Rehearse ... Feel ... Listen, Audio Description in HELLERAU,#2-2022

Since the start of the 2021/2022 season, individual program announcements in HELLERAU have featured a new icon: a crossed-out eye with the letters AD next to it. Will this performance be without a picture? Not quite. AD stands for audio description in HELLERAU, as in many other places and venues across Europe. We explain what this is all about and how audio descriptions are created in the context of the performing arts. An audio description is an acoustic description of visual content. It is developed differently depending on the source medium and environment as well as technical possibilities and is aimed at people within a very broad spectrum of visual impairment. It is equally suitable for the blind at birth or older people who can no longer recognise everything in the back rows. Audio descriptions are to be understood as a basic component of inclusive social practice and active participation in cultural diversity and are also realised in HELLERAU. In this way, as many people as possible can jointly perceive contemporary developments within the performing arts on current issues of our time.

However, the learning process for the creation and dissemination of audio descriptions has only just begun. Since the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2009, there has been a growing awareness of accessibility for people with visual impairments based on impulses in the English-speaking world. This has given rise to specific formats such as simultaneous audio description and tactile tours, which are becoming increasingly widespread and in demand. In HELLERAU, audio descriptions are currently being implemented together with Gravity Access Services, a program by choreographer and dancer Jess Curtis. With specially trained dancers and choreographers, he offers a range of services to make live performances more accessible to audiences with different sensory modalities and physical abilities. These include live and recorded audio descriptions or haptic tours before the performance. A system has been developed that keeps pace with the speed and changeability of contemporary dance productions. At theaters with their own ensembles, plays and therefore also corresponding audio descriptions are developed independently over a longer period of time. But how are audio descriptions developed for dance productions that tour internationally or are only finalised in rehearsals shortly before the premiere?

Rehearsals and script

As many contemporary productions in HELLERAU do not have a complete video recording or elements in the stage space change, a Gravity Access Services employee usually watches the dress rehearsal or the first performance first. In this context, notes are created that not only cover the actions, but also a large part of the visible elements that make up the stage experience. How is the lighting set? What is the atmosphere like? How big is the audience space? Which elements are not visible at first, but later become significant for actions and movements? All this information flows into a script that forms the basis for the simultaneous description as an audio description in the following performance.

Touch guidance and self-description of the artists

So that the users of the audio description can easily visualise the stage events and abstract elements, a 30-minute tactile tour is offered one hour before the start of each performance, during which you can meet the performers and experience the stage space haptically in advance. A central point here is also the self-description of the performers, so that names can be used in the audio description, which can be linked to direct persons, their voice and physical appearance.

Pre-admission & audio description

Audio description users can enter the theater before the performance begins, so they do not have to push their way through the rows or ask strangers to make a seat available. The audio description itself is then transmitted directly into the ear via headphones and a small sound receiver. This allows the volume and usage to be customised, as there may be deliberate fluctuations in the acoustics during performances. During the performance at HELLERAU, the person describing the performance is usually located in a specially equipped sound room where the action can be followed live via a video monitor. The signal is transmitted by radio to the stage areas of the Festspielhaus so that the person can move around freely if the production requires it. The performance with audio description can now begin!