A great project has just been published online, which is to translate some of the most important terms from technical theatre into British Sign Language (BSL). Lead by Ali Pottinger and funded by Arts Council England, the glossary comes as a series of short videos, each on subject area; each term is translated along with a short explanation of what the term means. Eg: “Gels come in many colours and they’re used in general lighting. A gel is inserted into a frame, which is put into a lantern.”
The link is at http://techtheatrebsl.wordpress.com/glossary-2/
This is a great place to start for any stage manager / technician to learn a few terms in BSL – you never now when you might need them, and even if there is a translator to hand, they may not have necessarily the technical terminology or the context to translate any talk you might be giving.
The project in many cases had to invent new signs, and has the authority to regularise ones in existing use.
About Julian
I have a freelance practice as an Arts Education consultant. I retired from being Director of Community Outreach at Rose Bruford College in 2011, having worked there from 1982. Most of that time I was teaching in or around stage management, arts admin and technical theatre. I used to be programme director for the BA Stage Management, and designed the foundation degree in Organising Live Arts.
I worked closely with the National Council for Drama Training; with the National Skills Academy for Creative and Cultural; and with Creative Way and the National Arts Learning Networks in developing standards and access to arts training.
Having trained as a teacher, I spent ten years at the start of my career working in theatre, mostly in rep and community..
I'm politically active in Dartford Labour Party; and interested in issues of cultural representation, whether on the basis of class, ethnicity or any other cultural identity.
My expertise, such as it is, is that of a firestarter. I enjoy linking up apparently random ideas or people, and seeing what comes from the conversations. I seem to be able to enthuse people, to inspire, and to give heart, making things seem possible that people may have doubted. Some of this is through clowning, never believing that matters are so serious that gentle good humour can't be used to improve them.
