Many of you know I hold season tickets to the opera.  This used to be one of the few stage experiences I could enjoy with friends and family since it always offered subtitling in English, (due to the fact that operas are sung in other languages.)  Over the past three decades many musicals I would have like to have seen have come and gone, and I’ve missed them all.  There’s no point in spending the money on a play or musical when you can’t follow the story line. 
 
Well now that’s all history!! 
 
Thanks to John Waldo, a deaf attorney working with the Washington Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP), the Phantom of the Opera was captioned at Seattle’s Paramount Theater last Wednesday night.  I have owned the cd for about twenty years.  I LOVE the music.  What a thrill it was to finally experience it firsthand!  In addition to the captions, all d/Deaf, HH people got a price break, and preferential seating close to the captions at the right side of the stage.  The seats sold out despite being on a Wednesday night.
 
I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it felt going to something like this with Perry, my husband, just like any other couple.  Knowing I could follow the story increased his enjoyment as well.  He also found he needed to use the captions himself at times. 
 
Perry told me about a football game he’d been to in Arizona with my dad.  At that game, everything on the big screen was captioned in their stadium.  He explained how much he liked that because he often misses what the announcers say when crowds at Qwest Field cheer.  Later he wrote to the Seahawks to encourage them to caption their screens at Quest, but they never responded.  Evidently the NAD recently filed suit and WON(!) against the Washington Redskins for failure to make their games accessible to deaf people.  Way to GO!!
 
Captioning is coming one theater, stadium or lawsuit at a time.  Whatever it takes.
 
In a few weeks the Paramount will be showing a captioned performance of Spring Awakening, winner of eight Tony Awards during 2007, including Best Musical.  I wish I could go but I work the one day the captions are offered.  According to the Wash-CAP website they have successfully persuaded the Fifth Avenue theater in Seattle to caption some of their musicals for the 2009-2010 season.  I’ll be watching and waiting. 
 
If you wish to attend ‘Spring Awakening’ in Seattle, here’s the order form, or you can buy tickets at the window the day of the performance.