Blind and low-vision guests deepen Broadway experience through tactile tours
Shari Gasper
Overture Center continues to create a more inclusive Broadway experience by helping blind and low-vision guests gain a deeper understanding of costumes, props and sets through tactile tours.
On Thursday, June 13, blind and low-vision guests had a hands-on experience with six cast and crew members of “TINA – The Tina Turner Musical,” including a musician, carpenter, sound technician, props coordinator and wardrobe supervisor. Head Carpenter Timothée Courouble discussed logistics of building and unloading traveling sets. Sound Assistant Kevin Thurber explained how the story is told through an oral landscape and how he helped create different sounds for the various decades.
“Music from a radio in the 1950s and 1960s sounds different than it does today,” he said.
Props Assistant Tory Sheppard explained that anything an actor touches or interacts with on stage—from a couch to a purse—is handled by the props team. Wardrobe Supervisor Cecilia Gutierrez talked about fabrics from Tina’s different time periods.
Guests got to touch a wooden chair, scarf, blanket, bell, shaker and beads as well as a radio, microphones, beaded dress and wigs. Guitarist Mike Wilson told guests about the 11-member orchestra and passed around his guitar, letting guests strum a few chords.
"To provide this unique experience for guests and give them the opportunity to hold something in their hand that is so integral to the show is pretty cool,” said Wilson. “It gives guests a better understanding of the show and the creative minds behind it.”
June’s tactile tour was the second tour attended by low-vision guest Gary LaFleur, who is a big Tina Turner fan.
“After participating in the tactile tour, I now have a visual picture in my mind that will help me follow the performance better even if I can’t see it,” said LaFleur. “Plus, I enjoyed learning about the logistics of how they put the production together. I learned a lot—and I got to strum a $3,500 guitar!”
Overture Center hosted its first tactile tour in February 2023 with cast and crew members of “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
“Guests were thrilled that professionals from the tour took time out their busy schedules to make an accommodation of this sort happen—and the whole time they clapped, cheered and said how awesome the experience was in helping them fully understand the world of the show,” said Director of Guest Services Tom Klubertanz.
“Guests left feeling very special—like they had just experienced something unique, and it was so great to see them so happy because of an experience we created just for them.”
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Since then, tactile tours have been offered for several Broadway shows, including “Disney’s The Lion King,” “Tootsie,” “SIX,” “Disney’s Aladdin” and “Beetlejuice.”
In May 2023, three members of “Disney’s The Lion King”—Shevhan Lusteck(wardrobe supervisor), Michael Reilly (puppet supervisor) and Nick LaMedica (Zazu)—spent 45 minutes before the show describing several of the costumes, masks andpuppets, letting guests touch the items and ask questions. They explained the types of materials used to create the pieces and the creative process behind the show.
“Giving audience members a better understanding of the show helps make the theater welcoming for everyone,” said LeMedica.
LaMedica invited guests to touch the Zazu puppet and use its controls to make the bird blink, open its mouth and flap its wings. He joked that even his fellow cast members never get to touch the puppet, unless they’re playing or understudying Zazu.
“Discussing the show and touching costumes and pieces of the set helps someone who is blind or has low vision to better understand the context behind what they’re hearing on stage,” said Klubertanz.
“I feel like everyone else, every other patron, because now I can literally have the full experience,” said Tim Davis after the tactile tour for “Disney’s The Lion King.”
Overture’s accessibility services include audio description services during the Thursday evening and Sunday matinee performances of each Broadway run. The service includes a live description of the performance by a trained descriptor, which is streamed to the guest via headphones.
“It’s especially helpful with facial expressions,” said LaFleur. “In the past, people around me would laugh, but I didn’t know why they were laughing. With audio description, I’m told, for example, the cast member has a ‘surprised face,’ so then I know why people are laughing.”
One tactile tour participant expressed her gratitude in a note to Klubertanz after the event: “The tactile tour made this show a completely different experience from all the other shows I have attended at Overture. This is the first time I have been able to fully enjoy and appreciate a show in years. The show’s representatives were personable, passionate and provided amazing insight into the show, the props and the characters. I genuinely hope more companies begin to see the value in offering the tactile tour to allow guests to have a much more immersive and meaningful experience. It allowed me to fully understand the vision of the show’s creators and the interaction of the music, acting and emotions of those executing the show. This is the best show that I have attended!”