Lavrak Circus releases new short puppetry film featuring BSL and captions

Amy Nicholls, co-director of Lavrak Circus, has gotten in touch with us to tell us about their new puppetry short film which is accessible to deaf audiences. Amy directed  ‘I’ll Build a World With You’  as part of a larger research project which encourages people to talk about the environment through art.

Deaf actor and director, David Ellington, is featured at the start of the film introducing the work in BSL and captions are used to describe any sounds in he video. I chatted to Amy about this new short video to find out more!

Hi Amy! So first of all, what is the puppetry short film about?

The video is the beginning of some research into talking about the environment through art and movement. This is the first of a series of D/deaf accessible films exploring this theme. This was also our first time working with film, so we wanted to make a simple, short story that touched on some of our feelings toward climate change.

Why was it created with a deaf audience in mind, what was the inspiration behind this?

We’ve always created work with accessibility in mind, but mostly in the past this has been through designing schemes that mean families from lower-socioeconomic backgrounds can experience our work. In 2019 we did our first D/deaf accessible show, inspired by Extraordinary Bodies. When the pandemic hit, having received a brilliant reaction from D/deaf audiences with our show, we wanted to make digital work that was accessible to D/deaf audiences.

Do you feel your art work is naturally visual and therefore accessible?

Yes, our work is very visual, we tell stories through movement. We have found it works quite well for D/deaf audiences as they don’t have to watch an interpreter alongside the work. They can follow the story through movement, giving one thing to focus on.

Have you worked with deaf artists before?

This is our second time working with David Ellington, but we would really like to work with more deaf artists in the future!

Who did you work with to ensure the project was as deaf-friendly as possible? Did you receive consultation from anyone or organisations?

For our last D/deaf accessible project (Reach), we worked with Extraordinary Bodies (who are amazing, if you don’t know of them!) Billy Alwen gave us a lot of support in making the show as accessible as it could be, from making workshops accessible and where to find interpreters, to ensuring we reach D/deaf audiences through our marketing and they know the work is for them.

We then gathered feedback from D/deaf audiences on Reach and used that for this project.

We also did some research into other accessible online projects at the start of the pandemic. Quiplash run a HIIT class that we attended to understand the differences and considerations in D/deaf accessible work online, such as fatigue from reading subtitles. Their classes are short and sweet. Inspired, we opted for a series of short videos.

It is also important to say that we are always learning and are at the beginning of our journey making work accessible to D/deaf audiences. We really welcome feedback from audiences to improve our work further and will continue to work with companies like Extraordinary Bodies.

What was the planning/preparation process like for the new film?

Due to the pandemic, we actually worked remotely with David. David has a production company (VS1 Productions)  and was able to film his part and send it over to us. Having communicated with him via email, we didn’t need BSL interpreters; however, if we had have had a meeting with him, of course this would have been covered.

We’d like to work a little less remotely with artists in the future, but this felt like the best way to keep everyone safe.

Did you learn anything from working with David?

David is brilliant! We were so lucky work with him on this. We’ve learnt a lot from watching him work. As a performer, he is very expressive with his face, which is something we’ve always aimed for in our work, but have tried to feed this in more to make the story lines/ emotions clearer.

This was a challenge working with puppets and again we learnt from watching him interact with his puppet. We have also learnt some terminology from speaking to David, which has been very useful.

What do you hope deaf audiences gain from watching this video?

Our aim and reason for putting the BSL intro at the start was to make it clear that the work is for D/deaf audiences. Our D/deaf audiences told us in past feedback it is useful to know exactly in what ways it is accessible e.g. subtitles, BSL. We wanted to do this in the intro.

Of course the film has themes of climate change and eventually with this research we hope this can start a conversation about our planet. But, most importantly for this video in particular, we hope our D/deaf audiences will be entertained during this strange time where entertainment is so needed.

Do you have any future projects in the pipeline you’d like to tell us about?

This is the first of a few more D/deaf accessible short videos we made over the pandemic. We’ll be releasing them soon! You can find these on www.lavrak.org

You can watch the new puppet film ‘I’ll Build a World With You’ here: www.tinyurl.com/Lavrak-puppets

Instagram @lavrakcircus

www.lavrak.org