qualitative judgments are avoided; listeners must be free
to deduce from the commentary.  You don't say "He is angry" or "She is
sad".  Rather, "He's clenching his fist" or "She is crying".  Audio
describers must convey with the words they choose and the tone of
their voices the emotions the actors convey through their body
language.  Audio description represents a landmark in technology for
accessible arts programs, one of the newest developments in efforts to
make the arts totally accessible to everyone.

Audio describers are carefully trained to "re-see" theater.  Were you
to listen in on an audio description training session, you'd hear
comments like -- "It wasn't just a dress; it was a pleated, red silk
dress." "You should have mentioned the letter-opener when he laid it
on the desk.  He uses it later to kill her."

[with a tip of our ABLEnews' hat to Prof. Norm Coombs of the
Information and Technology for the Disabled (ITD) Journal]

ABLEnews Editor's Note: On June 15-17, the first annual National
                        Conference on Audio Description was conduted
                        by the John F. Kennedy Center for the
                        Performing Arts, in cooperation with the
                        National Endowment for the Arts and the
                        Association for Theatre and Disability, at the
                        Kennedy Center.

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