TheatreArtLife: Theatre is a large part of national culture, and the celebrated works of each culture’s playwrights oftentimes lend invaluable insight into political and socio-economic context of the time. Take Victor Hugo’s works, for example, showing in rich detail the daily lives of the common public during the French Revolution with Les Miserables, and with a rather harsh social commentary in Ruy Blas, using the piece to point out all the aspects of aristocracy Hugo himself finds ridiculous. From the decor to the context to the language used, each theatrical piece is a unique view into the world of the playwright, past or present. The pace, rhythm and melody of a language adds an invaluable dimension to a piece of theatre, take away this linguistic layer and the nuance of a piece changes completely.
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This article brings up some good points about surtitling for the theatre. I think it is a great idea for when it is needed. Foreign plays where the work is going to be done in its original language, opera, and even Shakespeare could all be good uses of this new technology. Shakespeare may not be ideally surtitled for those who really enjoy and understand his work being performed but for general audiences it may be helpful and especially so if it is updated to modern language. Although for most of theatre I would not enjoy this as I can very much understand what is going on and the words would simply add as a distraction to me as I instead focus on reading rather than watching the performance. If I wanted to read it then I would have got hold of the script or book rather than gone to a performance. In these scenarios and for theatre lovers, I’m sure surtitling can really just be annoying but it isn’t a bad idea for those who come to see the show as an occasional outing.
The thing that stuck out the most to me in this article was the use of augmented reality to create a surtitle or subtitle effect. I think this is a very interesting and technologically creative way of accommodating performances for those who the surtitles.
I disagree with Nicolaus about the use of surtitles in Shakespeare plays. In my opinion it doesn't matter if you can understand all of the vocabulary or comprehend all the language in a Shakespeare play to be able to enjoy it. If a Shakespeare play is performed well, you can understand what the characters are saying just by the way they move and act. Knowing all the wordplay and specific word meaning is useful for catching all the little jokes, or seeing the beauty in the ways Shakespeare was able to create verses, but you have to remember that Shakespeare plays were meant to be performed. He did not intend for them to be printed and spread in the form of a book. I think that surtitles would just get in the way of enjoying the performance of Shakespeare.
However I do think that surtitling is something that should be utilized more often in theatre for those with hearing impaired. Especially in larger venues where it is hard to see the actors mouths or understand the dialogue, I think projected surtitles would be very useful.
I see Nicolaus's point, but I think he missed the point of the article. The surtitiles are not for people that can understand the language that the play is written in but for those who cannot. As someone who does not think the subtitles detract from the foreign language film, I can appreciate the surtitle movement. I can also appreciate the artistry behind surtitles. My father is big on languages, and worked as a translator for a good portion of his life. He taught me the nuance of translation, and the importance of knowing multiple languages. Every language contains a culture, and so a translation is never perfect. Of course, it is too much to ask every audience member who consumes media in another language (that is not their first) to learn a new language, and thus the art of the translation is born. It is the job of the translator (and now, the surtitler as well) to convey the nuances found in one language into another in a way that makes sense in the second language. That is a tough job. When not done correctly, we see the memes of poor subtitles, weird anime translations, etc. I have a deep admiration for anyone that can translate well.
This is an amazing advance forward to me. As I see with Sydney's point I to agree that subtitles do not detract from foreign language films but for me there is also an added benefit even for people who do understand the language and aren't necessarily impaired per say. Take for example in my family my brother and I sometimes prefer to watch films with subtitles turned on with the english language in order to maintain a direct engagement with the story. For him in particular he likes to hang on and get the detail behind every word in a piece and this surtitle would provide him with the ability to follow the story to a tee and experience the performance in the same way anyone else would without directly taking themselves out of the piece. There is still an added difficulty however with portraying the subtexts of the language but I think that as long as the surtitler is able to portray this along with the actors on stage the effects will stay with audiences.
I am always a proponent of making theatre more accessible to people, regardless of their socioeconomic status, language, geographic restrictions, etc, and thus am a huge fan of the idea behind subtitling or surtitling performances! This technology is already commonly used in opera, and definitely could find its niche in theatre and other performing arts as well. What particularly interests me, though, is the way that subtitles can layer additional meaning into a text based on the translator, pace, and other factors. As the author writes, "While at first they faithfully translated the dialogue, the surtitles quickly took on a character all their own, providing a commentary of the performance and an integral part of the stage interactions. Such creative license with digital surtitling proves technology and theatre are complementary and can work in unison, and when they do the result can be electric." Clearly, surtitling can add another dimension to a performance while simultaneously making said performance more accessible.
I’m surprised that we do not know the origins of subtitles in operas. It’s great that subtitles open up the doors to so many theater productions, especially opera. One thing that this article did not note is that subtitles open up theater to people who are hard of hearing or deaf. I wonder if as more pieces get subtitles if subtitle design will be more integrated into the shows design. As the article mentions, they are often a separate part of the show but they could work with media and set designers to incorporate them more fully into the design. Additionally it will be interesting to see if other performing arts outside of opera start to incorporate subtitles. Since subtitles are enabling French art to be spread, I wonder if other art forms will pick them up to spread itself. Going forward I will definitely think more carefully about subtitles and pay more attention to how they affect the experience.
I think that the presence of subtitles in live theatre is something I am not certain how I feel about. I appreciate that subtitles allow for a larger group to receive the story and the moral of the show. I really enjoy that it honors the side of theatre that was born from the tradition of passing down history orally, and using verbal storytelling to share lessons and morals with a community. That being said, I think that it is too often that when we watch something with subtitles, we step away from the actual meaning that is being shared, and we begin to isolate ourselves in focusing on reading the subtitles. Another fear I have in this is that people will focus on reading instead of experiencing what all of the designers have presented to be experienced collectively. There is also something to be said for experiencing something in the language it was originally written to feel poetry of the playwright.
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