Displaying items by tag: accessibility

Chicago’s Theater Wit is now offering new, state-of-the-art closed captioning service, marking a dramatic improvement in making live theater more accessible for patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Until now, captioning typically involved a staff person backstage, projecting the text of the script on the set, or on patrons’ cell phones, thus allowing audiences to read along in real time. Captioning is traditionally offered at select performances only, and sometimes required users to sit in a specific section of the theater.

No more. Now, at Theater Wit, patrons can engage with closed captioning at almost every regular performance, from any seat in the house, free of charge.

“This is the same state-of-the-art closed captioning system used by large touring shows like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child , but we believe we’re the first small theater in the nation to roll out fully automated closed captioning service for dozens of productions,” said Theater Artistic Director Jeremy Wechsler. 

Following successful trial runs during the final weeks of Wit’s season-opening smash hit, Adolescent Salvation , the new system, called Watchword, will now be available during the regular run of all Theater Wit productions.

What’s more, Wit is making the service available for free to all of its resident and visiting companies, thereby expanding and improving traditional closed captioning in all three of its 99-seat theaters.

With Wit’s new system, the text of the play is loaded into the software as usual. The difference is Watchword actually “listens” to every live performance on stage, recognizing phonemes, or the smallest unit of sound that can change the meaning of a word. When paired with the pre-queued script, the system syncs its captions with the dialogue, lyrics and sound effects as they happen in real time, almost never losing track of what’s happening live, on stage.

Each of Wit’s three theaters now has a dedicated Watchword monitor installed, which listens to incoming audio while simultaneously watching sound and light cues. As a result, the system delivers written captions to users on a small tablet, modulating its timing at each performance to match the pace of the dialogue being spoken by the actors on stage. Best of all, it requires no human operator, making it easy to offer at every performance.

In addition to patrons who are deaf or hard of hearing, many neurodivergent people find that following text alongside audio helps them engage more fully with a performance. It’s also a valuable service for audiences who speak English as a second language.

“Patrons tested the technology the past few weeks at performances of Adolescent Salvation, and feedback was very positive,” added Wechsler. “I’m thrilled to say our resident companies Shattered Globe Theatre, with its new production, Vladimir, and Remy Bumppo’s Mud Row , are both offering Wit’s enhanced closed captioning service at regular performances starting this fall. We expect many other companies will take advantage of this technology throughout the theater season.”

Audiences who’d like to try Wit’s new free closed captioning service can do so with a click of a button while purchasing tickets online at theaterwit.org, or by calling the Theater Wit box office, (773) 975-8150. Theater Wit is located at 1229 W. Belmont Ave., in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood.

The introduction of Wit’s new closed captioning technology is supported by a lead donation from a private individual (for more information about hearing loss visit hearingloss.org), with additional funding from The Saints. To learn more, visit theaterwit.org or follow the company on Facebook or Instagram.