We’re delighted to be the recipient of Theatres Trust’s landmark 100th grant to improve access for the local deaf and deafened community.
This vital funding will enable us to work in partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre, The Lowry, Z-Arts, Contact, Oldham Coliseum and Bolton Octagon to purchase and share captioning equipment. Thanks to Theatres Trust, we’ll be able to significantly increase the number of captioned theatre performances we present and open up opportunities for deaf and deafened audiences to experience a greater variety of theatre styles, including studio theatre work and site-specific performances. It also means that smaller participating theatres in the region will be able to begin captioning performances for the first time. HOME led on the development of the project proposal, consulting with a wide range of people, including participants of the Greater Manchester Cultural Group for Deaf People, which brings together deaf and deafened individuals with cultural organisations to help evolve their access provision.
Dave Moutrey, Director & Chief Executive of HOME said “This initiative will ensure that Greater Manchester theatres make another important step towards the highest levels of accessibility. It will significantly increase accessible theatre performances and we hope it inspires other theatres in the UK to work together to achieve excellence in provision. The support from Theatres Trust will, for the first time, truly make Greater Manchester’s theatre programme accessible to the deaf and deafened, providing them with access to the full range of fantastic theatre productions on offer in our city.”
Tom Stickland Theatres Trust Theatres Adviser said: “We work to ensure theatre buildings meet the needs of their communities – and our 100th grant will do just that. We are happy to help D/deaf audiences across greater Manchester experience a much wider range of performances and venues the vibrant city has to offer, thanks to a brilliant collaboration between the consortium. It’s a project we would like to see other areas considering.”
For more information on this fantastic project, take a look at the news on the Theatres Trust website.