Published 24 January 2026

Theatergoers who attend a live play or musical become immersed into the sensational world of the actors' dialogue, musical beats, dancers' steps, and other sound effects. The multisensory stimulation accompanies the mind's exposure to cultural themes, with the rapid and innovative sonic language of Hamilton in the limelight of recent musical theater. Genuine participation in these cultural conversations, however, requires that audience members can fully access these messages. Theaters, as shared cultural spaces, can become accessible when captions are provided to visually represent speech, lyrics, and other sounds through the linguistic, or written, mode. However, as D/deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing theatergoers and members of the theater community show later in this article, simply providing captions without considering how they would be experienced by audience members can be insufficient.

Theaters, which are shared cultural spaces that directly bring audience members together, make apparent how we all attend to meaning in different ways while perceiving the same performance—especially when some of us may be reading captions placed elsewhere on stage. These perceptual differences during a live sonic production make it crucial to design our stages for access. To show the importance of more effective and meaningful captions for spoken plays and musicals, this article discusses how cultural spaces can become more accessible when we (creators and audiences) collaboratively attend to audiences' experiences, advocate for the need for access, and incorporate captioned access.

Written through a rhetorical lens, this article frames theaters as shared cultural spaces that illustrate the complexity of designing sonic access and the importance of embracing that complexity as we investigate possibilities for making our shared spaces more accessible. The wide-ranging plays and musicals from varied genres that are performed on different stages are not easily captioned since translating intricate theatrical sounds to the linguistic mode can be a challenge. Captioning the different sonic worlds of each production underscores how working on sound and access (in any theatrical and non-theatrical context) is not a straightforward process with a single solution. As members of our theatrical, scholarly, and cultural communities, we can tackle this challenge together as we learn from each other and the collaborative process of creating accessible and inclusive sonic spaces.

This article advocates for increased attention to audiences' experiences engaging with sound, visuals, and captions and more meaningful incorporation of effective captions. I first build on scholarship in rhetoric and composition and related fields to structure my interrogation of how theatrical spaces can be (re)designed to expedite audience members' attention to each mode, particularly sound and visuals. I then detail my research study in which I interviewed thirty participants about their experiences attending or performing in live productions with captions. As I discuss in the analysis section, these participants' experiences raised the themes of the need for access; how audiences attend to sound, captions, and visuals differently; and how captions can be designed more effectively. These themes reflect our advocacy for captions to be included consistently and meaningfully in theaters—and the need for creators and audiences to (re)imagine strategies for captioning and delivering sonic meaning. After my analysis, I reflect on how creators and audiences can collaboratively participate in the complex and rhetorical process of making the sounds of our shared cultural spaces more accessible.

Sound and Access as a Process

Before analyzing captioned sound in theaters, I begin with an overview of theater captions for spoken plays and musical theater. While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that access be made available in theaters, not all scheduled performances are captioned. Organizations such as TDF and Theatre Access NYC are among those that support access in theaters, and audience members can communicate with theaters to request captions. When theaters do provide captions, the placement of captions may be less than ideal. Broadway and other theaters may place captions on an LED screen that sits to the side of the stage at a distance from the performers to avoid interfering with the action on stage (Piepenburg). Theaters might also provide captions through a mobile app so that individual audience members can read captions in real time on their personal devices or provide caption glasses that individual audience members can wear while watching a production (Kornides). As participants pointed out and as this article explores in the analysis section, captioning approaches differ across theaters and playhouses, and different captioning practices and placements influence audiences' experiences of a live play or musical.

Extending my interview participants' powerful messages and informed by my own experiences as a Deaf theatergoer, I use this article to assert that we can make our shared cultural spaces even more accessible by considering how the (re)design and placement of captions could strengthen audiences' experiences of a theatrical production. Having meaningful access to sound and multiple modes of communication is a basic principle for community engagement and cultural participation, from entering Lin-Manuel Miranda's transformative world of Hamilton to other stages in which we engage with our fellow citizens of society.

The multicultural value of community-based sound has been highlighted in the 2021 special issue of Kairos, "Sound and Social Change," a collection of texts that honors "the relationship between sound, culture, and community" (Leger et al.). These webtexts, many of which center on music, cultural identities, and communities, include a symposium by five colleagues who invite "readers and listeners to reflect on the relationships between textual, linguistic, and musical composing, as well as the companionability of language and sound" (Snyder et al.). Such active projects draw from the power of musical composition in coalescing individuals' senses of empowerment and collective identity, just as Victor Del Hierro's earlier "DJs, Playlists, and Community" brings readers into the world of hip-hop DJs and amplifies how communities inform the design of communication. We can likewise learn from audience members' experiences with captioned sounds to inform the design of sonic access in live theater.

Audiences' experiences with captioned productions are at the heart of this advocacy for more meaningfully captioned productions since we can only immerse ourselves into the world playing out on stage when we can access each moment, sonic and otherwise. Concurrently, we audiences and scholars can learn more about sound and access as we work through the complexity of creating sonic access for live productions. Challenges of captioning sound include the following: captions can be placed in less-than-ideal locations (such as captions at the far side of the stage); audience members have different preferences for captions depending on their access needs, communication practices, and the context; and productions may already have preestablished staging that determines where actors and other elements of the set design are placed (and captions might not feasibly fit in amongst these elements). When we create sonic compositions, there is not a single answer or formula to follow; instead, we must attend carefully to how we can meaningfully incorporate captions to improve audiences' experiences and access.

Methods, Participants, and Themes

This article's commitment to sonic access is a component of my larger IRB-approved research study on captioned live performances. My larger study aimed to identify how individuals experience captioned live performances and the potential affordances of different kinds of captions for theater settings, including how captions may or may not provide attendees with access to sound, music, and the embodied performances of those on stage.

I recruited a total of thirty participants with different hearing levels for my study and placed participants into three separate groups. For the first group, I interviewed 10 participants who have predominantly attended spoken (non-signed) productions with captions, notably Broadway plays and musicals and other spoken (non-signed) productions in theaters nationally and globally. These 10 participants are foregrounded in this article since they discussed plays and musicals in which sound is a major source of meaning.

For the second group, I interviewed 10 participants who have attended simultaneously signed and spoken productions with deaf and hearing actors, such as productions that my home institution's performing arts program stages several times a year. For the third group, I interviewed 10 individuals with experience performing in or being directly involved in producing plays and musicals with captions. While the three groups were distinct, some participants in the second and third group had also attended spoken plays and musicals (the main focus of the first group) and could contribute to the findings that are shared in this article. Each one-on-one interview occurred on Zoom and participants' names have been changed to pseudonyms.

Data and Analysis

Access

Theater Access, Inclusion, Community

While 10 participants were asked specifically about their experiences attending captioned spoken plays and musicals, other participants also had experiences attending Broadway and other live spoken productions. These individuals' presence in playhouses and theaters across the country embodies the value of access to theater and inclusion in their communities. One participant, Ivy, captured the importance of access to live theater when she emphasized the need "to be part of a community, to be part of artists, to be experiencing new ideas. These shows that are coming out have really important themes. And to enjoy." Enjoyment, cultural exposure, community, art, and the live exchange of ideas are enhanced when effective captions support access.

The benefits of providing captions for more performances are evident. In Ivy's equally expressive words, "having the captions enable me to have equal access, equal opportunity, and an equal experience for everyone. It's inclusive. Without it, I would be missing the punchlines. I wouldn't get the gist of the show." Just as crucially, she would miss "the experience of what the artist was trying to convey." In addition to accessing the world of the show, attendees share the experience with their fellow spectators. Josefina explained, captions "allow accessibility for both me as a deaf person and my hearing husband" who can connect over the exact words that are being said and shown in the captions.

However, if captions are placed in ineffective places in a theater, such as too far offstage, the placement and other issues can prevent attendees from genuinely engaging with a performance and feeling fully included in the theatrical community. Like other participants, Evelynn described her experiences with different types of captions in different theaters and explained: "They're all different and . . . it's all about where the captioning is because you want to be perfect. You want to see the audio and the words. You don't want to be going [to a playhouse]—and then you miss the whole thing." Orlando summarized his perspective as follows: "Generally speaking, my experience with captioning has not been optimal. The captions are often put in the wrong place or they're not done appropriately or it's just overwhelming to look from the captions to the stage and back and forth the entire performance. And when you're doing that, it's hard to capture what's going on onstage well." If the placement of captions prevents full access, the cultural experience is not shared.

Access to Spoken/Written/English Language

In participants' descriptions of why they attend theaters and the positive and negative aspects of captioned productions, the theme of access to spoken and written language emerged. Individuals underscored the value of having access to the source language of the writer and using captions to support their hearing in a setting with multiple speakers, sources of sound, and overlapping stimuli.

Several participants detailed how captions provide them with clarification on what they are hearing. Neve, who wears cochlear implants, explained, "with Broadway shows, I have a hard time understanding between the microphone and the loudspeakers and the music. It all kind of blends together . . . So, I heavily rely on captions for those kind of performances." Helena provided her input: "I have pretty good hearing with my cochlear implants, but when it comes to musicals, my song lyrics are like I'm hearing a play in German or French or Spanish. It's like they're singing and performing and it's beautiful, but what's the meaning?" Access to words is just as necessary for those who do not hear the acoustics at all.

Awareness and Advocacy

Participants also raised key points about advocating for increased awareness on the part of attendees and theaters. While access is always a work in progress, several participants described successful experiences working with certain theaters and captioners. Axel emphasized that large theaters in big cities "typically hire access staff" that people can reach out to and "work with them in changing the placement or access options that are available . . . It's important to reach out to the theaters and educate them along the way as well." After describing several experiences in which theaters "worked with the audience on placement of captions" to ensure "that the placement was just right and that it wasn't too far out of the way," Axel added that "when the theater works with access staff who works with the audience, that's when you get the best result."

Design of Captions

Design of Captions on Margins of Stage

A major trend was participants' criticism of captions on screens that are placed too far from the center of action on the main stage. While the actual distance between a screen and the action on stage depends on the theater, some participants shared especially problematic experiences attempting to swivel their heads back and forth between gazing at the captions in the margins and gazing at the action on stage when the screen was placed especially far off stage. In Cooper's words, "those were a little bit more difficult to use because I felt like I had to move my head to look back and forth from the stage a lot more, and that led me to feeling less connected to the show itself."

Participants also pointed out the limitations of captions that are placed too far above the stage or below the stage. When captions were placed too far above stage for Darrell, he "couldn't see both at the same time," while Yvette in turn viewed captions below the stage and felt that "it was a strain to have to look back up at the stage and see who was talking."

[Descriptive Indicators]

In addition to preferring captions that are placed closer to the action, some participants shared suggestions for more descriptive captions that would provide them with access to the intricate sonic world on stage. They requested that captions indicate speakers' names; the nuances of musical and stage effects; tone, emotion, and inflection; and background sounds. These descriptive indicators could appear in [brackets] like closed captions on television.

Attention to Layers

Attention to Layers of Sound, Captions, and Visuals

I asked each participant about how they or audiences pay attention to captions, the action on stage, and sound during a production so I could learn about how they attend to these layers in real time. Participants' responses show that the placement and delivery of captions can positively or negatively influence how they pay attention to captions and other sources of information.

Lexi reflected on how and why each audience member would choose to focus more on reading captions or to focus more on the embodied sensation of sound and music. As she stated, "different people appreciate sound and music in different ways. And that's true whether deaf or hearing. Some people prefer to feel the music or feel the sounds. Some people want to know all of the lyrics and they feel connected with the lyrics."

Attention to Layers in Hamilton

Throughout these interviews, I learned about individuals' rich experiences attending productions from Aladdin and The Lion King to Wicked and Beetlejuice, among many others. In the midst of this variety, several participants independently shared their experiences seeing captioned productions of Hamilton around the country. This theme encapsulates the affordances of captions in embodying sound, especially when considering the power that is delivered in the rich and fast language of the musical.

Centerstage: Access in Shared Cultural Spaces

These members of theatrical communities represent access as a collaboration in progress and inspire this article's advocacy for integrating captions more thoroughly into our theaters. They make evident that sonic spaces are not defined purely by the presence of sound, but by the comingling of silence, vibration, visual language, embodied messages in addition to spoken voices, music, and background effects. They likewise illustrate that we cannot just "add captions," and that we creators and audiences can be active co-participants in the process of advocating for more awareness and meaningful incorporation of captions and access in theaters.

* Teaser image photo by Kyle Head on Unsplash.