Question: Please can you introduce yourselves and tell us a bit about your role?

Emily answers:

"I’m Emily Howlett, BSL Director for Much Ado. I work alongside the Director, Robert Hastie, and our BSL consultant Brian Duffy, to make sure the story on stage is being told visually, using a mix of British Sign Language, Sign Supported English (SSE), Visual Storytelling and physical theatre - basically any kind of storytelling that you can see!"

Chloë answers:

"I’m Chloë Clarke, Audio Description Director. I have 15 years’ experience as an actor, director and audio description (AD) specialist with a focus on creatively-integrated AD.

Traditionally, audio description is an access feature for visually-impaired audiences that verbally describes the visual aspects of a show to those who can’t see it. It’s usually written and delivered by a professionally-trained describer through a transmitter to headsets worn by visually-impaired audience members in the theatre and has nothing to do with the rest of the creative process. We want to provide AD that’s more interesting, creative, fair and available and the best way to do this is to integrate it into the show itself.

My job is to work with my fellow directors and the cast to design AD that is part of the show from the beginning - it’s as integral to the play as any other creative tool and is woven into the text and soundscape in a natural way that should go totally unnoticed by the audience but still conveys all the necessary information for visually-impaired audience members."

Question: How did rehearsals go?

Emily answers:

"Rehearsals have been really great. It’s been so lovely to see the cast come together as a group of artists who didn’t know each other and are now hugely supportive allies creating a really interesting new take on an old, much-loved story. I’ve really been happily surprised by how many of the non-BSL performers have embraced the visual storytelling, and the reflection of the real world in a rich mix of communication styles onstage.

We are finding funny, interesting and emotional moments every day, on stage and off. However, when things get stressful, we can universally enjoy the live captions on our Zoom link which make the most wonderful mistakes."

Chloë answers:

"The most exciting aspect of rehearsals for me has been exploring the brilliant ideas our talented cast have been offering up and the collaborative ethos that Rob’s instilled in the room.

This has been particularly fun when collectively rising to the challenge of describing physically or visually comic moments, which is especially difficult because if you have to explain a joke it’s usually ruined - showing and telling is generally not great practice. It’s extremely rewarding when we come up with a solution that describes the gag and enhances the humour rather than detracts from it - the perfect example of access as a creative opportunity."

Question: How is this production building on and developing the integration of access?

Emily answers:

"The thing about Ramps is, every show can build on what has gone before to a certain extent, but as with any theatre production, each show stands alone as well.

This is the first Ramps’ Shakespeare, and while we can take a lot of general access learning from previous years, we also have to start afresh in many ways due to the language and style of a Shakespeare production.

So, I think the main way we are building on the integration of access is the fact that we now feel we as a company can create accessible Shakespeare, and non-traditional audiences are ready to embrace it."

Chloë answers:

"Even though it’s the fifth in the series, this is the first Ramps show that has featured a BSL and AD Director, which shows that the focus on integrated access has really progressed. In an ideal world, every show ever created would have both of these roles on board to ensure that all theatre can be experienced by everyone - gone would be the days of deaf and visually-impaired audiences only having a choice of one or two performances in a whole season, if at all.

This will also be the first Ramps show to offer touch tours on request for every performance and a pre-show intro that will serve to AD the characters as well as introduce their sign names - a sort of live dramatis personae. This will have the added bonus of making the show clearer and more accessible to all, proving that if you implement access for specific groups of people you actually benefit everyone."

Question: What creative opportunities does the Shakespearean language providewhen integrating British Sign Language and audio description into the show?

Emily answers:

"Shakespeare’s language is rich with visuals, because it was often performed on a very basic stage, with audiences stretching far further away than they could be expected to see detail in the set or costume.

It’s really exciting to harness the visuals presented in spoken word, and bring them physically to life instead of audiences having to hold the images in their imaginations."

Chloë answers:

"In Shakespeare’s time, theatre was a very different experience from what it is today. The invention of the fourth wall and thus the convention of an audience being expected to sit quietly and not interact with a performance is a relatively new thing.

Shakespeare knew his writing was competing with the noise of a boisterous crowd heckling, chatting, shouting, selling wares and everything in between so he included a lot of description - that incidentally serves as very good AD for visually-impaired audiences - and this means that a lot of the fundamental aspects of who is on stage and what they’re doing is taken care of.

Also, Shakespeare’s incredible mastery of vivid imagery through his language is simply wonderful to listen to whether you’re sighted or not."

Question: What do you hope will be remembered about this production?

Emily answers:

"I would love people to realise, and remember, that Shakespeare isn’t just for one tiny spectrum of actors and audiences. It’s for everyone. And it’s unbreakable; it’s there to be played with, literally. I hope you like what we did with the access and the story."

Chloë answers:

"I really hope that people will come away from this show thinking that it’s one of the best interpretations of Much Ado that they’ve experienced, irrespective of whether they’re deaf or hearing, disabled or nondisabled. Yes, we are championing talented deaf and disabled actors and integrated access, but this is part of a whole: an excellent piece of theatre that speaks (and signs) for itself alongside all the other Much Ado’s out there in the world.

The creative choices we’ve made have been driven by the access requirements of our cast and audience and this has led to a much more exciting, innovative play that is not afraid to take risks. We’ve been careful to assemble a cast that is widely representative across so many margins, and I hope that aspiring creatives will see themselves represented in this show and be assured that a career in the arts is not only achievable, but that diversity is paramount in changing the face of theatre and wider society for the better."