Thursday, January 28, 2010
George Picks Up the Black Ball...
An Angry White Guy in Chicago: "Sunday was the day that the DCA Theater folks arranged to have The (edward) Hopper Project be ADA Compliant for one show. Specifically, they hired two sign language interpreters to sit onstage and translate the show for anyone deaf and a guy who describes the show via individual headset units for the blind."
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2 comments:
I've wondered exactly what goes on in those headphones, because (and certainly hoping not to sound completely insensitive here) I really had no idea why a blind person would want to "see" a show, especially since so much happens in the nuance of a person's body position and face that can never be expressed in words. It's wild to read the transcripts, though, because of how incredibly confusing the door melee comedy bit gets... part of the draw of those scenes is the insanity of people running everywhere, and some of that is picked up in the narrator's frantic rambling, but it just doesn't feel like it could compare with the visual representation.
Any time a show gets transformed from the original production there will be noticeable changes to the experience, both for those for whom the show has become accessible as well as for those who notice a sign language interpreter, a supertitle board, or even transmitters tucked up into the corners. For those who do not need those accommodations then they are usually at most a minor distraction, but for some of us they are also an source of interest as well. When I see a sign language interpreter I often wonder exactly how the show is being translated, especially when long stretches of dialogue seem to be rendered with only a few signs, or vice versa. Reading this article gave me a better idea of how those changes happen - the interpreter is doing their best to translate in real time, possibly forsaking some of the minor details to get the general feeling across. Even for the best interpreter though, it will still be a change in the experience because the interpreter becomes something that splits your attention.
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