Saying what she sees: Audio description comes to Rochester Civic Theatre

Dec. 18—ROCHESTER — Laurie Hadley had all the spoilers for Rochester Civic Theatre's Thursday's performance of "A Christmas Carol." And she didn't stop talking about what was happening on stage for the whole performance.

The patrons listening to her appreciated it.

Members of the Rochester low-vision support group and the local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota visited the Rochester Civic Theatre Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023, to take in a show with Hadley's description of what was happening on stage.

Hadley, from audience right, spoke about what was happening — the set, costumes, characters and action — through the show.

She used a microphone and a transmitter in the theater's production booth to wirelessly send her descriptions to headsets group members in the audience wore.

The theater had the headsets on hand for hard of hearing patrons who needed a boost of the audio. Shifting use of the equipment to give patrons visual descriptions was easy because it was already in house.

"It turns out we had the ability the whole time," said Misha Johnson, Civic Theatre's managing director.

What isn't in-house is someone like Hadley who has the training and experience to give audio descriptions of shows.

Hadley has been doing audio descriptions for 25 years — mostly with the Guthrie Theater in the Twin Cities where she lives.

Hadley attended the show Sunday, Dec. 10, and took notes for her role Thursday. Hadley, along with theater patrons developed, and continue to update, the audio description program at the Guthrie. One challenge is providing descriptions that serve people of various visual needs. For someone blind from birth, describing colors might not be helpful.

"But someone with low vision might want to know who's running around on stage in a red shirt," she said.

Hadley had to develop a sort of vocabulary to describe actions and learn when not to talk.

"I'm very visual and my inclination would be to tell you a million things at all times," Hadley said. "But I have to shut up."

By shutting up, Hadley means she times her descriptions to not cover up lines or to explain an audible audience reaction without covering up what evoked it.

Katie and Zach Fox attended the Thursday show. It was the first time they used audio description at an event.

"It's exciting for us," Katie said.

It was exciting for Civic staff too and a learning opportunity. The concrete walls of the production booth don't help with the wireless signal, technical staff learned from testing the equipment leading up to the show.

"Now we know," said Logan Stewart, Civic office manager. "It's experiment night."

Katie and Zach attended with the support group and said they're looking forward to discussing what went well and what could be improved.

That's another key component an organization needs to develop the service is an active group of patrons who use it and can provide feedback to the service, Hadley said.

The Rochester low-vision support group and the local chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Minnesota appear to be good groups to provide that, she said.

Patrons helped the Guthrie develop its program, Hadley said.

Art might be subjective, she said, but a good group will talk and share what went well and what could be done to make their experience better.

The idea was brought to Johnson by low vision support group members Edward Cohen and Angela Christle, a vision loss specialist with the Minnesota State Services for the Blind. Cohen and Christie met with Johnson, Philip Muehe, managing director at Rochester Repertory Theatre Company, and a technical staff member from Commonweal Theatre in Lanesboro, Minnesota, to discuss audio description performances.

"If it wasn't for their advocacy, we wouldn't have realized there was such a need in the community," Johnson said.

Commonweal has been offering the service thanks in part to a state grant. Johnson said the Civic is looking at grant funding to provide training for local people to do audio description.

For now, Civic intends to provide the service every second Thursday of its shows the rest of the season. Civic also puts on an ASL-interpreted performance the second Thursday performances.

Johnson said offering audio description is a natural next step.

"It's really about providing access for everybody," Johnson said.