Good News Update on Paramount Theater Captioning
We've been in constant touch with Seattle's Paramount Theatre representatives over the last 24 hours. We're happy to report that what was yesterday a pretty chaotic situation (which chaos was responsible for yesterday's semi-snarky post) has now been clarified, and it now appears that captioned live theater will indeed be available to Seattle audiences.
Paramount is setting aside 40 tickets for the captioned performance of A Chorus Line on Aug. 10 at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available in that block at a discounted price of $38.
To get those tickets, call the Paramount box office at 206-467-5510 and state that you want tickets in the caption section. You can also use the Ticketmaster TTY line, 800-725-6244. Given the brief time between now and the performance, it hasn't been possible to arrange for on-line purchases of these tickets with Ticketron.
Anyone who pulled the trigger yesterday based on the information that was then available (including me) and bought tickets outside the caption section can exchange them by mailing the physical tickets back to Paramount, and explaining that they were purchased outside the caption section before learning about the block-seating arrangement..
Like many theaters, Paramount does have assistive listening devices (ALDs), and does offer sign-language interpreted performances. Unitl now, though, they have offered nothing for those of us who don't hear well enough to follow dramatic dialogue or sung lyrics even with the ALDs, but who don't use sign language. We've found that there is relatively little awareness that people in that hearing "gap" exist as a distinct group with distinct requirements which are very different from the needs of the culturally deaf, who use sign language.
We're hoping for a great turnout, and that this will be the first of many captioned-theater experiences in Seattle.
