Louise Fryer

Louise has been part of the AD team at the National Theatre since it began its service in 1993. She also works for Vocaleyes on productions around the UK. She’s described everything from Sizwe Banzi is Dead (two actors and a black box of a stage) to Billy Elliot (a full-blown musical with a huge cast) as well as opera, flamenco and hiphop. She writes and voices audio guides for museums and galleries from Hampton Court and the British Museum to smaller venues such as Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. Louise was the BBC's describer for the Audetel project, piloting AD for television in the mid-90s. She has described films and DVDs for RNIB, IMS and ITFC. Louise is an accredited trainer for the Audio Description Association and has trained stage and screen describers in the UK and Australia. She also works with gallery assistants and curators on ways of making their collections more accessible for blind and partially sighted visitors. Louise is a Visiting Lecturer at City University and led the research for Calling the Shots audio description project which she presented at the Portsmouth Translation Conference 2009. As a regular broadcaster for BBC Radio 3 and BBC World Service, Louise chairs pre-concert talks and introduces live concerts, such as the BBC Proms, for radio and concert audiences around the world. This summer, in addition to her BBC commitments, she will be presenting webcasts from the Risor Chamber Music Festival in Norway. Her article on Audio Description as Audio Drama is due to be published in the forthcoming edition of 'Perspectives: Studies in Translatology' dedicated to AD.