"Teach him how to tell my story"

Access at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Authors

Jim Amberg Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Abstract

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF), under the leadership of Artistic Director Bill Rauch, has become an industry leader in its commitment to access. This paper summarizes the Festival's access generally, then examines three areas that are unusual: audio description, open captioning, and sign language performances. The results are that OSF has been rewarded with a thriving and growing patronage from the disabled community and that community has been enriched by access to an art that often excludes them. Brief note is also made of the way Shakespeare language is altered or augmented by each of these means of presentation.

Author Biography

Jim Amberg, Oregon Shakespeare Festival

After a thirty year career in education as a teacher and administrator, Jim Amberg began working at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival as a volunteer in the summer of 2001, distributing assistive listening devices and doing data entry work for the Education Department. The next year, he began audio describing and eventually also served as an usher and house manager. He was Access Coordinator in the Audience Services Office from May 2007-November 2012, wrote most of the open captioned scripts for the 2009-2012 seasons, and ran the LED reader board for most of the captioned performances. He continues to audio describe (The Unfortunates and Cymbeline in 2013) and house manage for the Festival.