Signed Interpreters

Hi Ashley,

I have just moved to the Arts Centre in Melbourne from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and can best let you know how this was being handled at the Abbey Theatre:

The Abbey Theatre schedules one Captioned, one Audio Described and one Sign Language Interpreted performance for each in-house production on the main stage and one SLIP (Sign Language Interpreted Performance) performance for every in-house production in their smaller venue in advance of ticket sales commencing. These performance dates are advertised in the season brochure and online.

Access performances for visiting companies would depend on the production and company performing.

Depending on the staging and set design, the Interpreters stand either on stage or a purpose build podium on the floor that raises them slightly above the audience to house left which we needed to remove a couple of seats to facilitate.

The Abbey sets aside ideal seats for users of these services using hold codes so they are easily identified by the Box Office team. They were not allowing these seats to be sold online - however it is something that had been raised as a possible future need.

The access performances are also identifiable in the performance list when purchasing online. eg as Evening / SLIP so customers are aware of the nature of the performance and presence of the captioning units/Interpreters so that they can make an informed decision to attend of not on a particular day.

I have only recently started here in Melbourne and can provide the following overview so far:

As a receiving house, a lot of the access performance requirements the Arts Centre are dictated by the performing company. As a producing house, the Arts Centre provides access performances for some but not all events and the requirements vary depending on the production.

I hope that this has been helpful?

Thanks,

Mardi.

Hi Ashley,

I have just moved to the Arts Centre in Melbourne from the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and can best let you know how this was being handled at the Abbey Theatre:

The Abbey Theatre schedules one Captioned, one Audio Described and one Sign Language Interpreted performance for each in-house production on the main stage and one SLIP (Sign Language Interpreted Performance) performance for every in-house production in their smaller venue in advance of ticket sales commencing. These performance dates are advertised in the season brochure and online.

Access performances for visiting companies would depend on the production and company performing.

Depending on the staging and set design, the Interpreters stand either on stage or a purpose build podium on the floor that raises them slightly above the audience to house left which we needed to remove a couple of seats to facilitate.

The Abbey sets aside ideal seats for users of these services using hold codes so they are easily identified by the Box Office team. They were not allowing these seats to be sold online - however it is something that had been raised as a possible future need.

The access performances are also identifiable in the performance list when purchasing online. eg as Evening / SLIP so customers are aware of the nature of the performance and presence of the captioning units/Interpreters so that they can make an informed decision to attend of not on a particular day.

I have only recently started here in Melbourne and can provide the following overview so far:

As a receiving house, a lot of the access performance requirements the Arts Centre are dictated by the performing company. As a producing house, the Arts Centre provides access performances for some but not all events and the requirements vary depending on the production.

I hope that this has been helpful?

Thanks,

Mardi.