Repertorio Español, now with English subtitles

REPERTORIO ESPAÑOL’S ANNOUNCES THE INSTALLATION OF FIGARO’S SIMULTEXT® CAPTIONING AND TRANSLATION SYSTEM AT ITS GRAMERCY ARTS THEATER. 
Audiences can now enjoy the quality of the same system that is used at major opera houses throughout the world including Teatro Alla Scala in Milan, The Royal Opera House in London, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

REPERTORIO ESPAÑOL is pleased to announce the installation of Figaro’s Simultext® Captioning System at Repertorio’s Gramercy Arts Theater (138 East 27th Street in Manhattan, NY). With the new system, every seat in the theatre will have a display screen showing the dialogue of the performance in English and Spanish. The system will debut at Repertorio's upcoming show, Probation. The installation was made possible by public funds secured by New York State Senator Liz Krueger. 
 
The Simultext® System’s screens are installed on the back of each seat and act like subtitles for live performance displaying the translated words at the moment they are spoken. As the performance progresses the dialogue is displayed in a timely manner, a brief glance down and reading of the text and look back to the performance “with an action as natural and comfortable as checking the instruments in your car,” says Geoff Webb, Figaro’s President, CEO, and Co-Founder.  

This system will replace the current infra-red audio translation headsets and will allow the hard of hearing to enjoy Repertorio’s productions. Its use will be free of cost. 

The first plays to be available on the Simultext® Captioning System will be Carmen Rivera’s “La gringa”; Yoshvanni Medina’s “Probation” beginning with its premiere on July 13th and Caridad Svich’s adaptation of Gabriel García Márquez’s “Love in the Time of Cholera” directed by José Zayas beginning with its premiere on October 13th, 2012. 

Caridad Svich’s adaptation of Julia Álvarez’s “En el tiempo de las mariposas” will be the first production in the company’s repertory to be added to the system beginning on June 23rd, 2012. Other productions such as “The House of Bernarda Alba,” “El Quijote,” “Doña Flor and Her Two Husbands” and “Mariela in the Dessert” will be added to the system by the end of 2012. 

José Antonio Cruz, Repertorio’s Associate Producer, excitedly reports, “We are thrilled to be able to open up our theater to a slew of new multi-lingual audiences. An important part of our mission is to bring the best theater from Latin America, Spain and plays written by Hispanic Americans to non-Spanish speaking audiences. This system will allow us to better serve these audiences while maintaining the rhythm and poetry of the work as well as the author’s original passion and meaning.”

Geoff Webb added that “we are delighted that our Simultext® System has found another home in New York, our systems are used in leading opera houses around the world where audiences follow a live performance in the language most comfortable to them. We trust to you will find our Simultext® System a valuable companion as you attend future Repertorio Español performances.”

ABOUT SIMULTEXT® SYSTEM: 
The Simultext® System supports up to eight different languages displayed simultaneously, initially Spanish and English will be presented and other languages will be added as needed. Operation of the system is simple and straightforward, when seated, touch the display screen once and choose one of the available languages. Once selected, the following text will be shown in that language. At any time touch the screen to select a different language or turn the display off. If no selection is made or the seat in front is empty then those screens will turn off automatically when the performance begins. 

The Simultext® display screens feature a special optical filter that limits viewing to directly in front—preventing distraction from adjacent screens. The captions are presented in a crisp high contrast font for effortless reading. Figaro's In-Ovation® software driving the system allows for text to be presented at exactly the right instant and always synchronized to the action on stage.

ABOUT REPERTORIO ESPANOL: 
Repertorio Español (René Buch, Artistic Director; Robert Federico, Executive Director; José Antonio Cruz, Associate Producer) was founded in 1968 by René Buch and Gilberto Zaldívar, to present the best of Latin American, Spanish and Hispanic-American theatre in distinctive, quality productions, and to bring theatre to a broad audience in New York City and across the country, including seniors, students and Hispanics of all national backgrounds. The organization has been awarded Drama Desk, OBIE and New York State Governor's Awards. www.repertorio.org

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