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Auckland’s Tim Bray Productions has been celebrating 25 years of making children's theatre by bringing back some of its favourite shows in 2016 – all of which include sign interpreted and audio described performances.

During the year the company is presenting The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch, Badjelly the Witch, and A Lion in the Meadow and Other Stories. Through April, a production of The Santa Claus Show in Takapuna's PumpHouse Theatre has been part of delivering audiences numbers of more than 20,000.

Bray explains “theatre is such a visual medium and it makes sense that children who can't hear should have access to the dialogue as well.

“I’m delighted and heartened when I see Deaf children understand what's going on. In the last show, they really got into it and were on their feet cheering.

“We’ve been providing sign interpreted shows since 2004 and work regularly with Kelston Deaf Education Centre. We invite the school to our shows and try to make a priority to let them in for free. This is provided for by our Charity Seats programme that some of our funders, audience members and private individuals donate to, and even with no funding, we try to do it anyway.”

Last year, the production team began audio description for blind and partially sighted audience members as an initiative of its Business Development Manager, Gail Rotherham. The Creative Communities Scheme funded this initiative.

Bray adds “we got in Audio Describers Aotearoa for advice and support, and they’ve got actor Kevin Keys to narrate the show. He provides all the description of things like the setting, costumes and movements in between the dialogue.

“One time I shut my eyes and listened to the audio description and it made me sad to think how much blind children are missing out on visually. However, the audio description is beautifully done and you can really imagine what’s happening.”

Before the audio described performance there is a touch tour for blind children. In 2015, the company performed The Velveteen Rabbit, a story about a toy rabbit that wants to become real. At the end of the show, there was a real rabbit and in the touch tour the children got to touch the rabbit.

The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch is based on the picture books by Ronda and David Armitage and includes an original song by Christine White. Three Lighthouse Keeper’s stories have been combined into one show, adapted by Tim Bray and featuring Mr and Mrs Grinling, Hamish the Cat and the greedy seagulls.

Bray says that over his long career in children’s theatre, he’s learned that children are intelligent and perceptive.

He concludes “you don't need to dumb it down for them. They can work things out, and can handle the truth and deep emotions. We had 12-year-old boys leaving our production of The Whale Rider in tears because they were emotionally moved by the story.

“It’s taken me a long time to learn to trust the inner voice of creativity. Sometimes I'm stuck on something in a rehearsal room and something comes in from somewhere, I don't know where, and I'll say to the actors, 'Can you try this please?' and it fixes the problem.”

Tim Bray Productions is a member of Arts Access Aotearoa's Arts For All Auckland network.

For more information about the Arts For All network and how to join, contact Claire Noble, Community Development Co-ordinator, Arts Access Aotearoa on 04 802 4349 E: claire.noble@artsaccess.org.nz

Arts for All is a partnership programme with Creative New Zealand.

Image: Tim Bray with children from the Kelston Deaf Education Centre before a sign interpreted performance.

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