How should a team decide whether to call the service captions, subtitles, or surtitles?

Use the word your audience and venue will understand, then define the delivery model clearly: projected text, side display, mobile viewer, accessibility support, translation, or a mix of those needs.

What should be written into the production plan?

Document where the text appears, which languages or accessibility needs it serves, who cues it, how the audience enters the experience, and what fallback path exists if the planned display fails.

Theatre Captions vs. Surtitles: What Is the Difference? | SurtitleLive Planning

Short answer

In theatre practice, captions, subtitles, and surtitles can overlap, but they are not always used the same way. What matters is describing the real audience experience clearly: where the text appears, who it serves, and how it is delivered.

Theatre Captions vs. Surtitles: What Is the Difference?

Some teams use surtitles for translated text above the stage. Others use captions when the goal is accessibility, same-language support, side displays, or personal devices. In practice, the terminology varies by market and venue.

Before choosing a setup, define whether the text is for translation, accessibility, a shared display, personal devices, or a mix of those audience needs.

Useful Working Distinctions

Surtitles: Often associated with translated text for theatre or opera
Captions: Often associated with accessibility and same-language support
Subtitles for theatre: A broader term some teams still use
Mobile subtitle delivery: Describes the audience-device experience more clearly than any one traditional term

Why This Matters for SurtitleLive

The terminology should reflect how the production will actually work. A venue manager may say theatre captions, an opera team may say surtitles, and a festival producer may focus on multilingual mobile subtitles. The important thing is making the delivery model clear.

If audience-device delivery is the main topic, continue with QR Code Subtitles for Audiences.