Leeds School of Arts

Oliver Twist at Leeds Playhouse

Music Performance and Production student Alistair Lacey works on the new play ‘Oliver Twist’ at Leeds Playhouse featuring the use of integrated creative sign language, audio description and captioning.
Oliver Twist Banner

For the past few weeks Alistair Lacey has been working with John Biddle, the sound designer at The Leeds Playhouse, where he has been working with the sound technicians on the mixing desk during the live performances. Leeds Playhouse is in collaboration with "Ramps On The Moon" (which is a project that strives to represent and recognise disabled actors within the theatre industry. The performance itself displays some of the struggles faced by those with disabilities (for example some parts are without vocals when two deaf people are in conversation, where subtitles are put on the screen for those who cannot read British Sign Language). The performance is written and rehearsed with input from sign language consultants and an audio description consultant (Ben Wilson).

Alistair says ‘this has been a fantastic opportunity for me to learn how to use software such as QLab, learn how the industry works and to contribute my own ideas to the production’s  sound design. Participating in the production Oliver Twist has been a very valuable experience. I’ve especially enjoyed finding out about how the use of bass frequencies (PAs with cones facing the floor) can enable deaf people to feel the vibrations of sound and how audio description recordings can be made available through the use of in-seat headphones.”

Head shot of Alistair Lacey

Professor Sue Miller

Professor / Leeds School Of Arts

Sue Miller is a Professor of Music, teaching on the undergraduate and postgraduate courses in music performance and production. She specialises in Cuban/Latin music, improvisation, music analysis and music history within the fields of performance, (ethno)musicology and popular music studies.

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