Special performances for Deaf children
19 November 2008 The Santa Claus Show season from 8 to 23 December at the PumpHouse Theatre in Takapuna, Auckland will include at least two sign language interpreted performances.
New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) interpreters Kelly Hodgins and Lynnley Pitcher will be interpreting the show for the Deaf audience. Artistic Director Tim Bray says the interpreters are “phenomenal” to watch. “They’re performances in their own right.”
Kelly, who is an educational interpreter at Kelston Girls’ College, says young people love Tim’s productions. She applauds him for providing opportunities for Deaf children to see professional theatre.
This is her fourth time interpreting the Santa Claus Show. “It’s my favourite of Tim’s productions. The main character has my name, which makes it special, but I also love it because the interpreting is fast, it’s colloquial NZSL and it’s very funny.”
The job of the interpreters is to translate what’s happening on stage. Before the show, they memorise the script and decide on the roles they will play. They also think about the audience and what will work best with them. For instance, mime works well with a young audience.
“We stand together on one side of the stage,” Kelly explains. “It can be quite tricky for the audience, particularly children, because they have to keep looking from the stage to the interpreters and back to the stage. We call it the ping-pong effect.”
Fast thinking
Kelly grew up in the theatre and has performed in many productions. She says it’s a great help when she does theatre interpreting. “You have to think pretty fast. If the actors ad lib something, you have about three seconds to get out the equivalent.”
Tim Bray – artistic director, playwright, actor, producer – has been creating theatre productions for the past 17 years. Since 2004, he’s been producing children’s shows at The PumpHouse Theatre. Over that time, his audience has grown from 4500 a year to 20,000.
He remembers going to an event in 1998 and seeing sign language interpreters in action. It was like turning on a light. “I thought, ‘Of course’. That’s what I should be doing.
“As a performer, I’d learned some basic sign language and I knew there were a lot of children in Auckland who were deaf – children who would get the visual spectacle of theatre but would miss out on the dialogue, the characterisation and the jokes.”
This year, Tim Bray Productions has presented six children’s plays. One of these toured beyond its usual home of the PumpHouse Theatre to other theatres in the Greater Auckland area.
For each production, it offers at least two interpreted performances. Students, teachers and families of Kelston Deaf Education Centre are always invited to these shows.
Tim agrees that it’s a way to increase audiences. But the main reason his productions cater for Deaf children is because he sees it as his “public responsibility”. It’s about creating awareness and providing access to theatre.
He hopes it’s an initiative that other arts companies will increasingly adopt in New Zealand.