The knowledge of theater

The CETbase is the largest database on the country for theater studies. It is an online network open to researchers, artists and the general public where you can see over a million and a half information related to the arts of the stage. It is a repository of knowledge coordinated by Professor Maria Helena Serôdio, from the classic college of Lisbon and a little group researchers working for the common good.

In that context arises CETbase?

Maria Helena Serôdio: It appears fundamentally linked to two realities, the existence of this center for research studies in theater in this college and on the other hand, a post-graduate study for theater where students and teachers have realized that there was some lack of working tools and the need to move forward not only for writing but also creating an online platform that would allow more rigorous collection of performances and the possibility that we are always producing actions, additions, relationships between various data etc.

How do you do the selection of data, the collection of these elements is distinguishing what is essential and important to be preserve from the superfluous?

MHS: Nothing is superfluous. The fundamental question that might interest realize is that records like these are huge shows we have registered over 23 thousand people characterized by their career have over 44 thousand institutions between theater companies, or who financed the theater are 11 000 thousand, texts taken to scene almost 15 000, where introduced to characterize these performances more than 3000 events, festivals or celebrations involving the theater over 1500 records and also a principle we had a great care to introduce that was not to impose the reality of theater in Portugal in a single formatting. Explaining, it is true that the word stage manager for some companies it is important to know, but in the history of theater that word was not used, was the director or leading actor who had this function, we do the exact registration of the term used by the company which mean that we have a network that allows equivalences when we want to know who is the figure of the stage manager, also in the form of the show appear as directors. There are networks of concepts that are well reasoned and allow us to understand together, but at the same time each, seeing the differences in terms of nomenclature. Another aspect is also important to note is that whether we give greater care and do a more complete record of the professional companies, we also have records of performances of schools, universities, amateur theater, we have much more safely recorded other than the leading companies. From the chronological point of view it is clear that we will not lose the information that is currently been done this day, but we also need to adapt. There are now records the shows of the nineteenth century and some of the XVIII. This is because the study center of theater develops various programs, we had over two years on a project of the eighteenth century supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology where he held both collection of original documents, parts, notes of censorship or institutions that allowed bring the texts to the stage, some of these reality of these documents are passed to the CETbase. This is a platform as inclusive as possible; it depends on the research we do.

In terms of the records themselves, come in various formats? In photography, video, pdf files is that it?

MHS: There is a network. There is a research project which has now ended, which gathers together a very appreciable scene photos, publications of books, called Opsis, also funded by FCT and in some cases we refer to the data obtained in photography. It's easier to network, although it may have access to other databases that not only the very CETbase, for example, those who study the eighteenth century also has access to this data page of the History of Theatre in Portugal (htp) online where you also get access to scanned documentation and promoted in more contemporary way. What we do is distribute the network, write down all transversalities that allow a person who is outside can browse through the internet.

Who are the people who consult this database?

MHS: As far as we are given to understand, especially in CETbase are the actors themselves, for example, when they want to know whether a play was represented in Portugal, how often a particular author was presented in our country, they are likely to have a more immediate interest in this information. Relatively to Opsis and HTP online many are teachers, researchers are paying such access and feel the need to collect this data online. All this, the fact of being on the internet and an open access does not allow us to have exactly a number, but we know the consequences, appear thru masters theses, doctoral, although not all in the area of ​​theater requiring the consultation of these areas.