A stage for the world: towards an inclusive theatre experience.

This project aims to investigate how the theatrical experience can be made accessible for blind and visually impaired patrons through audio description (AD), a specific audiovisual translation (AVT) mode that translates visual information into verbal information. Current audio description models focus mostly on rendering the story of a film or theatre performance accessible, and are therefore mainly inspired by narratology. Many aspects of a theatre performance such as the atmosphere, the aesthetics, the way actors physically "fill" their role, lighting, costumes, the use of video projections etc. are insufficiently taken into account. And it is precisely these features that are central to an integral theatrical experience. On the basis of a corpus of performances of Toneelhuis and NTGent this project will develop a new AD model that will allow for these intermedial features to be included in the translation for the target group. To this end, the intentions of the creative process will be integrated into the AD production.

Keywords:VULNERABLE GROUPS, AUDIO DESCRIPTION, ACCESSIBLE THEATRE

Disciplines:Literary studies, Theory and methodology of language studies, Theatre and performance