Chicago theaters aim for barrier-free experiences for disabled audience members

From the Chicago Tribune:

As the theater lights dim, Marcia Trawinski (pictured) prepares to become engrossed. Although she is legally blind, Trawinski is able to "fully" experience plays with the help of assisted services.

Before, the former high school crisis counselor and ballet teacher said she relied on her "elbow" method.

"I was missing important things, so I would elbow friends and say, ‘What are they doing?'" said Trawinski, who lives in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side. "So to have this is a wonderful, breakthrough experience. This gives me my dimension of knowing. I can feel like a full participant."

Trawinski takes part in Victory Gardens Biograph Theater's Access Project, which provides "barrier-free" theater for individuals with disabilities. The program offers a wide range of services for the vision-, hearing- and mobility-impaired and stages original works dealing with disability issues and written by playwrights who have disabilities.

Access Project Co-Director Mike Ervin estimates that fewer than 100 theaters nationally offer assistive services, "but I've not seen one that does as much as we do."

Victory Gardens, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., took over the Access Project from the now-defunct Remains Theater 15 years ago. On selected performances, patrons with disabilities can take "touch tours" of the set, are introduced to the actors and hear audio-described performances through a headset. Other services offered include Braille and large-print programs, set models with Braille descriptions, word-for-word captioning, sign-language interpretation and specially designed seating that can be rearranged to make patrons in wheelchairs more comfortable. Chicago-based advocacy group Deaf Illinois has named it the city's best accessible theater.

Trawinski has had poor vision since childhood from a rare condition that eventually rendered her blind.

Because one of the most difficult things for a blind person about following a performance is knowing which character is speaking, Trawinski says meeting the actors beforehand is important. Actors introduce themselves, giving patrons a "voice print" that helps them follow who is who as the play unfolds. They also give detailed descriptions of their characters' appearance, personality, mannerisms and dress, and offer a "heads-up" about things like sight gags, special effects or poignant moments without giving away the plot.

She said the touch tours, which allow the visually impaired to familiarize themselves with the sets, props, costumes and actors, help her understand the silent subtleties in a performance.

"It was so frustrating before. I would be in the theater and think to myself, ‘Everyone's laughing, why are they laughing?' I missed the joke; nobody wants to miss a joke or the drama," said Trawinski. "Things that are so significant to a play … an embrace, a tear down a cheek, what they are wearing, how they look. … I don't want to get an abridged version of something so many people worked so hard to create. I'm in the moment the way the directors, producers and actors intend for me to be."

Audio descriptions help fill in the blanks, said Trawinski. An audio-describer sits in the control booth of the theater, and, sounding much like a golf announcer, describes the actors' physical appearance, mannerisms, body language and dress. The audio describer also alerts listeners to silent occurrences such as stage entrances and exits, movements around the stage, facial expressions, body language, an awkward silence, an embrace.

"My main job is to stay out of the way," said audio describer and actor Victor Cole, who reads the script and views the play twice before narrating a production.

Inspired by Victory Gardens' program, Steppenwolf Theatre expanded its accessibility services last year, said Steppenwolf front-of-house manager Evan Hatfield. The theater offers sensory tours with the actors and has one sign language-interpreted and audio-described performance of each of its five subscription productions.

Other Chicago theaters also offer services beyond wheelchair accessibility for disabled theater-goers. The Chicago Shakespeare Theater at Navy Pier offers one audio-described and American Sign Language-interpreted performance of each play it stages. The Goodman Theatre has one signed performance of each production; the Briar Street Theatre offers a schedule of signed performances of " Blue Man Group" and audio-described performances by request; and Black Ensemble Theater offers signed performances by request.