Culture is future » Innovation and digital

THIS WEEK’S CULTURAL START-UP: THEATRE IN PARIS

Next-up on our online cultural entrepreneur series, the Forum d’Avignon would like to introduce: TheatreinParis.com, a startup which widens accessibility to French theatre for foreign audiences, thanks to its innovative system of surtitling.

What is your company’s objective?

TheatreinParis.com widens accessibility to French theatre for foreign audiences, thanks to its innovative system of surtitling. The surtitling of live theatre is the same concept as the subtitling of cinema: the actors act in French, but the translation of the script is projected in real-time above the stage.

We link the following fields of expertise:

• Culture: the production and the execution of surtitles are entirely artistic discipline.
• Technology: we provide multiple exclusive, innovative systems of surtitling; in particular multilingual surtitling through augmented reality glasses.
• Tourism: we sell and advertise surtitled plays to non-francophone customers.

What challenges do you face in your development? 

After a year and a half of existence, we now offer nearly one hundred surtitled performances each month in Paris. This is a new and innovative proposal within the landscape of cultural tourism. Therefore, our main challenge is our marketing: we need to incite in the foreign public a desire to go to performances, which, up until now, they would have shunned due to the language barrier. Furthermore, we are starting to internationalise our business: multiple venues and producers abroad are requesting that we provide our surtitling service in their country. Our aim is to make sure we are capable of fulfilling their requirements, with a high level of quality for each venture.

What does it mean to be a cultural entrepreneur?

At TheatreinParis.com, we want to contribute in our own way to the discourse of cultures. We are certain that by going to a performance at the theatre, amongst the local French audience, foreigners will have a better understanding of the culture of a city, of a country, and of its people. We think that, in order for different cultures to understand each other, speaking the same language is not necessary. We are also strong believers that linguistic diversity is enriching, on the condition only that bridges are created between languages. Finally, we think that the best way to protect cultural diversity and to promote the creation of art is to allow artists to access as wide an audience as possible. At the theatre, surtitling is the surest way to ensure this level of accessibility to international audiences.

Theatre in Paris' team.

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The web series : we’re interviewing cultural start-ups – Contact us!

As part of its web series on cultural entrepreneurship, the Forum d’Avignon is proud to present each week exciting stories on cultural start-ups.

This project is part of the Forum d’Avignon’s on-going work, in line with its 2015 agenda, on the ‘hybridization of economic models in cultural and on the manifesto on cultural entrepreneurship in creative industries (to be published soon).

To participate and promote your cultural start-up on the Forum d’Avignon’s website: please send to the address forum-avignon.org@orange.fr:

• A photo (website/founders/logo) in HD
• A video link presenting your project
• A short answer (2-3 lines, in English and French) to the following three questions:

                        - What is your project/idea/start-up?

                        - What is your current challenge?

                        - For you, what does it mean to be a cultural entrepreneur?