Fifty years of sign language in theatre

As founder Director of THEATRESIGN, Terry Ruane has had a career in sign language theatre that goes back to 1972, when he first joined the British Theatre of the Deaf under Pat Keysell. He was influential in guiding it towards professional status, which was achieved in 1974 with the Edinburgh Fringe followed by a national tour of HASSAN directed by the RSC’s Clifford Williams.

As well as Company Manager, Terry subsequently became General Manager with overall responsibility for touring, plus a Theatre in Education project set up for London schools. When Keysell left in 1977 the Arts Council of Great Britain encouraged Terry and Chris Harrowell to set up their own company, Interim Theatre Company, which continued the work of the British Theatre of the Deaf and its Summer School. In turn this led to other projects such as the TAEDS Course at Reading University. In 1981 he was involved in setting up CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD in the West End, at the same time as Interim presented its sign language production of EQUUS at the Young Vic, which was attended by the play’s author Peter Shaffer. In 1984 he was able to get the “See Hear” team to present three annual Christmas specials: two were Deaf-themed pantomimes which he wrote, and another was INTERGRATION STREET by the late Dorothy Miles.

The first Sign Language Interpreted Performance in 1980 was THE MOUSETRAP in the West End, followed by monthly signed interpretations of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD (because the play was performed in American Sign Language). Following these efforts, Terry felt strongly that any theatre interpreting needed to be based on a performing and not just an interpreting approach.

Having the experience in theatre, coupled with running a sign language interpreting agency with Donna Ruane, Terry knew the direction he wanted to take.

THEATRESIGN was founded in 1998, originally servicing the West End and some south east venues until the 2012 tour of THE LION KING vastly expanded the company into regional venues. Today THEATRESIGN is the largest provider of sign language interpreted performances in the UK, with associated training courses to develop new theatre interpreters. Now ‘semi-retired’, Terry lives in West Sussex and continues to develop and enable new projects for the company, the most recent being the National Theatre At Home’s online BSL interpreted version of WAR HORSE.

Having grown up in a bilingual family (BSL/English), Donna is a native user of BSL. Her childhood and teens saw her studying all forms of performing arts, with dance and musical theatre being her passion.

Upon leaving school Donna worked in an advice centre where she honed her people skills, meeting the needs of the local Deaf community and advising local businesses on how to become accessible. Here she met Terry, who became her mentor and encouraged her to become a qualified interpreter. With her background in performing arts, it wasn’t long before Donna was using her BSL skills on stage to bring theatre to the Deaf community.

From pantomime in 1998 at the Churchill Theatre Bromley to ANNIE, RENT and THE LION KING in London’s West End, Donna expanded her portfolio rapidly, adding The Laurence Olivier Awards and later GMTV. Donna found her calling, embraced each challenge and enjoyed being a part of the changing landscape of accessible theatre, which was breaking down barriers for Deaf patrons.

Donna went on to qualify in 2000 and continued as Senior Interpreter for THEATRESIGN, interpreting in the West End and UK wide while developing a clear understanding of the unique demands of theatre interpreting as opposed to generic interpreting. This, coupled with the limited number of interpreters available in this domain, prompted the development of THEATRESIGN’s first specialist training courses, which she co-trained with Terry from 2009.

Seeing others develop and delivering training that was unique to THEATRESIGN became Donna’s focus, as she knew that THEATRESIGN needed to grow and couldn’t do that without a bigger team.

Donna co-founded THEATRESIGN Education, Access and Mentoring Ltd and THEATRESIGN Training Ltd, which have continued to expand upon the services and training already established, and she is now sole Director of THEATRESIGN. She is proud to say that she is Co-Director of THEATRESIGN Training Ltd with Leigh Bish, who has been a trainer with Theatresign for many years.