Kay Reynolds
An illustration of a concertgoer watching a performance wearing a descriptive headset.
Heather Perkins gestures to a stool in a booth that overlooks Overture Hall. That’s where she sits, microphone in hand and stage notes nearby, when providing audio description during select performances.
Audio description — the art of pictorially explaining aspects of a performance that cannot be conveyed through performers’ voices — is designed for guests who are blind or have low vision, enabling them to experience performances much like sighted guests.
Perkins welcomes patrons using audio description in the lobby before the show and guides them to their seats. There they put on headsets and Perkins heads to her booth. Fifteen minutes before show time, Perkins shares pre-show notes on the story outline, stage sets and characters. During the show, she describes costume and set changes, characters’ movements and facial expressions.
Perkins says guests who are blind or have low vision would likely miss when an actor engages in physical comedy, like tripping or making a funny face. Part of her job is to describe those movements so guests using audio description are prompted to laugh with the rest of the crowd, though Perkins says any action that elicits audience reaction is important to narrate.
“If an actor looks heartbroken or leaves the stage in tears, [guests who are blind or have low vision] are not going to know because it’s not something they can hear,” says Perkins. “I describe anything that moves the audience.”
Audio description is one of the many services arts organizations in the Madison area are offering to broaden access to the arts. Children’s Theater of Madison, Forward Theater Company and American Players Theatre, like Overture, provide a variety of experiences and tools for people with disabilities to feel welcome and participate in the arts.
“We hope that what we’re doing is helping build trust, not just in our community, but across the arts,” says Ida Balderrama-Trudell, Overture’s director of equity and innovation. “We hope to encourage folks at other companies to do this work because the arts are important for everybody.”
Perkins says her work has allowed her to form friendships with guests who regularly use audio description.
“We have our own little community,” says Perkins. “We share things about our lives, and I look forward to seeing them at the shows.”
One woman, who unexpectedly lost her vision years ago, told Perkins, “Thank you for bringing Broadway back to me.”
Overture also offers American Sign Language interpretation and assistive listening devices for guests who are deaf or hard-of-hearing, braille programs and tactile tours for guests who are blind or have low vision, and kits for guests with sensory processing needs.
“At Overture, when we say we want to provide ‘extraordinary experiences for all,’ we really mean it,” says Tom Klubertanz, Overture’s director of guest services. “All of us at Overture live and breathe by that statement.”
In 2024, Overture became the first performing arts center in Wisconsin to receive a sensory-friendly certification from KultureCity, a nationwide nonprofit that makes community spaces accessible for individuals with sensory processing needs.
Monika Ford
A KultureCity sensory kit.
KultureCity sensory kits at Overture include noise-cancelling headphones, a couple of fidgets, strobe-reducing glasses and a feelings thermometer card for non-verbal communicators.
To receive the certification, every staff member and around 600 Overture volunteers participated in KultureCity’s training. Among other things, they learned how to greet guests with accessibility needs and provide relief for those who might become overstimulated during a performance.
Accessibility hubs are another key feature at Overture. Two kiosks located in the building display accessibility tools such as assistive listening devices and noise-cancelling headphones, wobble seats and wheelchairs, weighted blankets, and KultureCity sensory kits.
For years, Overture had many of these items in a cabinet at the information desk. But in the true name of access, says Klubertanz, the items are now stored in the accessibility hubs and are available to patrons on the honor system.
“They were hidden away, and ironically, not very accessible for being accessibility tools,” says Klubertanz. “Now, the accessibility hubs are the first thing guests see when they enter the building.”
Forward Theater Company and American Players Theatre provide ASL interpreted performances, accessible seating and assistive listening devices. American Players Theatre is one of the first companies in Wisconsin to offer captioning services. Forward offers large-print playbills, magnification glasses and audio description.
At Children’s Theater of Madison, inclusion and access are core values, says Marielle Shiring, patron services manager.
“We work to create brave spaces rather than safe spaces,” says Shiring. “A brave space is somewhere you can go as yourself and feel empowered, a space where you don’t have to pretend to be someone else.”
One of these brave spaces is the theater’s sensory-friendly performances, where loud sound effects and shouted lines are quieted, and the house lights are partially dimmed so audience members can see around the room.
Stimming, also known as “self-stimulating behavior,” is also welcome, says Shiring. Historically, theater etiquette prioritizes silence and minimal movement, creating a space where people who stim vocally and physically are excluded or asked to leave. At Children’s Theater of Madison, for all performances, “patrons are allowed to stim, they are allowed to make noise and move about,” says Shiring.
Sensory-friendly performances are designed to increase access for people who are neurodivergent, on the autism spectrum, or have general sensory-processing needs. However, anybody is welcome at the sensory-friendly performances, says Shiring.
“We want anyone who wants to experience theater to be able to experience it at a capacity that is most enjoyable for them.”
