Persephone Theatre is making its performances more accessible through its newly launched Inclusivity Program.
The program, funded through a grant from the Saskatoon Community Foundation, offers adapted shows for people with audio and visual impairments and sensory issues.
“Theatre is made for everybody,” the theatre’s inclusivity coordinator McKenna Ramsay said. “This should be a space that’s comfortable; this should be a space that’s exciting. People should be able to be entertained – absolutely everybody."
Ramsay was hired specifically for the program in July and said the shows are for people with varying levels of accessibility including those with sensory and physical impairments, learning or communication disorders, people with anxiety or those with small children.
She and the theatre’s literary manager, Johnna Wright, are working on three upcoming shows: a relaxed performance of the youth and family presentation of Gruff, an audio described performance of the main stage comedy Mom’s the Word: Nest ½ Empty and a sign language interpretation of Fiddler on the Roof.
“I always had it in my mind it was something we should do something about,” Wright said.
She learned more about relaxed performance at a theatre conference about a year-and-a-half ago and that’s what jump-started the program.
Relaxed performances are for people with autism, epilepsy or Tourette’s, or those who aren’t comfortable at public performances. The doors are kept open, house lights kept on and the audience can move about freely and come and go as they please to ensure spectators don’t get overwhelmed.
Ramsay and Wright say those who interpret the performances with sign language or audio description are performers in their own right as they deliver the performance in a way that the audience can interpret on their own.
“There's a very specific way they have to deliver. They have to know the show, know the script,” Ramsay said. “They have to see the show a handful of times so every joke lands, so all the dialogue is heard.”
The description in headsets isn’t spoken over the performers and the show isn’t compromised for those not receiving the audio description, Wright said.
She said living with any form of impairment can be isolating and believes theatre is the most social art form.
“The people who are enjoying the art are there and that makes you part of the show,” she said. “It’s very social and I think it's really important that everybody can participate in it.”
Persephone Theatre will receive audience feedback with the goal of providing more accessible shows and is working in consultation with local organizations including Autism Services and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.
