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Puppeteers: Eugenio Monti Colla, Franco Citterio, Maria Grazia Citterio, Piero Corbella, Camillo Cosulich, Debora Coviello, Cecilia Di Marco, Tiziano Marcolegio, Sheila Perego, Giovanni Schiavolin, Paolo Sette.

Marionette theatre, since the emergence of the post-romantic world, has respectfully stood still. Themes that are too important and suffered for the wooden heads and their mechanical and repetitive expressiveness. Thus the world of Puccini has always been preserved from all incursions, but how to resist the explosive charm and the countless difficulties of Turandot? The fable laced with cruelty and death has an irresistible air. Desperate unrequited love, a Prince held prisoner by the blind egoism of his passion and a haughty Princess who denies herself the joys of love. Above all a score full of light and shadow, obsessive, rich with colour, tormenting and heavy with mystery. How to resist the desire to see how the world of marionettes can stage such a work with respect and enthusiastic faith?

Milan, Teatro Grassi
26, 27, 28 June, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19 July 2015
English and Italian surtitling, from the Italian original,
by Prescott Studio and Montclair State University, NJ, USA, as part of the project

> L’arte del compromesso
> TVAC – Inserra Chair / Montclair State University
> Donatella Codonesu – La Voce di New York, march 21, 2015

Eugenio Monti Colla interviewed by the WebTV of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano
© 2015

Homer according to Robert Wilson. Having met with great success in April 2013, Odyssey returns to the Piccolo Teatro di Milano – the theatrical version of the poem by the ingenious American director. An emblematic work which formidably represents mankind’s irrepressible need to explore, and its endless journey in search of the roots of its own existence.

The play debuted in Athens for four months in 2012, the year in the Greek and European crisis, and in April 2013 played to full houses at the Piccolo. Its return to Milan coincides with a period of new questions and new considerations – both economical and non – on the future of Europe. Wilson establishes original links between the ancient and the modern, putting a new spin on the eternal theme of the journey, and the return.

Milan, Teatro Strehler
12 – 31 October, 2015
English and Italian surtitling by Prescott Studio and Montclair State University, NJ, USA, as part of the project

Translating Voices Across Continents.
Italian version supervised by Valentina Gilardi

> The Art of Compromise
> TVAC – Inserra Chair / Montclair State University 

With surtitles for hearing-impaired viewers edited by Prescott Studio,
was performed in Prato at Teatro Metastasio
The Shakespeare’s «Taming of the Shrew», directed by Andreij Končalovskij

The reading of synchronized texts, adapted to theatre events according to specific parameters, can be of great help for sensory-impaired viewers, such as the hearing-impaired. It has been a consistent support in television programs, and it now begins to be employed in movie theatres. For the theatre, this is a significant step forward in ensuring a larger, more accurate participation.

> Spettatori ipo-udenti a teatro (2011) – © Stagetext
> BBC Two – Accessing Theatre Performance (2010)

e saga of the Lehman brothers is at the same time an extract of the American Dream: the country which offers everything to anyone who demonstrates talent, inventiveness and self-sacrifice, can, in the blink of an eye, turn fortunes and destinies upside down. The Lehmans risk failure more than once, with the War of Succession, two World Wars, and the 1929 crisis, always managing to pick themselves up. Until the final blow: on 15 September 2008 Lehman Brothers became the biggest bankruptcy in world bank history.

«This piece», underlines Luca Ronconi, «immediately struck me with its variety of linguistic registers: essay, novel, dreamlike tale – they alternate, following the layout of a screenplay. Without once giving in to news-like banal contemporaneity, Massini, like Edward Bond, whose The Company of Men I have staged, does not intend to present audiences with a pre-packaged truth. Rather he leads them through a voyage of knowledge. Lehman Trilogy is of an ‘adult dramaturgy’ which, freeing itself from traditional narrative and all moral examination, gives us a key with which to open a door on the episode. An episode which, whether we like it or not, has deeply influenced the lives of all of us».

Milan, Teatro Grassi
12 – 31 May, 2015
English surtitling by Prescott Studio and Montclair State University, NJ, USA, as part of the project

Translating Voices Across Continents.

> The Art of Compromise
> TVAC – Inserra Chair / Montclair State University 

Montclair State University, NJ, USA,
by means of Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies,
has organized on December 5th 2014 the meeting Reading Foreign Voices,
Film, Opera, and Theater Sub- and Sur-titles Across Languages.
Prescott Studio was hosted with its own workshop

The program aims at providing a general introduction to the art and techniques of sub- and sur-titling for films, operas, and theatre performances. In combining knowledge of foreign languages, cultural awareness, aesthetic choices and technological skills, sub- and sur-titling is an ideal professional field for students of the arts and humanities with a specialization in foreign languages.
The agenda has been opened with a round table of specialists addressing the philosophy of this fascinating field, the market-based offer and demand for sub- and sur-titles, and the tricks of the trade. After a short break the program is continued with area-specific workshops during which participants could learn in detail about techniques and outcomes.

Video by Matteo Minasi (Cinemattic Ltd) for Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies

> Reading Foreign Voices
> Mauro Conti – Workshop
> Annamaria Craparotta – Sottotitoli, scelte artistiche e opportunità professionali tra lingue e linguaggi

With the support of the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies in the Department of Spanish and Italian (MSU)
In collaboration with Center for Career Services and Cooperative Education (MSU)
With the participation of KIT-Kairos Italy Theatre, New York, NY, USA
and of ICAMus, International Center for American Music, Ann Arbor, MI, USA – Florence

«Translating Voices Across Continents» (TVAC) is both an educational project and a professional workshop that will result in the creation of English surtitles for Italian and international theater productions. On the one hand, the project gives American university students the opportunity to familiarize themselves with specific aspects of this multimedia translation sector, engaging them in the creative process of this work. On the other hand, it is a valuable service that will increase language access to the Piccolo Teatro di Milano’s productions for a wider audience. These productions are part of the Piccolo Teatro’s ad hoc calendar for an international audience on the occasion of Expo 2015 (Milan, May-October).

Stemming from a proposal by the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, the project is developed by Prescott Studio, a reference point in Europe for theatrical titling, and by Montclair State University (NJ, USA), that, by means of the Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, fosters and supports interdisciplinary approaches, a cosmopolitan academic vision, and a focus on the highest expressions of Italian culture. Prescott Studio, as supervisor, will offer the professional expertise, sensibility, and organizational experience needed, while the Inserra Chair and the professors in the Italian BA program at MSU, through their own interns, will oversee the adaptations of the surtitles into English.

Group of experts involved
Mauro Conti, Director of Prescott Studio, Florence
Teresa Fiore, Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies, MSU, NJ, USA
Marisa Trubiano, Associate Professor, MSU, NJ, USA
Laura Caparrotti, Artistic Director of KIT-Kairos Italy Theatre, New York, NY, USA
Aloma Bardi, Prescott Studio Tutor and Director of ICAMus, Ann Arbor, MI, USA – Florence

> TVAC – Inserra Chair / Montclair State University

The Art of Creative Compromise

Surtitling – Theoretical Models and Practical Goals. Special Internship Project for Theatrical Productions
Led by Mauro Conti and Prescott Studio

1.
Theatrical surtitling is a niche in the multimedia translation field: it involves a creative aspect while remaining rigorous, and offers, above all, a unique learning experience for those who aspire to highly qualified professional outlets in the dynamic and versatile sector of audiovisual productions.
For instance, creating surtitles for theater allows students to tackle subtitling for the cinema with an uncommon level of professionalism. The multiple skills required by surtitling include the ability to work within a team and to respect specific technical parameters: these are the premises for the creative compromise and the linguistic mediation that drive surtitling work.

2.
The internship has developed within a unique framework that brings together an Italian theater of international renown like the Piccolo Teatro di Milano and an initiative of global importance such as the Expo 2015 in Milan, during which a special calendar of events, including theater productions, will be presented.
Approaching these productions through an educational project such as TVAC is a challenge for all the parties involved (surtitling experts, students, professors acting as supervisors), requiring the deployment of multiple competences, organizational skills, patience, precision, and, last but not least, passion. The result will be a fusion of creative and professional energies that will serve as a valuable model for students as they prepare for their future professions.

3.
In essence, the project will involve students in the production-adaptation of English surtitles for a number of theater productions over Spring, Summer and Fall 2015, under the guidance of Prescott Studio and the supervision of MSU faculty members. Students will gain firsthand experience of a complex journey that melds art, craftmanship, and technology.
Along with an appreciation for the practical aspects of these translations and adaptations, students will come to understand the larger aesthetic and operational factors that have made surtitling indispensible for the world of live performance. Today, theater, like cinema – yet to an even greater degree, given the fact that it is live performance – represents the truest meeting place for languages, cultures and experiences.

Productions involved in the project

01. Cos’è per te il teatro
02. Perché il teatro continua a vivere
03. Il teatro è ancora una forma del sacro
04. Teatro / Spettacolo / Kitsch
05. Dalla parte del pubblico
06. Attenzione intermittente e libertà dello spettatore
07.  Spettacoli in fuga
08. Il luogo del teatro
09. La scenografia come puzzle
10. Il testo è la sua storia
11. L’interpretazione del testo
12. L’analisi del testo
13. Memoria ed emozione
14. Visione e conoscenza
15. In-coerenza dell’interpretazione
16. Il lavoro dell’attore su se stesso
17. Il personaggio e il carattere
18. La lingua
19. Il teatro come forma espressiva dei sentimenti
20. Innaturalezza del naturalismo
21. Un altro Gabbiano
22. Snodi
23. Strano Interludio
24. Quel pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana
25. Lolita – Sceneggiatura
26. Ancora qualcosa da dire

THE LAST INTERVIEW

«Fare-la-festa, as the celebration of a passing, can also be a happy moment».
Luca Ronconi talks about Verdi’s «Falstaff»,
his last opera production – Florence, December 2014.
Born in Soussa (Tunisia) on March 8, 1933, Ronconi left us on February 21, 2015, in Milan.

The technical expedient of surtitling for the live performing arts, a descendant of the now one-century old practice of cinema subtitling, has made a significant contribution over the last 30 years to the international knowledge of theatrical productions, whether of drama or opera, through its role in facilitating the scaling of linguistic barriers.

Are specific strategies needed for the linguistic and cultural mediation that is being furthered by the recently emerged professional discipline of sur-titling? How are these different from the more familiar strategies used by subtitles? What kind of competences are required to fulfil the objectives of sur-titles? Accidental Acrobatics attempts to propose some answers to these questions.

But why «accidental acrobatics»? Because the use of written texts, accompanying theatrical events in order to make them linguistically comprehensible to an audience that does not know the language (or the languages) of a production, results in a balancing act that is not only an end in itself, having been imposed by rules that are implicit to the theatrical experience.

The keywords with which we find ourselves face to face are: 1. Time, 2. Rhythm, 3. Editing, 4. Service, 5. Rehearse, 6. Optimize, 7. Team – all categories that are usually foreign to the traditional field of translation (except Editing). This is an evidence of the uniqueness of sur-titles, in which the art of compromise, well known to translators, finds yet further incentives.

1. Time. Writing surtitles means telling a story in a time frame, which is stated by the stage through singing or acting. The story is told through a written text (to be read), which summarizes the vocal text (to be heard). The time standard combines those two parallel storytellings, keeping the written path dependent on the vocal path.
2. Rhythm. To make the time standard work together with the surtitling, it is necessary to consider its rhythmic aspect. Through that rhythm the score of a spoken or a sung text becomes a production. Identifying a rhythm which respects the staging (timing) leads to properly set up the storytelling of surtitling.
3. Editing. Editing is the most familiar phase to a translator; it recalls the editorial work of a publishing house. The editing suitable for surtitling, however, differs largely from the usual editorial review. «Editing», in surtitling, means «adaptation»: adaptation to timing, layout, reading times. And the editorial standards used in a production change for every single caption.
4. Service. Surtitling is a service provided to the audience. This service works if it integrates with listening and viewing. The main working tools, for this aim, are timing (dramaturgical tool), editing (adaptation), graphic layout (text layout) and the analysis of reading times (right fruition for the audience).
5. Rehearse. In theater, rehearsing is a practice shared by everyone, including the authors of surtitles. That means that every linguistic choice needs to be tested together with acting, singing, stage action. Moreover, surtitles have a both visual and semantic impact, which needs to be judged carefully, evaluating its graphic project, rhythm and narration.
6. Optimize. The various standards that make the surtitling working properly need to be well balanced. This balance is crucial to determine the functionality of a correct linguistic mediation for the live performing arts. However, this goal is to be achieved gradually, step by step. This process goes through phases which are separate yet closely linked.
7. Team. Making surtitles is a team work. Teams are made up of individuals with different skills and competences. Such working team needs to be coordinated and supervised, we could even say led by a director. What certainly should never be missing, in a team, is the spirit of compromise and the constant search for better solutions.

The Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies is housed in the Italian Program (Department of Spanish and Italian) at Montclair State University, New Jersey (USA) and is dedicated to the promotion of Italian language and culture through the design, organization and support of cultural programs, research activities, professional opportunities for teachers, as well as educational and pre-professional initiatives for students. In line with its trans-national approach to cultural promotion, it has collaborated with several academic, governmental, and independent institutions both in Italy and the U.S.. Since the inception of this position, the Inserra Chair holder has been Dr. Teresa Fiore.

In its collaboration with Prescott Studio, the Inserra Chair and select faculty in the Italian Program such as Dr. Marisa Trubiano have provided: 1. Full translations of theater scripts and librettos; 2. Development and timing of surtitles; and 3. Quality control of existing translations and surtitles. The Inserra Chair has also opened a series of opportunities for students, professors, and professional experts through round tables, in-class presentations, and internships (Cooperative Education courses, post-BA assistantships, and internships in Italy).

Relevant links
> Italian Program webpage
Collaborative project with Piccolo Teatro di Milano e Prescott Studio for Expo 2015
> Montclair Translates for Milan via Florence (Presentation)

From the right: Teresa Fiore (Inserra Chair Holder), Marisa Trubiano (Associate Professor of Italian), Mauro Conti (director of Prescott Studio). Foto by Chad Mooney (December 2015).

Inserra Chair in Italian and Italian American Studies
Conrad J. Schmitt Hall Room 241D – Department of Spanish and Italian
Montclair State University
1 Normal Avenue • Montclair, NJ 07043, USA •