On Wednesday 24 January 2024 at the National Theatre’s Olivier Theatre not only did over 80 young blind and partially sighted children attend the audio described performance of Roald Dahl’s ‘The Witches’, but 12 year-old Eleanor who is also visually impaired delivered the live audio description script for this performance too.

Eleanor worked with the National Theatre’s Audio Describers Roz Chalmers and Andrew Holland as a consultant on the audio description script for ‘The Witches’ to ensure that the language and wording would be right for a young audience, and when it came to the schools described matinee performance on 24 January 2024, with over 80 young visually impaired children in the audience it was an obvious choice to ask Eleanor to deliver the live audio description script too. 

Eleanor is no stranger to theatre, performing and voice over work as you can hear Eleanor voicing the Character of 'Lark’ in ‘Milo’ on Channel 5’s Milkshake (2021 - 2024) and was Tiny Tim in the Old Vic Theatre’s production of ‘A Christmas Carol’ (2019,2020 and 2021) to name just a couple of her acting credits so far.

Eleanor along with David Bellwood, Head of Access at the National Theatre, joined RNIB Connect Radio’s Toby Davey to talk about how Eleanor not only got involved in working on the audio description script for ‘The Witches’ but also why David and the NT felt it was an obvious choice to have Eleanor deliver the live description for the children’s matinée performance on 24 January 2024.

Eleanor also explained to Toby how she was able to read over 400 lines of Braille during the performance and how the technical wizard’s at the NT came up with a novel way of enabling Eleanor to open and close her mic when delivering her Braille description script.

You can find out more about Eleanor, her current theatre, performing and voice over work along with ways of following Eleanor on social media by visiting her website - https://linktr.ee/eleanorsvoice

For more about access at the National Theatre and details of up-coming audio described performances do visit the access pages of the NT website - https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/your-visit/access/

Image shows Eleanor Stollery and Roz Chalmers MBE in the sound booth preparing for The Witches AD schools performance