Audio Description Service Makes Broadway's Wicked Accessible To The Blind

Blind patrons face a challenge when they decide to attend a live performance. Onstage dialogue without visual references can be confusing, potentially frustrating the theatrical experience.

Now an audio description service, Sound Associates' D-Scriptive(TM), fills in those essential visuals, providing more clarity to the blind theatergoer. See http://www.soundassociates.com/ .

"Wicked is filled with exciting visual elements; trap doors open, characters slide down ropes, jokes revolve around the fact that the wicked witch is green," said T. Richard Fitzgerald, theatrical sound designer and CEO of Sound Associates, Inc. "With D-Scriptive these crucial visual cues are described concisely so the flow of the play is not interrupted and the patron understands everything."

D-Scriptive is the latest innovation in assistive technology and offers a detailed description of all the onstage action including choreography, blocking, lighting, sets and costume changes. It is now available for all performances of the multiple Tony Award-winning musical Wicked playing at the Gershwin Theater, and will soon be available for Mamma Mia! at the Winter Garden Theater.

The D-Scriptive system features a small wireless earphone that the patron obtains in the lobby before the show. Narration begins even before the lights go down, describing everything the audience sees on stage before curtain. It is automated and synchronized with sound and lighting cues to accommodate pacing variations from performance to performance. The narration text is written and recorded at the Sound Associates studio.

"This new assistive technology furthers our goal to make every performance available to all theatre lovers," said Fitzgerald, designer of the D-Scriptive system who received a Tony Award in 1980 for introducing the Infrared Listening System to Broadway theatres.

Sound Associates' I-Caption(TM) system, featuring a handheld wireless unit that displays real time dialogue and lyrics for the deaf, and ShowTrans(TM) the automated multilingual commentary service for non-English speakers, are currently available for Wicked, Mamma Mia! and Hairspray.

To reserve D-Scriptive or I-Caption call 212-582-7678 in advance, (888) 876-0801 for more information or simply pick up a unit at the Infrared Listening System distribution center in the theatre lobby. There is no charge to use D-Scriptive or I-Caption.

Wicked is playing at the Gershwin Theater http://www.wickedthemusical.com/ . Mamma Mia! is playing at the Winter Garden Theater http://www.wintergarden-theater.com/ . Hairspray is playing at the Neil Simon Theater http://www.hairsprayonbroadway.com/ .