Theatre for the Deaf

There was a time when deaf people couldn’t experience the joy of a theatrical performance. This is all changing, thanks to Sign Language theatre interpreters.

Deaf people should enjoy a play as much as the hearing audience. This is the thinking behind the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that theatres become accessible to deaf people. Theatre producers, on the other hand, are beginning to realise that such a feature makes their product attractive to a wider audience – with considerable financial rewards. Interpreted theatre usually takes place as two or three performances in a theatre season. Preference for tickets is given to the deaf and their guests, but tickets are also sold to hearing people who are interested in seeing theatre interpreters at work.

It is a colossal project for the interpreters. Ian Cox works for SeeTheatre, a Chicago-based association of interpreters. He says, "for about a month we work with the support of a Sign Language consultant to translate and rehearse an entire play. The workload is immense.

Consider that each actor in the play has about four weeks to rehearse his or her lines; we have to learn the whole play in as much time. And, when interpreting musicals, where timing, rhythm and harmonies must be practised, the workload doubles."

The most important technical aspect of theatre interpretation for the deaf is the location of the interpreter. Placement strategies can be categorised into three styles: ‘placed’, where interpreters are located outside the acting space and do not move; ‘zoned’, where interpreters are within the acting space, but usually move only during a change of scene or act; and, finally, ‘shadowed’, where interpreters move freely within the acting space, shadowing the movement of the actors for whom they are interpreting