About Sightlines
Sightlines Audio Description Services was formed by Jonathan Nash and Margaret Spittles in 1994 and over the last twenty nine years has audio-described over a thousand theatre performances, ranging from children's theatre and pantomimes, musical theatre, through classic and modern drama, to ballet, contemporary dance and opera.
Initially working to set up audio-described performances at the Oxford Playhouse, they soon progressed to describing performances up and down the UK with touring companies such as Method and Madness, English Touring Theatre and Headlong Theatre Company. For the last fifteen years Jonathan, Margaret and Julia have been the resident audio-describers at the Birmingham Hippodrome, describing in excess of twenty performances every year. They also regularly describe at Nottingham Theatre Royal.
Sightlines was a major pioneer in establishing audio-described opera here in the UK, and amongst others works with The Welsh National Opera, Glynebourne Touring Opera, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, English National Opera at the London Coliseum and Opera North.
In 2011 Sightlines was nominated for and won the Best Customer Care Award from Buckinghamshire Association for the Blind, the award presented by John Bercow - Speaker of the House of Commons.
The team also run training courses for volunteer audio-describers, as well as access training for front line theatre staff at venues including Newcastle, Exeter, Reading and Birmingham.Â
Currently a core team of three, Jonathan Nash, Margaret Spittles and Julia Grundy have between them over 70 years of audio description experience, and work with a portfolio of four other established freelance audio-describers.