TAP Announces Upcoming Open Caption Performances For Spring

TDF's Accessibility Programs (TAP), which have been instrumental in expanding open captioning on and Off Broadway, and regionally across the United States, announce the schedule of performances which will feature the service on Broadway this spring.Open captioning, which TDF introduced on Broadway in 1997, is more inclusive of all hard-of-hearing audiences than traditional sign language interpretation. Through open captioning, an electronic text display, placed on the side of the stage, shows what the actors are saying or singing and describes sound effects on stage in real time.To date, TAP has organized more than 350 open-captioned performances of more than 250 different Broadway, Off Broadway and regional productions.

In the coming months, theatregoers with mild to severe hearing loss will be able to enjoy the following Broadway productions: Moises Kaufman's33 Variations, starring Jane Fonda; Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole and Rupert Everett; Richard Greenberg's The American Plan starring Mercedes Ruehl; Eugene Ionesco's Exit The King starring Susan Sarandon and Geoffrey Rush; Michael Jacobs'Impressionism starring Jeremy Irons and Joan Allen; the international musical hit, Mamma Mia!; and Neil La Bute's Reasons to Be Pretty.

"We're thrilled to be offering our TAP members such a large variety of exciting shows this spring," said Lisa Carling, TDF's Director of Accessibility Programs. "I can't remember a season when theatregoers with hearing loss have had such an exciting roster of shows and stars available to them."

The following is the list of performances dates for the upcoming open captioned performances:

THE AMERICAN PLAN
Saturday, March 7 at 2:00 PM
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th Street, NYC

Blithe Spirit
Tuesday, March 24 at 7:00 PM
Shubert Theatre, 225 West 44th Street, NYC

33 VARIATIONS
Tuesday, March 31 at 7:00 PM
Eugene O'Neill Theatre, 230 West 49th Street, NYC

REASONS TO BE PRETTY
Tuesday, April 14 at 7:00 PM
Lyceum Theatre, 149 West 45th Street, NYC

EXIT THE KING
Wednesday, April 22 at 2:00 PM
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 West 47th Street, NYC

IMPRESSIONISM
Thursday, April 30 at 8:00 PM
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 West 45th Street, NYC

MAMMA MIA!
Saturday, May 23 at 2:00 PM
Winter Garden Theatre, 1634 Broadway, NYC

About TAP
Theatre Development Fund's Accessibility Programs (TAP) was established in 1979 to provide access to the performing arts for people with physical disabilities. TAP serves theatergoers with mild to profound hearing loss with regularly scheduled open captioned and American Sign Language interpreted performances of Broadway and Off Broadway shows; serves theatregoers who are partially sighted or blind with special Audio Described performances; people who for medical reasons cannot climb stairs; and people who require aisle seating or use wheelchairs. Through TAP, TDF offers discount orchestra tickets that are chosen with the customer's specific seating needs in mind. TAP presented the first sign interpreted performance of a Broadway show with The Elephant Man in 1980, again made Broadway history in 1997 with the first open captioned performance of a Broadway show, Barrymore, thus opening up theatre to an entire population of deaf and hard of hearing individuals who are unable to utilize American Sign Language or receive only partial help from assistive listening devices.

TAP, along with The Juilliard School, also sponsors an annual "Interpreting for the Theatre," an annual one-week intensive institute for professional sign language interpreters from across the United States and overseas. The arts-in-education, Talking Hands, makes theatre accessible to students with mild to severe hearing loss and now this new pilot program will do the same for students who are blind or have low vision.

Theatregoers with physical disabilities may join TAP to receive ticket offers to open captioned performances, where the seat locations are in view of either the open caption box. There is no fee to join . For more information, and to join TAP: email: tap@tdf.org; call 212.912.9770, ext. 381, TTY 212.719-4537; or download an application at TDF's Web site: www.tdf.org/tap.