Elmwood Playhouse Premieres Open-captioned Theatre!
Elmwood Playhouse is very excited to bring a new level of accessibility to its production of The Lifespan of a Fact. Currently celebrating its 75th season of delivering award-winning, high quality live theater to a diverse and geographically expanding audience, Elmwood isn’t resting on its laurels. The theater installed a T-Coil loop hearing assist program in 2013 and patrons were thrilled! But according to Lisa Spielman, President of Elmwood’s Board of Directors, “We strive to constantly broaden the accessibility of the live theater experience. We are thrilled that this open-captioned performance allows an even greater number of people from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community to enjoy the production.”
Most people are familiar with closed captioning—many of us use it when watching our favorite Netflix videos. So how is open captioning different? Open captioning cannot be turned on or off. It is considered passive assistance; the service is available for an audience member to use or ignore. The display is positioned in such a way that it is open for anyone to see, regardless of the seating area. The captions are, literally, open to all. There are no special devices that would set one audience member apart from another and there is not set-up required to turn it on or off.
Elmwood’s production will be live-captioned. The dialogue onstage will be transmitted verbatim in real time. The captioner enters exactly what is said, when it is said. The display will appear above the center of the stage, ensuring an unobstructed view from all available seats.
C2, the caption provider, pioneered live theatrical captioning for patrons with hearing loss. C2 delivers live performance captioning for Hard of Hearing and Deaf patrons at live theatrical and cultural events on Broadway, off-Broadway, Kennedy and Lincoln Centers, national performing arts venues, touring houses, and top-shelf regional theaters, large and small, coast to coast.
The Lifespan of a Fact is written by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell based on the book by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal. Elmwood’s production is directed by Claudia Stefany and stars John Ade, Meg Sewell, and Hillel Rosenshine. The show is a razor-sharp exploration of what happens when the facts get in the way of a good story and a fast-paced battle over the nature of truth.
Elmwood Playhouse is located at 10 Park Street in Nyack, NY. Tickets are $27 / $24 Seniors, Students, and Military. Visit elmwoodplayhouse.com to purchase tickets, view Elmwood’s current Covid policies, or learn more about the show. Tickets can also be purchased by calling the Box Office at 845-353-1313.
In addition to the open-captioned performance on Thursday, February 2, The Lifespan of a Fact has performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays at 2 pm through February 4.
