4. Background to STAGETEXT
• Founded in 2000
• 4 of our 6 Trustees and 1 of our 6 staff
are deaf, deafened or hard of hearing
• Funded by Arts Council England and
charges to theatres
• Work in theatres, museums and
galleries
5. What does STAGETEXT do?
• Delivers English captions/subtitles for
events which are spoken in English
• Helps theatres set up their own
captioning services
• Develops technology
• Develops audiences
6. STAGETEXT’s achievements
in theatre
• STAGETEXT delivers 220 captioned
performances each year
• Over 40 theatres now have access to
their own captioning equipment
across the UK
• Over 40 people are trained as theatre
captioners in the UK
• Wide range of types of events
7. Belgrade
Theatre, Coventry
Making every word count
CAPTIONING BASICS
8. What can you make out from
this piece of spoken text?
Sound file from the University
of Manchester
11. Who uses captions?
• Deaf, deafened and hard of hearing
people who wish to access plays in English
– 1 in 6 of population
– Wide range of types & severity of hearing loss
• People whose hearing is not as sharp as it
used to be
– 40% of people over the age of 50 and 70% of
those over 70 have age-related hearing loss
• Hearing audiences
13. Questions so far?
Actors’ warm-up prior to captioned
performance of Life is a Dream,
Donmar Warehouse, 18 November 2009.
Photographer: Matt Humphrey
16. Open captioning Closed captioning
Pros Pros
• Audience doesn’t have • More likely to be
to declare available every night
• No change of focus Cons
between captions and • Change of focus
stage between device and
• Sociable activity stage is difficult
Cons • Missing action on stage
• Unit positioning crucial when reading text
to experience
17. Open captioning –
LED displays
Miss Saigon. With kind permission of
Cameron Mackintosh Limited.
Bristol Hippodrome
Photo: Freia Turland
Gwion Wyn Jones in Oliver! With kind
permission of Cameron Mackintosh Limited.
Photo: Simon Annand
18. LCD displays
Going Dark, by Fuel
at the Young Vic Theatre, London
The Captioning Studio, Australia
19. Projection
Tin Bath Theatre
Company
Reasons to be Cheerful,
Graeae Theatre Company
20. Positioning of open captions
• Positioning of the captioning displays
can make or break the performance
• Need to consider
– Configuration of the stage/seating
– Are there pieces of the set flying in or out?
– Where are the speakers being hung?
– Where are the lights shining?
– Where is the seating for caption users?
25. Captioned performance of Miss Saigon
Captioned performance of Miss Saigon at the Bristol at the Bristol Hippodrome
Hippodrome
Photographer: Freia Turland
27. Getting It Wrong and Getting It Right
• ‘The poorly positioned boxes meant that the
captions were so high up and too far to the
left and right of the stage that it was
impossible to follow the captions and the
action.’
• ‘I found the captioning truly impressive - not
at all intrusive. It was sited in the middle of
the set, and felt a natural part of it. In fact, it
works so well, it's almost as if it's always been
there and I've only just noticed.’
33. Captioned performance of
Hansel and Gretel
Northern Stage
Photo: Linda Borthwick
Make every word count
SOFTWARE
34. Software
Requirements Possibilities
• Import text In the UK we have used:
• Edit text • Eclipse
• Output text • CaptionView
• Skip sections And now
• Add ad-libs • STAGETEXT bespoke
software
38. The captioning process
Imported to
Electronic Initial First script
STAGETEXT
script formatting check
software
Second script Refinement of Checks with Work with
check formatting company DVD
Check
Final
queries with Performance!
formatting
company
41. Captioning challenges
• 3,500 to 6,000 lines per script
• Up to 60 hours formatting time
• Spelling and punctuation
• Research
– Checking spellings
– Foreign languages
– Song lyrics
42. UK captioning conventions
• Full text of play, nothing omitted
– Exception when lines overlap, or very fast
• Character names included
• Sound and musical effects included
– Present tense
– In the world of the play, so “shouts from garden”
not “shouting off stage”
• Minimal interpretation
• Accents sometimes included
• Emotions rarely included
• Nothing is translated
43. Who is using the captions?
New Wolsey Theatre
• 359 people in audience
• 17 people booked for captioning
with box office (4% of total
audience)
• 103 people returned the card to
say that they had found the
captions useful (29% of total
audience)
• CONCLUSION: 20 to 30% of your
total audience will be using the
captioning but will not have
declared as caption users
45. Who makes a good captioner?
• Excellent spelling, punctuation and
grammar – we need people who care
about apostrophes
• Confident around computers
• Confident when liaising with theatre
companies (but not too pushy!)
• Someone who would enjoy bringing
theatre to people who otherwise
would miss out
46. UK captioners
• Only one or two for whom captioning
is a full-time job
• Usually caption as a part-time job
on top of regular employment
• Mostly professional (i.e. paid)
• Come from theatre backgrounds,
deaf organisational backgrounds, or
completely unrelated backgrounds
47. What does captioner training need
to include?
1. Seeing a Captioner training at the Wales
captioned show Millennium Centre, Cardiff
2. Process
3. Conventions
4. Software training
5. How to liaise
with theatre staff
6. Practice
48. STAGETEXT captioner training
3 or 4 days
Pre-training Work at
face-to-
tests home
face training
Examined Mentored Supported
show show show
49. Questions about captioning
and captioners?
Captioned performance of
Hansel and Gretel
Northern Stage
Photo: Linda Borthwick
51. UK captioning models
Equipment Captioners
• Hire in from STAGETEXT • Hire in from STAGETEXT
• Own their own • Train in-house people
• Share some locally • Hire in freelancers
• Touring theatre • Train touring company
company own members
equipment
All combinations of the above happen in the UK
52. Using an external provider
• They provide the equipment and the
captioner and do all the hard work
• You will need to take responsibility for
securing a script for the captioner to
use
• You still need to get the audience
there!
53. Captioned show process for
STAGETEXT
Book captioner Double check Confirm DVD &
Find suitable date
(and STTR if which equipment script will be Arrange site visit
& time
necessary) will be used available
Send captioner Send order Check booking Check allocation Send branding
brief acknowledgment details of seats information
Check all’s well Contact
Send post-show Remind theatre
with theatre & Technical brief Company
discussion details to test loop
captioner Manager
Add new
On show day Prepare FOH
caption-user Follow up with
Collate feedback attend get in, posters &
names to theatre
brief ushers, etc feedback forms
database
54. Having an in-house service
• You need equipment and staff who
can set it up
• You need a locally-based captioner
who has been trained
• You will need to take responsibility for
securing a script for the captioner to
use
• You will need to get in the audience
55. Sharing resources locally
• Are there any other theatres that
might be interested in sharing
equipment with you?
• Might they also be interested in sharing
the costs of training a captioner?
• Huge benefit is that you can work
together on developing audiences
and you can be sure that your
captioned performances will never
clash!
56. Working with your captioner
• Contract
• Fees and expenses
• Who owns the script?
• Will the captioner share the script
and whose decision is that?
59. Contact details
Lissy Lovett Tel: 020 7377 0540
General Manager Mobile: 07813 139408
STAGETEXT
www.twitter.com/STAGETEXT
First Floor, 54 Commercial St, www.facebook.com/STAGETEXT
London E1 6LT www.youtube.com/STAGETEXT
www.stagetext.org
lissy@stagetext.org
www.twitter.com/lissylovett
Editor's Notes
Three deaf men, different types of deafness9 shows a year in 2000, to 220 or so nowCharity, board of trustees Government, taxpayerEvents accessible RSC Royal Shakespeare Company
Don’t offer translation
Sound file from University of ManchesterExtract of book being readMimics high frequency hearing lossIf whole play sounded like that to you:Sign language interpretation helps if you understand BSL (British Sign Language)Volume increase would help a bit, but not completelyLipreading would help a littleStill not full accessOn/off switchPersuasion
Video created by Make Sense www.makesensedesign.comDid you understand that time?Brain is very clever to put vision & sound together
Oliver! Theatre Royal Drury LaneMiss Saigon, Bristol Hippodrome
Captioning Studio in Austrailia
Graeae Theatre Company, tour of Reasons to be CheerfulTin Bath Theatre Company
Novel Theatre CompanyLittle Women
FeedbackCaption users
AirScriptI-CaptionDurateqFigaro
Shakespeare
German, French in War HorseAfrican language in The Lion King