'It's past time': Riverland provides ASL interpretation for 'A Christmas Carol' in Austin
Dec. 3—AUSTIN — A new actress joined the stage for the opening night of "A Christmas Carol" in Austin.
She sat stage right just in front of the audience to provide American Sign Language interpretation. She practiced every single line through studies of the script and attending a dress rehearsal. But "she does a lot of it live," as Riverland Community College theatre instructor and the show's director Susan V. Hansen said.
When the dialogue stilled briefly, she drank in the show for a few short breaks in the hour-long performance.
With a small light on her music stand, she shared the emotions of many characters, from the pleading of Ebenezer Scrooge to the joy of carolers singing "Feliz Navidad." While she asked to remain anonymous, the college is excited to have ASL interpreters for future productions.
"We're always looking at ways to make the theater more inclusive and making it accessible to all of our patrons because we're so community integrated. We have a lot of people from the community that come to see our shows, not just students," said Lindsey Williams, Riverland Theatre director. "We're always thinking about how can we welcome them to the theater and make sure that they can fully appreciate and enjoy what we have to offer."
The performance's inclusion of ASL interpretation, a Friday night special, was a first for the college. "It's past time," Hansen said of offering interpretation. The interpretation started as a need for one of her students, and when the student joined the show, Riverland decided to keep an ASL-interpreted performance.
The entire show is a new version with an adaption by Hansen, who set the show in America with a focus on equity, inclusion and kindness.
"Theater took a big hit (during COVID), right, so we just started coming back live and the value of equity and diversity is so important. We have some hearing aids for this show but it's not the same thing, and we've had a variety of students but it's just time," Hansen said.
For this production the actors and actresses are not wearing microphones, though actors in the musicals are mic'd during performances, which helps people who are hard of hearing to enjoy the show, Hansen said.
"We don't have closed captioning, right, like your TV does, so we need to be responsible and do that (ASL interpretation)," Hansen said. "And this show literally, I mean, the Cratchits are an immigrant family and there's a lot to be said about including people."
"She's wonderful," Hansen said of the ASL interpreter. "She gets used to knowing what's going to happen next and then she prepares for it, but she does a lot of it live. But it's a lot to interpret for one person for an hour, usually there's two people and they trade off or they'll do a scene together so instead she has to do different 'voices.' It's elaborate, it's time consuming."
With a heart molded to learn throughout the night, Scrooge wakes up a joyful and changed man who reaches out to help and support his community and family. And it's a lesson of kindness that the theater directors hope audiences will share in.
Riverland has performances of "A Christmas Carol" at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3 and 2 p.m. on Dec. 4 at the Frank W. Bridges Theatre on the Austin campus. Tickets are available online at
. The box office on campus also opens one hour before each performance.
