Theatres Editing and Proofreading Services

Somebody buys two tickets in March for a play in October. What they know is the title, four stars from a newspaper, and that it runs two hours ten. What they do not know is that there is a sustained scene of a suicide in the second act, a strobe sequence, and no way out of row H without climbing over eleven people — and each of those facts is available, is not secret, and is on nobody's website.

We edit what theatres and producing houses produce — content and access information for audiences, relaxed, captioned and audio-described performance material, front-of-house and visitor guidance, season brochures and show descriptions, programme and cast material, education and participation documentation, funding applications and reports, and the communications issued when a performance is disrupted. Our editors work on the information an audience needs before they book.

Content and access information is the writing that decides who feels able to come, and its failure is a warning list that tells nobody anything useful. "Contains adult themes" is the theatre protecting itself; it is not information. We work through these so content is described specifically enough for somebody to make a decision about themselves, since a person avoiding depictions of self-harm needs to know whether it is depicted, described or referred to, and the last two are usually fine; so the placement in the running order is given, because a person can prepare for something they know is coming in the second act; so effects are stated with their type and duration — strobe, haze, gunshot, blackout, sudden loud sound — as these are the ones that produce medical incidents rather than complaints; so the level of detail is offered in layers, with a general note visible to everyone and a fuller description behind a link for those who want it, given that some of the audience wants to know nothing; so access performances are described by what actually happens at them rather than by their name, since almost nobody outside the sector knows what a relaxed performance involves; so the physical realities are stated — the stairs, the seat width, the distance to the toilets, how to leave mid-performance discreetly — because these decide attendance more often than any artistic consideration; so the information appears where tickets are bought and not in a separate accessibility page; and so it is written without apology. Information written this way fills seats.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including season plans, production material and audience data. We are editors rather than access consultants or clinicians, and we offer no view on content decisions, access provision or audience wellbeing. What we can do is give an audience what it needs to decide.