HLAA Opens Doors of the Chattanooga Theatre Centre to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Audiences with Equipment Donation

Thanks to the work of the Chattanooga Chapter of the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), thousands of local residents will be able to fully appreciate live stage productions at the CTC.

Using $4,500 of the funds realized from the Association's first ever Walk4Hearing held last May, the chapter purchased an electronic captioning board as a gift to the community.

For one Thursday performance of every MainStage production, the board will be used to display real-time captioning of the play. For Our Town, that date will be Thursday, February 11. For The Crucible, the date is June 22. The Producers will be August 19.

Linda Hershey, a patron of the CTC, brought the idea of purchasing an electronic captioning board to the membership of HLAA. She has learned the captioning system, and she has input the entire script for Our Town into the system. On February 11 when the equipment makes its official debut, Linda will be operating it.

"We are grateful for Linda's enthusiasm and drive for this purchase, and we are thrilled with the generous and thoughtful donation from the HLAA," said George Quick, producing director of the CTC. "This opens our doors to a broad, new audience. We are very thankful for the hard work on the part of HLAA that brought this about."

"To our knowledge, no theatres in Atlanta, Knoxville, Memphis or Nashville have this equipment," said Betty Proctor, Chairman of the HLAA's 2010 Walk4Hearing.

"This gift provides a new, accessible entertainment opportunity to hard-of-hearing people in the greater Chattanooga area who have never attended a live play, or who have not been able to enjoy a live play for years due to escalating hearing loss."

HLAA estimates that 36,000 people in Hamilton County have some degree of hearing loss.

The 2010 Walk4Hearing will be held May 15. For details, visit www.walk4hearing.org or contact Betty Proctor at baproctor1@comcast.net or call Dick Twitchell at 423-894-3138.

For tickets to Our Town and future productions at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, please call the box office at 423-267-8534 or www.TheatreCentre.com.