Una parola vale più di mille immagini: l’audiodescrizione a teatro e l’esperienza di Teatro No Limits con il Centro Diego Fabbri

This dissertation aims to provide an in-depth analysis on the fundamentals of the audio description of dynamic audio-visual products, with a focus on live performing arts. After presenting the defining traits of the discipline, existing guidelines, the state of the art and the legal framework in the USA and in Europe, in our study we will take the approach of researcher Jana Holsanova. According to Holsanova, to have a complete overview of audio description it is necessary to adopt the perspective of both the target users, investigating their needs, and of the audio describers, researching the possible description strategies. In order to adopt the perspective of the users, we will first examine the target audience of audio description, focusing on blind and visually impaired people, with the aim of shedding some light on their cognitive and perceptual capacities. Then, we will discuss the results of a qualitative reception study conducted in cooperation with the cultural association Centro Diego Fabbri. The study was carried out on the spectators of some audio described performances within the project Teatro No Limits. With reference to the findings of neuroscience and cognitive psychology and in the effort to be consistent with the preferences expressed by the users interviewed in our reception study, we will then consider the audio describer’s perspective. We will therefore analyse and discuss the descriptive strategies adopted in the audio description of the theatrical performance Thomas More – L’opera ritrovata di William Shakespeare by Giampiero Pizzol and Otello Cenci.