Keeping the Drama on Stage at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

The OSF is definitely committed to providing a great experience to all. They strive to make their facilities accessible to everyone by providing a variety of accommodations for persons with disabilities; this includes people with hearing loss. Not only do they provide patrons with assistive listening devices from Listen Technologies, but they also schedule certain performances with sign interpretation and open captioning.

Going to the theater when you can’t quite hear what the actors are saying can be an incredibly frustrating experience for someone with hearing loss. For example, experiencing any one of Shakespeare’s plays without the ability to hear his rich language would diminish any audience member’s enjoyment.  Can you imagine seeing Hamlet without being able to hear the famous “To be or not to be,” speech or watching A Midsummer Night’s Dream without hearing Puck pose his continually impish quips? It would be more tragic than King Lear!

Luckily, the OSF is taking a fresh approach to combining assistive listening and Shakespeare, so those with hearing loss can enjoy each and every soliloquy. With the use of Listen Technologies RF assistive listening equipment, the OSF provides its audience members the opportunity to experience the theater the way it should be experienced. This product allows the theater to wirelessly transmit audio from a fixed box to personal, portable receiver that an audience member uses like his or her very own private radio. This solution keeps all the tragedy on the stage, so that the audience members don’t have to miss out on experiencing the drama the way it should be experienced.