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UPDATED: Oct. 31, 2018 at 11:17 a.m.

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s Starr Guckert sat in the Landmark Theatre’s designated “handicap” row — a word that makes her cringe — for a performance of a Broadway touring musical, she felt disconnected from the action on stage. Sitting in this section was her only option after telling the box office she had a visual impairment, but sitting more than a dozen rows back wasn’t helpful for Guckert, who is legally blind and uses a walker.

“I couldn’t see anything. When people in the audience laughed, I had no idea what was funny,” she said.

Guckert later compared her ticket price with the audience members in wheelchairs next to her — she was charged $90 while their tickets were $45 a piece, she said.

To prevent moments like these from happening to others, Guckert has been an advocate for 40 years, helping local theaters and other organizations make their events accessible to the entire community. As an advocacy coordinator at AURORA of Central New York, she works closely with the Landmark as they draft plans for a renovation of their nearly 3,000-seat auditorium. The 90 year-old theater will have its first elevator installed by the end of 2018. Seat renovations are expected to be finished within 10 years, before the Landmark’s 100th anniversary.

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design, venues are encouraged to offer accessible seating in every section if ticket prices vary. The Landmarks’ new elevator will help make the second floor lobbies accessible, though balcony seating will remain inaccessible to guests who use a wheelchair — an issue that Landmark Theatre’s Executive Director Mike Intaglietta said the building’s architecture prevents them from solving.

“Being a very old building, we have some architectural challenges that newer buildings don’t have,” Intaglietta said. “And we’re constantly adapting to them.”

He said the usher staff, who undergo disability etiquette training, always keep an eye out to assist patrons who may be struggling to get around the crowded lobby and stair areas. Since many of the shows are part of Broadway tours, or feature guest artists, Intaglietta said the Landmark typically doesn’t have control over technicalities that may fix some of the problems. But the theater’s team is taking action where they can — the venue now offers hearing devices and American Sign Language interpretation at select performances.

Guckert even offered to help the team at the Redhouse Arts Center to ensure their new, larger venue complied with the 2010 ADA standards. She said the center never arranged a time to meet, but Redhouse already offers ASL interpretation at select performances and lowered ticket prices with their expanded location.

Samara Hannah, executive director at Redhouse, said her goal is to show the Syracuse community that theater is not just an upper-class luxury, but rather an art form that can positively affect anyone, regardless of their background. Through “color-blind” casting and keeping ticket prices as low as possible, Hannah said she wants everyone to have that opportunity.

“Making sure that everybody has access to that is just a critical component of ensuring that creative inspiration is happening and innovation is happening,” she said.

Guckert said she has tried to arrange a roundtable discussion with people at the Landmark Theatre and the Redhouse Arts Center at Syracuse Stage, which she calls the “quintessential accessible theater.” Both of the Landmark and Redhouse theaters can learn how Syracuse Stage makes live performances accessible, she said. Guckert had to cancel the meeting, but she hopes to reschedule to later this year.

“I think we’ll have another crack at them. We don’t give up easily,” Guckert said.

At Syracuse Stage, Guckert can experience live theater her own way. After having no desire to go to plays for most of her adult life, she purchased season tickets this year because of the Stage’s audio description program.

Up to 30 minutes before an audio-described performance, patrons can request a headset that provides narration via a Syracuse Stage staff member. It assists guests with knowing what’s happening onstage between dialogue, said Kate Laissle, associate director of education at Syracuse Stage.

When she audio-describes a show, Laissle sits in a sound storage booth with a small glass window overlooking the stage. She speaks into a microphone and wears a headset so she can control the mix of stage sounds with her own narration. The set, lighting and costumes are described in vivid detail to paint a picture before the show starts.

Laissle prepares for audio description by watching the show five to six times in order to feel its rhythm and find pauses when she can sneak in narration. In fast-paced musicals, like “Elf,” which is coming to the Stage for the holiday season, narrating the action without talking over the actors’ dialogue is no easy feat.

For her, it’s important that every audience member feels included, especially when something humorous happens on stage without any sound.

“If you’re not sighted, then you might miss out on the joke,” she said. “You want to include people rather than make a different experience.”

In the five years that Laissle has been with the Stage, she said the demand for audio description has grown. She estimates three to 10 patrons use the service throughout a show’s run.

Syracuse Stage also offers open captioning, a service that displays a play’s script in real-time on a screen next to the stage. Open captionists spend hours formatting the show’s script, emitting stage directions and inserting space for pauses so the dialogue can run smoothly with the press of a button.

Kate Pollack, Syracuse University’s Disability Cultural Center’s coordinator, said she has benefited from the open captioning at Syracuse Stage shows. For her, having ASL interpreters and Communication Access Realtime Translation at campus events fosters an inclusive environment for people, like herself, who have a hearing disability.

“There’s a lot of things that I can’t go to because there’s no sign language or there’s not enough time for them to set up sign language,” Pollack said. “After awhile, it starts to feel very isolating and I don’t want other people to feel that way.”

Jessika Whitehouse, the open captionist for Syracuse Stage, said she spends between eight and 20 hours formatting a script, depending on the length of the show and what kind of script she’s given. She then attends dress rehearsals to learn the pacing — with each press of a button, she controls the speed at which the words scroll.

In addition to working at Syracuse Stage, Whitehouse is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in American Sign Language-English Interpretation at Rochester Institute of Technology. She said she has wanted to be an interpreter from a young age — her sign language education began with seeing her mom work with nonverbal people on the autism spectrum.

“I saw sign language and thought it was people dancing with their hands, so I wanted to learn more,” she said.

As a lifelong “theater kid,” Whitehouse said helping provide access to the arts is important to her. She hopes that, moving forward, accessibility is widespread enough so patrons don’t have to ask for it. Whitehouse doesn’t want anyone left out just because they forgot their hearing aids at home or didn’t request an interpreter in time.

But at Syracuse Stage, accessibility extends beyond the assistive technology. Three years ago, the theater presented the first sensory-friendly performance in central New York. It was designed to provide a welcoming theater experience for people on the autism spectrum and their families. Now, the Stage is expanding the program by rebranding it as “relaxed performances” for any patrons who may not feel comfortable in traditional theater settings.

Relaxed performances don’t alter the plot of a show in any way, Laissle said, only technical elements are adjusted. The stage volume is kept lower than 90 decibels, the house lights are kept dimmed at about 30 percent and startling sound and lighting cues are removed. Patrons at relaxed performances will never be asked to leave the theater for talking. The use of iPads or other personal technology are permitted.

To prepare for relaxed performances, Laissle said the Syracuse Stage team works closely with expert advisers to make sure the performances meets standards outlined by the Theatre Development Fund. People with personal experiences with the autism spectrum and professionals are invited to a rehearsal before the scheduled relaxed performance to give feedback.

In addition to the technical adjustments, relaxed performances are staffed with volunteers who are trained to handle sensory issues. These volunteers provide fidgets and noise-canceling headphones to anyone who needs them and can guide patrons to one of two quiet rooms outside the main theater area. The two rooms — one stocked with drawing materials and plot-related toys and the other a quiet room with comfortable seating — are there for those who need a break.

Laissle said the theater has received positive feedback from families who have attended relaxed performances — some said they were grateful for the time they spent at the show, even if it was only for 30 minutes.

“There’s always such this love and wonder taking place on the day,” Laissle said. “It’s a really light, fantastic environment when those are going on.”

The Syracuse Stage team’s passion for making live performances accessible is reflected in their strategic plan, which emphasizes the theater’s commitment to telling diverse stories. Released in April, the plan was developed over a 10-month period to outline the theater’s goals in the coming years.

For Laissle, it’s equally important to be sharing those stories with diverse audiences. Creating a community at the theater — hearing people’s “passions and their fears and their wants and their desires” — is what “makes us human,” Laissle said.

Guckert said creating this community with widespread accessibility across Syracuse is going to take time.

“It’s going to take people who have disabilities who learn about what’s possible and take it to the theaters in their hometowns,” she said.

Not many live performances venues in Syracuse are as accessible as Syracuse Stage. But Guckert said she isn’t giving up anytime soon — even if it takes 10, or 20, more years.

Cover Photo, Audio Recording by Haley Robertson | Asst. Feature Editor

CLARIFICATION: In a previous version of this article, the timeline of the seat renovations at the Landmark Theater were unclear. The renovations are expected to be finished within 10 years. Also, the cancellation of the roundtable Starr Guckert tried to organize over the summer was unclear.