Want to play around with fonts, sizes and projection surfaces? To adjust fades, so that text appears line by line or letter by letter? To integrate images and surtitle effects? From the outset, Spectitular was designed to offer ultimate creative freedom in the formatting and display of theatre surtitles.
Surtitles become part of the staging
While most productions still opt for traditional surtitles — understated and discreetly positioned above the stage — an increasing number of directors and set designers are making use of these features to integrate surtitles directly into their staging. Their aesthetic choices range from the simple to the intricate.
And creativity in surtitling is not only about artistic expression: it can also enhance accessibility for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences. For example, repositioning surtitles to be projected beside each actor is one way of making it immediately clear who is speaking when. Alternatively, directors might draw on the visual language of comics, indicating raised voices with text that gradually expands, and so on.
A solution adaptable to every production
To meet these needs, Spectitular can be integrated with most video mapping software (e.g. Millumin, Isadora, Resolume, etc.). It is also compatible with the NDI protocol and offers a wide range of built-in formatting tools. For more ambitious projects, CSS code can even be used to achieve fully customised results.
Recent projects making use of these options have included Jeff Calhoun’s musical Elephant Shoes, Mon Frère by Swiss director François Gremaud –one of the highlights of the 2026 Festival d’Avignon – and On dirait que le soleil by choreographer Mylène Benoît, for which visual artist Tomek Jarolim got stuck in to experimenting with the software!
