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Special Needs Accessibility

   Physical accessibility and a casual, family atmosphere are additional factors which make the Festival the most available and approachable arts experience in Louisville. For many audience members, the Festival is the only arts experience they are able to attend, the cost of arts events being the prohibitive factor. The amphitheatre is wheelchair accessible. The Festival is the only Kentucky arts organization to offer professional shadow sign interpreted performances of summer productions for the deaf and hearing impaired and is the first theatre in Kentucky to provide live audio described Shakespearean performances for the blind and visually impaired. The Festival's summer audience is the most diverse of any professional arts organization in Kentucky.

   In 1994, the Festival was awarded a Cultural Olympiad Regional Designation Award in the Arts by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games for outstanding service to the underserved. Winners were chosen on the bases on excellence, innovation, and the degree and reach of audience impact.

Shadow sign-interpreted performances

   Shadow-signing is a rarely performed art form which enables the hearing impaired to experience a theatrical production in a complete way, rather than the so-called "ping-pong" effect of watching a play and at the same time watching a traditional signer who sit at the front of the stage. Professional actor-signers are costumed appropriately for the production and move around the stage mirroring the action of the play while signing the on-going dialogue. Shadow signing complements the action of the play and offers an aesthetic experience for the hearing audience, as well as accessing the performance for the hearing impaired.

Audio-described performance

   Audio description is accomplished through the use of individual headset receivers worn by the visually impaired. Trained audio describers present the play's setting and program information. They then provide descriptive commentary throughout the action of the play, without interfering with the dialogue.

Shadow Signers

   JOYCE COLE CSC, is a nationally certified interpreter and one of the founders of the Sign on Stage Inc. Ms. Cole returns to the Festival for her sixth season. Her previous appearances at the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival include: OTHELLO, ROMEO AND JULIET, THE WORTHY FARCE OF MASTER PIERRE PATELIN, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, RICHARD II, HENRY IV, Part 1, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS and PANTALONE'S EXAMINATION. In Chicago, she has interpreted YOU at the Auditorium Theatre, JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT with Donny Osmond at the Chicago Theatre, THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG and WILL ROGERS FOLLIES with Keith Caradine at the Schubert Theatre. She has interpreted many other Chicago area theatre productions including RECKLESS at the Steppenwolf Theatre with Joan Allen. Her concert and comedy experience includes performing with Red Skelton, Holly Near and Second City. Joyce was the on-location interpreter for the Paramount Pictures production of the film, Children of a Lesser God with William Hurt and Academy Award winner Marlee Matlin.

   LIZ BARTLOW works as a free-lance sign language interpreter in the Chicagoland area. She has a B.S. degree in Theatre from Northwestern University and has performed and/or interpreted with many theatres in Chicago, including the Goodman, Playhouse, Bailiwick, Second City and Remains. Favorite interpreting memories include working with the Illinois Storytelling Festival, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gerry Adams, World Cup Soccer - USA '94, Maya Angelou and the Chicago Bulls.

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