Posted on May 29, 2009 by John Waldo

5th Avenue Theatre releases captioning schedule

Seattle's Fifth Avenue Theatre this week released its schedule of captioned performances for the 2009-10 season.

The first captioned performance will be "Catch Me If You Can," a new musical version of the Leonardo di Caprio movie based on the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction biography of Frank Abegnale, an imposter-embezzler who used his gift of gab to pose as a professional in a number of fields, and made off with millions in the process.  The captioned performance will be Wednesday, August 12, at 7:30 p.m.

The rest of the schedule is:

"Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," Friday, Oct. 23, 8 p.m.

"White Christmas," Sunday, Dec. 27, 1:30 p.m.

"South Pacific," (the revival by Intiman Theatre's Bartlett Sher that won seven Tony Awards), Saturday, Feb. 20, 2 p.m.

"Legally Blonde," another movie-turned-musical, Friday, March 5, 8 p.m.

"On the Town," Friday, April 23, 8 p.m.

"Candide," Wednesday, June 2, 7:30 p.m.

Fifth Avenue is undertaking captioned performances at the request of the Washinton State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP), a non-profit membership corporation whose goal is to make Washington's public places accessible to people with hearing loss. The captioning arrangement will be very similar to Seattle's Paramount Theatre -- a portable reader-board will be placed to one side of the stage, and the captions will be scrolled in synch with the performance.

Fifth Avenue will sell two tickets to the captioned section at a discounted price of $37. Buyers of those discounted tickets can buy two additional tickets at the regular price.

Season subscriptions to the captioned performances are available. You can get the details on the "Accessibility" page of Fifth Avenue's website, http://www.5thavenue.org/accessibility/.

For those who can't attend the special captioned performances, Fifth Avenue will offer scripts in illuminated binders at all performances.

Fifth Avenue joins Seattle's Paramount Theatre in becoming accessible to people with significant hearing losses by offering one captioned performance of each of its Broadway-type productions. Paramount's schedule for the remainder of 2009 is available on a prior post.

 

 

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Posted on May 12, 2009 by John Waldo

Mariners score big with ballgame captioning

One of our more recent entries announced that the Seattle Mariners would try to accommodate fans with hearing loss by making available portable video-game terminals that would display captions. A Wash-CAP board member tested the system last week, and said it is terrific.

"The device is very good," reports board member Dean Olson. "I was able to read it and then look up at the game. It's useful information -- like when the stories come up to read about the players."

What is being captioned is the Mariners' radio broadcast, which is also fed into the stadium. When the public-address announcer chimes in, that announcement overrides the broadcast, and  when that happens, the captions are of the PA announcer. So the captions convey the same information that is being piped into the stadium for the hearing fans.

The devices may be checked out at the Nintendo kiosk behind home plate. Dean reports that they took a credit card and charged $300 as collateral, but when he turned the device in after the game, they gave him the slip to tear up.

The Washington hearing-loss community will have a chance to check out those devices en masse on July 10. The Puget Sound Chapter of the Association of Late Deafened Adults (ALDA) and the Seattle Hearing, Speech and Deafness Center (HSDC) are promoting a night at the ballpark. There will be a section cordoned off for us, so we can sit together, say hi to our friends, and enjoy a summer night at the ball game. (The opponent will be the Texas Rangers).

The Mariners will set up a special button on the "special group" area of  the team website for us to order tickets, and the tickets won't be limited to hearing-loss folks -- we can all bring our friends and families. Let's have a big turnout to support the Mariners and their efforts to support us.

 

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