Earlier this year,
Queer Theater Kalamazoo had an ASL interpreter at a performance for the first time. The impact was immediate.
Connar Klock, the organization's artistic director, said some deaf persons were in the audience for the first time, "which was incredible. They were quite emotional at the fact that they previously weren't able to engage in our work but now they were finally able to.”
The theater company – one of the smallest in Kalamazoo – is benefiting from a new focus on accessibility by
Theatre Kalamazoo, a nonprofit consortium of live theater organizations in the Kalamazoo area.
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WMUWMU incorporated shadow interpreters into a production of “Clue” in October.
Before the COVID shutdown, Klock says, Theater Kalamazoo focused on the marketing of shows. After the quarantine, it moved sharply toward accessibility programming.
Queer Theater was created 11 years ago to ensure that people in the LQBTQ+ community feel included in the theater experience.
“I myself am non-binary, and seeing shows without that kind of representation makes you feel excluded and just makes you not want to be involved,” Klock says. “That's why Queer Theater exists – to alleviate that isolation and make people feel a little less alone. But to be able to extend that even further to increase that ability for folks, even within the variance of the transgender community, is extremely powerful.”
Overcoming obstacles to accessibility
Breaking down barriers is key to removing that isolation.
“It's hard for small organizations in particular, but even for the larger ones to commit completely to accessibility, and it's not for lack of wanting or trying,” says Emily Duguay, director of arts administration at Western Michigan University’s College of Fine Arts. “There are just a lot of barriers to being able to do it successfully.”
A big issue is resources to pay program managers, training and equipment. Fortunately, the
James Gilmore Jr. Foundation has stepped up to provide a grant for some of that work.
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WMUThe performer kneeling is a shadow interpreter.
“Accessibility became the mission of each organization as we reorganized post pandemic,” Duguay says. “Theatre Kalamazoo led in supporting this across the community, ensuring that every theater organization was able to offer some accessibility programming.”
The theater consortium started by promoting sensory-friendly performances before the pandemic and then added ASL and audio description in 2022.
Duguay, whose nephew is autistic, was introduced to sensory-friendly performances through the
Children's Theatre of Cincinnanti. She brought the idea to the group.
The initiative began with sensory-friendly performances. The house lights were up a little bit more so audience members could move around as they needed. The house doors were propped open so that people felt they could come and go. The sound level was lowered and a strobe light was eliminated.
The performances also had different expectations of the audience.
“Having a sensory friendly performance means adjusting production elements that may make attending the show more comfortable for those with sensitivities, but it largely serves as a safe environment to enjoy a performance free of judgment,” says Duguay. “If someone is making noise or being disruptive in a way that is out of their control, they can attend and know that everyone understands that at this performance.”
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WMUASL interpreters sign at WMU Theatre production.
The cast and crew are prepared for these disruptions through training, often from the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre, an early adopter of the practice.
“I have seen more and more of our neurodivergent population coming to performances and people just aren't batting an eye, and that's the kind of culture we need to cultivate through this programming,” says Duguay.
More audio description coming
WMU incorporated shadow interpreters into a production of “Clue” in October.
“We were the first people in Kalamazoo to do it,” says Duguay. “This is a form of American Sign Language where the interpreters are on stage with the actors interpreting right beside them so that the patron who's deaf or hard of hearing isn't having to do the ‘tennis match,’ looking at the interpreter and then looking at the action on stage. The interpreters are working with the actors on stage shadowing them, essentially.
“It was amazing for our artists to work with these ASL artists. They brought a lot of things to the performance. The hearing audience loved and appreciated the opportunity to see that happening.”
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WMUWMU was the first theater in Kalamazoo to incorporate shadow interpreters into a production.
As part of Theatre Kalamazoo, WMU incorporated shadow interpreters into a production of “Clue” in October.
“We were the first people in Kalamazoo to do it,” says Duguay, noting that WMU was a good candidate to pilot the Theatre Kalamazoo program because of its ASL program. “This is a form of American Sign Language where the interpreters are on stage with the actors interpreting right beside them so that the patron who's deaf or hard of hearing isn't having to do the ‘tennis match,’ looking at the interpreter and then looking at the action on stage. The interpreters are working with the actors on stage shadowing them, essentially.
“It was amazing for our artists to work with these ASL artists. They brought a lot of things to the performance. The hearing audience loved and appreciated the opportunity to see that happening.”
Theatre Kalamazoo used the Gilmore Foundation grant to fund training and buy equipment.
“We are doing training productions this summer and we'll be doing our first audio description performances in the fall, so the community can start to look for more audio description across the community as well,” Duguay says.
The biggest piece of that is being able to offer ASL-interpreted performances to every theater, up to two a year.
Theaters working together often can be the key to accessibility, says Betty Siegel, who is director of the
Office of Accessibility and VSA at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington.
“I love consortiums. Communities that have been able to maintain consortiums have a lot more power to get things done,” says Siegel, who recently visited West Michigan to deliver a keynote speech at
Absolutely Accessible Kent about accessibility in the arts. “Part of it is because they have this natural group of peers that they can share what they've done or tried. If we come together as a disability committee, we'll have a lot more power than just one person.”
A $21 billion segment
A potential resource for arts organizations trying to increase accessibility is the
Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability (LEAD), co-founded by Siegel. LEAD helps professionals in the field to develop best practices and resources, exchange ideas with colleagues and experts from around the world, and learn practical methods for increasing inclusion.
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Betty Siegel
The
Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability 2024 Conference is July 31-Aug. 2, and its Capacity Building Workshops are July 29-30.
“We also have an international network of people. It costs like $30 to join the network, and that allows us to extend the learning and the collaborations and the relationships that might happen at LEAD throughout the course of the entire year,” Siegel says.
“People come and learn something, then they take that learning back to their communities and apply it,” she says. “Now, they're not going to change everything all at once. A lot of times they're one person at a large institution or a small institution, and resources can be limited. But if you learn one thing and you apply one thing, then you've changed the world. We see that happening a lot.”
At the Kennedy Center, many accessibility accommodations such as assistive listening devices and accessible seating are built in, and each performance has a certain number of interpreted performances. But the Kennedy Center also has request services.
“We didn't want to tell people you can only come to the things we think you should come to,” Siegel says. “We wanted them to tell us what they wanted to come to, and then we go about making sure that the accommodation the person needs is there.”
Discretionary income for working-age people with disabilities is about $21 billion, which is greater than that of the African American and Hispanic market segments combined, according to the
American Institutes for Research.
“This is like their extra money, and so if we make ourselves more accessible, then there's definitely a market for it,” says Siegel.
“There's a couple of things that theater in particular can do. It can be a reflection of who we are, but it can also be a reflection of who we want to be. It's important that all of us get a chance to be part of it.”
Photos courtesy of WMU.
This article is a part of the multi-year series Disability Inclusion, exploring the state of West Michigan’s growing disability community. The series is made possible through a partnership with Centers for Independent Living organizations across West Michigan.