“It started in 2010 as a civilian initiative to make theatre performances available for visually and audibly impaired people. When I say available, everybody thinks of ramps and similar tools, of course, but with these two target groups, it means communicational availability. In case of audibly impaired people, it means having a qualified sign language interpreter, they sign the performance, but it is not a simple signing but the talent of a person with acting skills, who even play the characters of the play practically. And for the visually impaired, we have a narrator who explains what is going on stage through an ear monitor system, they do their bests to describe the scene so it is a very difficult task. Here they have to pay attention to dramaturgy, they cannot speak parallel with the conversations so many things have to be taken into consideration.”
“Then you must be training interpreters.”
“Exactly, we started the whole work by bringing experts here with the help of the British Embassy. They deal with this for thirty years, there was a sign language interpreter a mentor for hearing impaired people and they held a training that contained 3 modules for the Hungarian interpreters; then the narrator of the National Theatre London visited us. Great Britain is the flagship in this thing for sure, they moved accessibility to a very different dimension. It is not a secret that we want to introduce the method that they developed, but take the local circumstances into consideration.”
“Do you specialize only in theatre plays?”
“No, we don’t. We extended this to different exhibitions, and in this case it is important to emphasize that we did not create tangible artefacts but the tangible reproductions of artefacts. The main profile is making paintings tangible.”
“Who do you cooperate with?”
“Fortunately, we have long term cooperation agreement with many theatres; in Budapest with four-five theatres (Nemzeti Színház, Új Színház, Vígszínház, Pesti Színház, Örkény Színház) and on the countryside the our partners are the Pécsi Nemzeti Színház, the Katona József Színház in Kecskemét, the Csíky Gergely Színház in Kaposvár, the Petőfi Színház in Veszprém and the Jászai Mari Színház in Tatabánya. From the beginning, it wasvery important to make this available for the hearing and visually impaired people not only in Budapest but in the county centres also.”
“Then you must be training interpreters.”
“Exactly, we started the whole work by bringing experts here with the help of the British Embassy. They deal with this for thirty years, there was a sign language interpreter a mentor for hearing impaired people and they held a training that contained 3 modules for the Hungarian interpreters; then the narrator of the National Theatre London visited us. Great Britain is the flagship in this thing for sure, they moved accessibility to a very different dimension. It is not a secret that we want to introduce the method that they developed, but take the local circumstances into consideration.”
“Do you specialize only in theatre plays?”
“No, we don’t. We extended this to different exhibitions, and in this case it is important to emphasize that we did not create tangible artefacts but the tangible reproductions of artefacts. The main profile is making paintings tangible.”
“Who do you cooperate with?”
“Fortunately, we have long term cooperation agreement with many theatres; in Budapest with four-five theatres (Nemzeti Színház, Új Színház, Vígszínház, Pesti Színház, Örkény Színház) and on the countryside the our partners are the Pécsi Nemzeti Színház, the Katona József Színház in Kecskemét, the Csíky Gergely Színház in Kaposvár, the Petőfi Színház in Veszprém and the Jászai Mari Színház in Tatabánya. From the beginning, it wasvery important to make this available for the hearing and visually impaired people not only in Budapest but in the county centres also.”
photo: Mátyás Szöllősi