In the late 1990's Terry Ruane, a Deaf theatregoer found himself regularly attending Sign Language Interpreted Performances at London venues such as the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Donmar Warehouse and the Almeida. At the same time he became aware that Sign Language users were being denied access to the most popular West End shows as hardly any were interpreted. Signaway (a company he ran with Donna Ruane) was already providing interpreted performances in the regions and an approach was made to the Society of London Theatre and with funding from the Arts Council of England, a project was set up in year 2000 which saw Interpreters like Mary Connell, Russ Alderssson, Wendy Ebsworth and Donna Ruane interpreting a whole range of current Theatre shows at venues ranging from the Barbican to the London Palladium.
The relationship between Signaway and the Society of London Theatre (SOLT)
continued with Sign Language interpreting being provided at the prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards and free tickets being made available at this event. In 2004 Signaway re-branded as THEATRESIGN, a name which clearly shows what the company's work is all about.
THEATRESIGN's mission is to make accessible the most popular West End shows chosen by Sign Language users. Wherever possible half price seats are made available and these interpreted shows usually take place on a Saturday matinee, again by popular demand to enable people to travel from outside London. Not surprisingly, nearly all the requests received are for the big West End musicals and the sell-out nature of these shows means that interpreted performances often have to be scheduled a whole year in advance as happened with Mamma Mia! and The Lion King.
Welcome to Theatresign! We hope you will enjoy browsing through our pages and seeing what exciting shows are currently on offer!
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