Alumni Spotlight: Bridget Melton
Theatre alum Bridget Melton (B.F.A. '05) built on her experience working in the Meadows Ticketing Office to forge her own career in arts accessibility through audio description.
Bridget Melton (B.F.A. ’05) is this week’s featured alum in our new Alumni Spotlight series for the This Week at Meadows e-newsletter. Each week, a different Meadows alum will be highlighted for their accomplishments post-graduation.
At Meadows, extracurricular opportunities can be just as impactful as coursework. Bridget Melton, a graduate of the Division of Theatre, landed a work study job in the Meadows Ticketing Office during her time at 51°µÍø which played a large part in her future career journey.
Melton worked in the Ticketing Office for all four years of her undergraduate program and learned about respect for patrons and the business side of the arts. This experience came in handy out of college and she was able to stay connected to the arts through her ticket office work. It was at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, where she was working the ticket office and front of house, that she was given the opportunity to be trained in audio description as a way to further connect with their patrons and push the boundaries of access.
“The idea that our patrons are an essential part of our work as theatre artists, and that they should have equal access to our work, began at Meadows during our orientation,” explains Melton, who experienced an impactful demonstration on crowd safety. “We have a responsibility to our audience, not just to take them on a journey with our work, but to care for their wellbeing and experience in our spaces as well.”
This responsibility extends to accessibility in the arts, which has become much more visible in recent years, and includes work like Melton’s in audio description. Audio description is an access service for patrons who are blind or low vision where the visual elements of an experience are made verbal and fit into the pauses in dialogue. On a streaming service, you can turn descriptions on the same way you would turn on captions.
One of Melton's recent gigs was live describing the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this past August (above).
“I am excited to see more theatres and cultural organizations realize the importance of open captions, open subtitles, audio description, ASL interpretation and sensory-friendly performances in addition to the more easily recognized mobility access needs,” she says of the need for audio description work. “Access is needed everywhere, and it is so challenging and fun to have a variety of events and media to dive into.”
Melton initially chose her degree track in theatre studies to become a well-rounded artist, and this adaptability has given her an advantage within her industry. On any given day she might be recording narration for a national museum, writing a descriptive script for a streaming platform or describing YouTube videos for a student's classwork. And Melton’s career in audio description is a great example of one of the many paths students can take after graduating with an arts degree from Meadows.
She encourages current students to explore beyond acting and directing, and wherever their post-grad journey takes them, they can be sure of this: “A living in the arts exists for you.”