Happy Birthday, STAGETEXT!

It’s 17 May 2010, and today marks the 10th anniversary of the birth of our charity, STAGETEXT,
And what a long way we’ve come since then:  with 9 shows in five venues in our first year, to more than 200 STAGETEXT captioned performances in over 75 venues in 2009/10, not to mention around 40 other theatres across the country that now provide a regular in-house captioning service, which brings the overall number of shows a year to well over 500.

The last 10 years has seen an increase in the number of qualified captioners (now 40), developments in technology, and increased awareness of the value of captioned performances for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences. Our work also encompasses deaf awareness training for access officers, venue technicians and front of house personnel; support to venues who are marketing shows to deaf, deafened and hard of hearing audiences; plus the work our captioners undertake in promoting the value of captioning among stage managers, actors and directors during the course of their work.

Our official 10th anniversary celebrations will be taking place later this year to coincide with our first captioned performance at the Barbican Theatre, London – the RSC’s production of The Duchess of Malfi. One of the people who attended that first performance, along with over 100 deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people, was Tiffany Jackson who came with her sister and mother, Heather, who had become deafened 16 years earlier. It was the first time they had been able to attend the theatre together.

Today Tiffany sent us the following message: "I remember going to your first ever performance with my mother, Heather Jackson. It was such a magical experience being able to watch her enjoy the wonders of theatre again. Thank you for all the fantastic work you guys have been doing over the last 10 years. Happy, happy birthday!"

We should like to extend our congratulation to our three founders – Peter Pullan, Merfyn Wiliams and Geoff Brown – for their tireless work in bringing captioning to the UK, and to our captioners, technicians, staff and trustees, without whom none of our wonderful achievements would have been possible.

Here’s to the next 10 years!

Article First Published: 17/05/2010

< Back to News Headlines