SPIT News - Issue 25, June 2001

Hello & Goodbye

We are delighted to welcome new members to the SPIT committee. This month we are joined by Angela Chrimes, Assistant Producer for English Touring Theatre, Kevin Jamieson, Marketing Manager at West Yorkshire Playhouse and Cath Hunter, who works as a subtitler at the BBC. They each bring a vast amount of experience to the committee, and we are thrilled to benefit from their fresh ideas, enthusiasm and hard work!

Sadly, we say farewell to Caroline Bradley, one of SPIT's founder members, and Janet Beech-McCoy, our previous Chair. Caroline's commitment to SPIT has been tireless; as well as writing reports on Sign Language Interpreted Performances, her work for SPIT includes holding the positions of Treasurer and Secretary, and helping to organise conferences and BSL courses. We shall all miss Caroline enormously, but wish her all the best for the future.

Supporting Deaf People
An international online conference for interpreting professionals and those involved in the support of Deaf people, 3 - 16 June

The conference is aimed at all those involved in the support of Deaf people. This includes: Sign Language Interpreters, Communication Support Workers, Interpreting and Deaf Studies students, lecturers for Deaf people, interpreting agencies and support service providers as well as Deaf students, Deaf clients and trainers of interpreters.

The conference does NOT require full time attendance for the entire two weeks. It's online, carried out through discussion groups, and that means people can access the conference whenever they want, for however long they want, during those two weeks.

Conference themes: Training and Qualifications; Ethics and Professionalism; Educational Interpreting.

Keynote Speakers are: Miranda Pickersgill, Chief Executive, Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP); Frank Harrington, Senior Lecturer in Deaf Studies, University of Central Lancashire; Dennis Cokely, Director, ASL Program, North Eastern University, USA.

Other speakers include: Lynne Eighinger, Director, Signs of Development, USA; Jemina Napier, Honorary Research Associate, Renwick College, Australia; Doney Oatman, Coordinator of Interpreting Services for the College of Liberal Arts, RIT, USA; and Rob Rogers, Derby College for Deaf People, UK.

You can access more information about speaker profiles, paper abstracts, how an online conference works, and registration details on the conference web site

For further info or a booking form email: conference@directlearn.co.uk

Important: places are limited, so contact the conference organisers to reserve a place as soon as possible.

Date Announced For Launch Of BT TextDirect

BT and RNID Typetalk will launch BT TextDirect, a revolutionary new service for textphone users, on 4 July 2001.

Believed to be the first service of its kind in the world, BT TextDirect will enable deaf, deafened, deafblind, hard of hearing and speech-impaired people using textphones to make direct dial calls. For the first time calls are connected straight away without the worry of deciding what handset equipment the recipient of the call is using.

Developed by BT at a cost of £4million over four years, BT TextDirect will radically improve RNID Typetalk, the existing national telephone relay service. By using one of two new, five-digit prefixes before any telephone number, BT TextDirect informs the exchange that a call is being made to or from a textphone and an RNID Typetalk operator may be required to relay the conversation between the textphone user and the hearing person in real time. RNID Typetalk will continue to be the telephone relay service provider.

For further information please contact:
Paul Kirby/Sarah-Jane Cohen, Paver Downes Public Relations. Tel: 0151 293 0505
Email: kirby@paverdownes.co.uk or cohen@paverdownes.co.uk

We invited British Sign language interpreters to comment on their experiences of interpreting theatre. Here is a summary of their comments about positive/negative experiences, which unfortunately illustrates how much work needs to be done to educate theatres around the country.

Poor technical support, despite clear requests re: lighting.
Negative help from lighting engineers.
Poor position on stage - director/stage manager reluctant to alter.
An interpreter is very much a token "add-on" feature for some productions.
Some performers insist on trying to "catch out" the interpreter.
One interpreter was cancelled as the director thought the interpreter was too distracting. The director said Deaf people should "read the script, then watch the actors' mouths."
Management and audiences always very positive (so far).
Performers vary in their attitudes, and I've learnt to do all I can to reassure them.

Feedback from STAGETEXT captioned performances for the RSC...

Over the past 6 months STAGETEXT has captioned 8 performances of the Royal Shakespeare Company around the country. The performances were at the Barbican Theatre, Regent Theatre in Stoke-on-Trent, Bath Theatre Royal, the RSC Theatre Stratford-upon-Avon, Sheffield Lyceum Theatre and the New Victoria Theatre in Woking. Audience members were asked for feedback:

Heather Jackson: I sat in the audience with my daughters - each of us feeling very emotional. This was our first visit to the theatre since I became deafened 16 years ago. I clutched the hand of each daughter as we waited excitedly and very expectantly whilst the lights lowered and the curtains opened. Suddenly, there I was, back in the magical world of the theatre, able to follow everything that was said. I cannot even begin to describe my feelings that evening - suffice to say it was pure magic!

Roger Hewitt: For the first time I have had almost full access to the theatre.

Peter Jennings: Even as a hearing person, I found the captioning helpful for a number of reasons. It made it easier to identify the characters early on in the play, it was possible to pick up any words or phrases that I missed and reading the words as well as hearing them helped my understanding of the language of the period.

Simon Andersson: Biggest problem was that the subtitles were to the right of the stage, making it difficult to see both at the same time - need to be centre of stage - otherwise excellent!

The overwhelming message came across - captioning increases access to theatre for a wide diversity of people with a hearing loss. STAGETEXT is holding discussions at present with theatres and producers to gain agreement to caption shows 6 months ahead of their opening. For more information, please contact: enquiries@stagetext.co.uk

Address: STAGETEXT,
75 Canfield Gardens,
London
NW6 7EA
Fax/Textphone: 020 7624 2161
Website: www.stagetext.co.uk

We also asked the interpreters to say what they would like to see SPIT doing in the next five years:

Continuing to improve awareness amongst theatre staff (and touring theatre companies)
Encouraging integrated interpreting
Training
Stagecraft training for interpreters e.g. taking a bow.
Advertising any theatre training for interpreters on the web-site
Include interpreters!
Research real needs and wishes of Deaf people re access to theatre
Training and monitoring of interpreters in theatre
Managing, organising and developing training - in other words, not following the CACDP rule of thumb, but becoming almost an agent for interpreters

We are interested to do know what additional services you would like SPIT to provide in the future. Please contact Sarah Sills with your comments.

The Gordon Craig Theatre in Stevenage has recently updated its infra-red hearing system.

Using the newest generation of equipment available, and operating on new frequencies that are designed to avoid potential interference from flourescent light sources etc, the new system has been provided and installed by BioAcoustics Ltd.

The new system includes ten stethoset receivers and ten neck-loop receivers, and operates on two channels to allow for a hard of hearing channel and an audio-description channel.

Free Publicity

If you have any projects that you want to share with other SPIT newsletter readers, please send the details to Sarah Sills at SPIT. Any photos or images of events both past and present are always welcome.

We promise to return them to you as soon as they have been used.

No Clash Diary

Avoid clashing with another venue offering a SLIP on the same night as you; use SPIT's National No-Clash Diary to check and register dates for your SLIPs.

Remember - it only works if you use it!

Up to date listings can be seen on our performance listings page

Have you tried the www.DeafClub.co.uk web-site?

It's the BIGGEST Deaf Internet Search Engine. Listing Deaf Clubs, organisations, chat-rooms, discussion boards and businesses.

SPIT is delighted to receive a large grant from the Gulbenkian Foundation. These generous donations are a vital source of income, which enables SPIT to continue its work to encourage and develop the provision of sign language interpreted performances of the highest quality, and to ensure that the wide range of theatre experiences throughout the UK is accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing people. If you would like to make a donation, please contact Sarah Sills.

FREE PUBLICITY

If you have any projects that you would like share with other SPIT members, please send the details to Sarah Sills at SPIT.

Any photos or images of events past and present are always gratefully received, and we promise to return them to you as soon as they have been used.