The Steppenwolf Touch Tour
Posted by Evan Hatfield on 5/18/2010
(Evan is the Front of House Manager at Steppenwolf)
“I’m wearing a shirt that’s unbuttoned way too low,” it sounded like he was almost confessing. “And a pair of pants that are tighter than anyone should really be wearing.”
It’s 15 minutes before the Downstairs Theatre would open for the January 7th performance of David Mamet’s American Buffalo, and I was standing in the back of the house watching Tracy Letts - who was sitting onstage - describe the attire he would be wearing that evening in his portrayal of ’70s fashion plate, insomniac and criminal mastermind, Teach.
While Tracy went on to describe his ponytail, sideburns, Fu Manchu mustache and wide-lapeled brown leather jacket (all conceived by costume designer Nan Cibula-Jenkins), fellow cast members Francis Guinan and Patrick Andrews sat next to him in the object-strewn, 1970s-era junk shop into which set designer Kevin Deppinet had transformed the stage. Fran had already given a detailed description of his character Don’s physical build, coloring and conservative synthetic sportswear, and Patrick was getting ready to do the same for the raggedy youthful appearance of his character Bobby, implied by a worn military fatigue jacket, bell bottom jeans and an old pair of canvas Chuck Taylors (in contrast with Tracy and Frans’ descriptions of the middle-aged Teach and Don, Patrick would describe his character as having “a full head of hair”).
After a few more minutes of the actors discussing not just the physical features of their characters, but also their personalities, motivations and connections to each other in the world Mamet and director Amy Morton had created, they all stood up and - remaining onstage - ran through their fight call together. As they went through the intricate steps of the fight choreography by which Teach would administer a phone-beating to Bobby in one of the play’s climactic scenes, Stage Manager Malcolm Ewen, standing onstage with his trademark digital stopwatch hanging from a lanyard around his neck, narrated a blow-by-blow account of the action. After they finished the final step of the fight call and exchanged a few notes, the actors excused themselves and walked backstage to the sound of applause.
The clapping came from a group of 15 patrons (all of whom were blind, visually-impaired, or accompanying companions who were) sitting in the first two rows of the theatre, and signified the conclusion of Steppenwolf’s first ever offering of a touch tour.
This was Steppenwolf’s first ever offering of a touch tour. It’s not a new concept: touch tours have been presented for years at different theatres around the world as a way of providing the most in-depth experience possible for patrons who are blind or visually-impaired. Locally, we’re grateful to be directly inspired by Victory Gardens, whose Access Project and longstanding commitment to patrons with disabilities make it stand out as one of the leaders in the world of arts accessibility, and who graciously advised us on the creation of our touch tour program here at Steppenwolf.
What is a touch tour? Speaking only for Steppenwolf (since formats vary from theatre to theatre), and based off the three we’ve presented so far (in the last month, we’ve also offered them prior to performances of The Brother/Sister Plays and Endgame), touch tours take on the following shape:
* They always precede an audio-described performance of a play, which features a trained audio describer managing the difficult task of narrating the crucial physical actions of the play as they occur onstage, without distracting from or interfering with the dialogue. Watching the performance from an out-of-the-way, sound-proof vantage point, the audio describer delivers their narration into a microphone, which is in turn transmitted to headphones worn by the guests utilizing the service.
* Touch tours traditionally take place inside the theatre, and, as they’ve been scheduled so far, begin approximately 60 minutes before the house is open to the general public, and 90 minutes before curtain.
* The presentation begins with a discussion between members of a production’s creative staff, during which an introduction to the world of the play and playwright is provided. During these discussions, we focus on delivering a detailed description of and context for the play’s visual elements: the set, lighting, entrance and exit points, key props, etc.
For American Buffalo, for example, the conversation featured Jamie Abelson, the play’s Assistant Director, and Kevin Deppinet, the Scenic Designer; for The Brother/Sister Plays, Tina Landau’s assistant Daria Davis chatted with Steppenwolf Lighting Supervisor J.R. Lederle; Endgame featured Assistant Director Jessica Thebus alongside Stage Manager Malcolm Ewen and Steppenwolf Literary Manager Joy Meads.
* Following this conversation, and when allowable by the play, the guests are escorted onstage to experience this program’s namesake: a touch tour of the set and props. This can take varying amounts of time: for the chaos of American Buffalo’s realistic junk shop, there were three rooms and thousands of objects to handle; for the abstract and relatively barren (but no less rich) setscapes of The Brother/Sister Plays and Endgame, it was more about pacing the set and getting a feel of its dimensions, feeling the exaggerated texture of the paint on the walls (meant to be visible from the back of the theatre), and handling the small number of props that each show boasts.
* After the guests have re-taken their seats in the theatre, members of the cast take the stage to introduce themselves and their characters. This is an opportunity for the audience to aquaint themselves with the characters’ physical descriptions, as well as with the voices that are attached to them. For American Buffalo, they got to match the gentlemens’ deep affected Chicago accents to their regular voices; for The Brother/Sister Plays, three plays that feature nine actors portraying better than 20 characters, it was a chance to get a head start on keeping things straight for productions that have been leaving even sighted audiences confused.
* After the actors leave the stage to prepare for the performance, and as the house doors open and the rest of the audience begins to stream in, volunteers help guests find their ticketed seats for the performance, hand out headsets on which they’ll listen to the audio description, and distribute playbills available in Braille, large print, or as an audio recording on a CD for perusal at home (audio recordings of subscription show playbills are also posted online on each show’s production page at steppenwolf.org). For the next 30 minutes until curtain, the audio describer will offer expository narration, and then… black out, and that poignant moment where everyone is in the dark together. While they may not be able to fully physically experience that first light being shed onstage a beat later, our hope for our guests at this point is that - through the touch tour and audio description - the world of the play will still be illuminated.
While our touch tour program is still in the creation process, its early popularity with the patrons who have already experienced it makes us proud to commit to its continuation. Our next touch tour and audio description (the final one for the 2009-2010 season) will be for Bruce Norris’ A Parallelogram on Thursday, July 29. We’ll also offer them for each of our mainstage subscription plays in the 2010-2011 season (the exact dates for which are still being selected, and for which a subscription package will be available).
If you or someone you know has any questions or comments about touch tours or any of our other accessibility services (all of which we’re constantly striving to improve), please e-mail access@steppenwolf.org, or call 312.932.2445.
Through management of our physical patron services, the goal of Front of House Manager Evan Hatfield and his team (those folks wearing headsets and nametags in the lobbies) is to make your visit to Steppenwolf as easy and relaxed as possible. Feel free to e-mail him directly at ehatfield@steppenwolf.org.