Capstr is a free-to-use tool by Timothy Kelly and Peter Leibold to enable theatre venues to caption their shows direct to audience members’ phones. It is easy to use - audience members require nothing more than an internet connection - no additional app downloads needed!
Capstr has accessibility at its heart. Audience members can customize their experience to change font size, change typeface (including dyslexia-friendly fonts), adjust colour filters, and access color coding for characters. Capstr even has bilingual caption support!
For venues, setup is simple - it can be hosted on a web service of your choice (we use Heroku), and captions are inputted as a simple spreadsheet. (We include templates and tools and scripts speed up this process) Your operator can then run the show from any internet-connected computer.
Capstr is currently in active development, and is being tested with live audiences at The University of Maryland, College Park.
When complete, Capstr’s code and setup guides will be made available for free here for theaters to roll out themselves.
We believe that Capstr is a powerful tool to enable theaters to - with little expense - provide this basic access service for their patrons for EVERY show, not just a select few.
It does not and should not replace integrated access, such as creative captioning. which is an artistic and political tool in its own right.
Many thanks to the Maya Brin Institute for New Performance, Andy’s Summer Playhouse, The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and the School of Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies for their support in Capstr’s development.