Accessibility
Available at All Performances
Large Print Programs
Available for free upon request at Concessions or through an Usher.
Elevator Accessibility
The lobby, and access to both our Mainstage and Studio Theaters, is accessible by elevator. Please contact the Box Office if you are concerned about whether your wheelchair or scooter might fit in our elevator.
Wheelchair Accessible Seating
Wheelchair locations are available in the front row only in both the Mainstage and the Studio Theaters. Advanced reservations are recommended to ensure we can accommodate you at the show you wish to attend.
Alternative Accessible Seating Options
The Box Office can help you find seating that best accommodates your hearing, sight, or mobility accessibility needs. The theater also has removable front-row seating and seating without armrests for patrons who have difficulty sitting in our standard theater seating.
Hearing Loop
Our hearing loop works with T-Coil hearing aids so that actor’s voices and sound cues are tracked directly through the patron’s hearing aid, earbuds, or borrowed headset. You can borrow headsets from a House Manager or Usher at our Concessions. Scroll down for frequently asked questions about how to use or troubleshoot our hearing loop system.
We are proud to be partnering with Audio ‘D’ & Finetone, Maine’s only Full Service Hearing Aid Company, with locations in Windham, Scarborough, Cornish, and Farmington. They offer a variety of hearing aids designed to work with loop systems, and may be able to program your hearing aids to work with the loop system at Portland Stage.
How to Access our Hearing Loop
This system is specifically designed to work with Telecoil (or T-coil) hearing aids. T-coils allow different sound sources to be directly connected to a hearing aid, improving sound quality and allowing the hearing aid wearer to easily perceive the signal of interest in almost any environment, and regardless of background noise.
Each hearing aid is different, so only your audiologist can tell you if your specific hearing aid has Telecoil (or T-coil) compatibility. If you have a hearing aid with a t-coil, your audiologist can make sure the t-coil has been programmed. Once programmed, you just need to activate it before the show!
If you have a hearing aid and it does not have a t-coil, you can get a “remote” from your audiologist that can be programmed to work with your existing hearing aid. This is similar to the receivers that we have for other patrons, but without the need for headphones.
You can get a receiver and headphones from our House Manager or an usher at Concessions. For better sound quality, you can bring your own set of corded headphones (must have a standard 8mm headphone jack) to use with the receiver. House Management will ask for some sort of
For questions, please call our Box Office at 207.774.0465 or see the House Manager when you arrive to see the show.
I’m getting no audio!
If you’re having difficulty getting your personal hearing aid to connect to our system: make sure your hearing aid is set to t-coil mode. If that doesn’t work, please consult with your audiologist to make sure your hearing aids are compatible and/or set up to work with a t-coil loop.
If you’re having difficulty with one of Portland Stage’s headsets: make sure that your volume is up (the volume and power are the same knob), and that your headphones are pushed into the jack all the way.
If neither solves your problem: please talk to a House Manager or Usher.
The audio has a buzzing sound!
If this is happening as you’re setting up your volume for the performance: our house lights interact with the Hearing Loop system. Check again once the house lights go out for the performance.
If this is happening during the performance: the hearing loop audio gets a buzz or humming in it when the volume gets set very loud. Turning the volume down can help with the buzz or humming.
If neither of these have solved your problem: please talk to a House Manager or Usher.
Available for Select Performances and Digital Content:
Closed Captioning on Digital Content
Portland Stage is offering closed captioning on some of our pre-recorded digital content, including some of our Education content and Digital on Demand productions. We are unable to offer closed captioning on much of our live-streamed content at this time.
Open Captioned Performances
Open captioning is a text display of dialogue and sound effects synced with the performance and positioned so that most of the theater can use or ignore it based on their needs. Patrons do not need special equipment to use this service. Seating with optimal viewing of the captioning display is reserved for patrons who need it and is available by contacting the Box Office.
Support for Open Captioning is provided in part by the Theatre Development Fund. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Open Captioned performances are not scheduled due to the ongoing pandemic.
American Sign Language (ASL) Interpreted Performances
ASL-interpreted performances are often scheduled in conjunction with Student Matinees, or for specific productions.
For the hearing impaired contact the Box Office here.
For ASL students please contact the Box Office at 207.774.0465
Regular ticket pricing applies to ASL performances.
ASL performances are not scheduled due to the ongoing pandemic.