An LED panel — similar to a "now boarding" sign at an airport gate — will be positioned to the left of the stage during the musical's matinee today. Three lines will scroll up the 4-foot-wide, 1-foot-tall screen, one line at a time, and be easily viewed from 20-some rows to house left. The 2-inch-high amber-colored text will be loaded into a laptop computer, but scrolled live, allowing any unscripted speech to be added.

Rochester is known for having a large deaf population for its size. But significantly more people — likely more than 100,000 people in Monroe County — have some degree of hearing loss. Captioning can help people with varied levels of hearing, including those without hearing aids and those who don't know American Sign Language, as long as they can read English.

The federal Americans with Disabilities Act requires theaters that are open to the public to make their programs accessible if the accommodations don't present an undue financial hardship or fundamentally alter that nature of their service. Local theaters and movie theaters offer some options for deaf and hard-of-hearing patrons, but because of its cost, captioning of live performances is common locally only at Mercury Opera, which provides scrolling translations above the stage.

The move for captioning the Mamma Mia! performance was initiated and paid for by the Rochester chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America, an all-volunteer group of about 250 members. Using money raised from its spring Walk4Hearing along the Erie Canal in Perinton, the group reserved a wedge-shaped section of 105 seats with a good view of the caption screen, all of which are sold. It also paid about $2,500 to contract out the captioning service.

"My hope is we can get this going long-term," said HLAA member Peter Fackler of Rochester, who spearheaded the effort over the past two years after he learned of live theater captioning elsewhere. The Queens-based c2 (caption coalition) inc., a non-profit effort, has captioned at least 800 theatrical productions in more than 180 venues.

Fackler's goal is to have at least one of every RBTL show captioned next season. The challenge is how to pay for it.

Shannon Struzik, administrative and event operations manager for the Rochester Broadway Theatre League, which owns and manages the Auditorium Theatre, said RBTL will work with the Hearing Loss chapter, looking into grants and seeking sponsors. "Our mission is to provide opportunities for all people to experience events and activities," she said. But as a non-profit organization itself, "We can't foot the cost for this."

Geva Theatre Center has also looked into a system for subtitles and supertitles because of patron requests, but the logistics and cost are obstacles, said Dawn Kellogg, communications manager.

RBTL and Geva productions already offer hearing assistance options such as headphones that amplify and clarify speech and induction loop systems that work with a listener's hearing aide when the t-switch (telecoil) is set appropriately. But results vary by individual. Certain performances are sign-language interpreted. But many older people with declining hearing don't know sign language.

Mercury Opera has supertitles above the stage for every theater performance, even when the show is in English, using PowerPoint and a projector. "It's so much more work to go to an opera without subtitles," said Kristen Kessler, executive director. "I think it's great for everybody."

Many local movie theaters offer infrared, induction loops, FM systems, open captioning, or some combination.

Fackler loved attending Broadway and off-Broadway shows when he lived in New York City for more than a decade, years ago. His hearing gradually deteriorated over the past 20 years, and he'd given up the fun of live theater until he heard of the captioning option. Last year he attended a captioned show of The Lion King.

"I understood the dialog and everything," said Fackler, whose cochlear implant doesn't allow him to hear well enough to make out the words. "I could have cried. It was just beautiful."

People who are hard-of-hearing are excited by the upcoming captioned performance.

"It's a big deal!" said HLAA member Sue Miller of Victor via e-mail. "Those of us who are v-e-r-y hard of hearing or deaf are not able to benefit from the assistive listening devices that the majority of theaters and cinemas have in the Greater Rochester area. Many of us who have a more profound hearing loss need to read what is being said."

NTID President Alan Hurwitz, who is deaf, also applauds the effort. "For decades, deaf and hard-of-hearing people had to wait months for captioned versions of tapes or DVDs to be released to appreciate the latest movies that their hearing peers saw in theaters. Captioned movies in theaters are now more common. They enable us to see many of the same movies hearing audiences see. We are finally able to participate in the 'buzz' and not feel left out."

(by democratandchronicle.com)

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