A special theatre performance for the visually impaired will be staged in Dunedin tomorrow.
The Fortune Theatre will produce a performance of its latest play, The Motor Camp, designed for a sight-impaired audience.
The audio-described performance will include a pre-play introduction to the cast and a "touch tour" of the stage and set.
"It's the visual made verbal. There are huge chunks in a play where really important things are happening and people with visual disabilities have to work doubly hard to make sense of it. This fills in those gaps," Experience Access trustee and actor Anna Henare said yesterday.
Ms Henare, whose credits include a long shift as Detective Inspector Lara Wade on Shortland Street, will narrate the play from the lighting box to audience earpieces.
"You describe when the actors are entering or exiting and what's happening in the lovely moments of silence. It's fun to describe those parts. I really enjoy that," she says.
"You've got to talk during the dialogue and it's got be succinct and interesting. And you've got to be on your toes.
"It is live theatre, so anything can happen."
A Braille programme was produced for the play by Dave Allen, of Dunedin, who has been blind since birth.
"The theatre is something for everyone and it's about being able to do anything that anyone else does that makes it important for us [visually-impaired people]," he said yesterday.
"We're often in a position where we don't know what's happening and no-one likes to guess. Too often, things are put in the 'too hard' basket, that really shouldn't be. With a bit of work and effort, you can produce a normal, everyday activity that can be enjoyed by everybody," he said.
Ms Henare said the Fortune, which also hosts closed-caption performances for deaf and hearing-impaired patrons, would be producing an audio-described performance of each of its main shows this season.
Experience Access would use the initiative to develop an audio-described performance template which could be used by other art organisations.
The project was partially-funded with a $3000 Creative New Zealand Arts Access Aotearoa grant.
The Motor Camp touch tour will be at 2pm tomorrow, followed by a Friends of the Fortune afternoon tea and the audio-described performance at 4pm.
