CCT Announces Accessibility Performances

Columbus Children's Theatre is committed to making the inspiring, enriching, and engaging experience of live theatre accessible to all children and families. CCT strives to be an inclusive and welcoming environment for all, responsive to the needs of our community, and accessible to all audiences as we provide Sensory Friendly Performances for five of our six mainstage shows. These performances are the same mainstage show, only modified to meet the needs of individuals with sensory sensitivities or cognitive and physical challenges.

We offer a safe, friendly, and judgment-free environment that welcomes all audience members to experience our performances in the way they feel most comfortable. Some accommodations include the reduction in loud or shocking noises, house lights remaining on low throughout the show, and smaller audience sizes.

In addition to the wheelchair accessible spaces and American Sign Language interpretation, CCT offers something new to the accessibility performances: Audio Description, Large Print, and Touch Tours. In the Audio Description performances, we will provide audience members who are blind or have low-vision with personal hearing devices to guide the listener through key physical action and visual cues. Large Print playbills will be available for every mainstage and Theatre for the Very Young performance. Touch Tours, in conjunction with Audio Descriptive performances, offer a guided tactile tour in the performance space and include discussions with members of the show's creative team as well as introductions to some of the actors and the characters they play. Participants will be invited to explore the set and touch select costumes and props, then settle into their seats for the performance.

The next mainstage show at CCT, "Dracula," will be the first of many shows to offer these new accessibility performances. On October 27, the 3:00 PM show will offer CCT's first audio descriptive performance. Preceding this showing, there will be a Touch Tour at 1:30 PM, free with the purchase of a ticket for the 3:00 PM show. We are excited to move forward with these new additions and to be expanding our audience to accommodate more viewers with a love for theatre and a heart for the arts.