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NYTimes.com: At several regional productions of the 2012 Off Broadway hit “Tribes,” the marketing teams who proofread show posters aren’t just looking at syntax and spelling. They’re also scrutinizing hands and fingers.
In a addition to the mix ups that can be made in marketing posters with different languages on them, this article makes me think about a larger question. When a play is acted out, at least partially in another language, what is the most effective way to convey this duologue if the audience is not fluent in the other language. I understand that it can be done in broad strokes with emotion and inflection, but is there a way to achieve the fine detail that comes in prose and rhetoric? Entertainment that does not rely on verbal communication; dance, movement, puppetry seem to be able to make these nuances more easily than we might be able to do in a foreign language.
It is good to hear that there was a lot of time and consideration put into making sure the sign language came across the way it was intended. This could have been done very sloppily and many would not have even realized because they do not speak the language. This brings up another question though, if they do not understand the language on the poster will they want to go to a show where they will also have a hard time understanding the language? If the show is done in sign how does what is being signed get translated to the audience? If you take a show being signed and have someone saying what its being signed could take away from the show.
2 comments:
In a addition to the mix ups that can be made in marketing posters with different languages on them, this article makes me think about a larger question. When a play is acted out, at least partially in another language, what is the most effective way to convey this duologue if the audience is not fluent in the other language. I understand that it can be done in broad strokes with emotion and inflection, but is there a way to achieve the fine detail that comes in prose and rhetoric? Entertainment that does not rely on verbal communication; dance, movement, puppetry seem to be able to make these nuances more easily than we might be able to do in a foreign language.
It is good to hear that there was a lot of time and consideration put into making sure the sign language came across the way it was intended. This could have been done very sloppily and many would not have even realized because they do not speak the language. This brings up another question though, if they do not understand the language on the poster will they want to go to a show where they will also have a hard time understanding the language? If the show is done in sign how does what is being signed get translated to the audience? If you take a show being signed and have someone saying what its being signed could take away from the show.
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