LEMDO: Encode Performances

Encode Performances

Introduction

Editors may choose to include performances of various texts in their editions. By performance, the LEMDO project refers not to a performance on which the text is based (i.e. not a recording that subsequently serves as the basis for the encoded text), but rather a recorded version that in some way derives itself from or comments upon the encoded text. That is, a performance is not subordinate to the encoded text, but instead can be understood as a form of standoff annotation; it is a commentary on the text itself.¹ While the TEI Guidelines provide instructions for encoding recordings as the source material for an encoded text, they do not (at the time of writing) offer an explicit set of rules for encoding performance editions.²

How to Encode a Performance

Creating a Performance File

To create a performance file, create a standoff TEI file, located in the data/performances/ directory of the LEMDO repository. The file should be named according to the following set of rules:

The filename begins with perf_

Following perf_, the filename should reflect the work to which it refers

Each performance should be given an


                                          @xml:id

that is the same as the filename.

Encoding Performance Metadata

Encoding the Recordings

Basic Structure

A performance file is encoded as follows:

The performance itself is wrapped in a


                                                      <facsimile>

element:

Each recorded video (i.e. each media artifact) is a separate


                                                      <surface>

element contained in a


                                                      <facsimile>

. These


                                                      <surface>

elements must include a


                                                      <media>

element, which provides a pointer to the video file. These video files should be kept on LEMDO’s server and pointed to using the "sourceperf:" prefix; consult with the LEMDO Project Director to have your video files added to the server.

Recorded videos can nest; this allows for the encoding of clips or scenes:

Each scene should also include an identifying heading like Scene 1. Add this heading by using the


                                                      <label>

element directly within the


                                                      <surface>

<surface>
<label>Scene 1</label>
<media url="sourceperf:FV/FV_sc1.mp4" mimeType="video/mp4"/>
</surface>

Optionally, any scene can include a discursive note (abstract, summary, et cetera), which can be added using the


                                                      <note>

element after the


                                                      <media>

element:

<surface>
  <label>Scene 1</label>
  <media url="sourceperf:FV/FV_sc1.mp4" mimeType="video/mp4"/>
  <note type="commentary">
    <p>The first scene of the show launched the audience into the ribald, rambunctious and definitively masculine world of the production as a whole. </p>
  </note>
</surface>

Associating a Performance with a Text

For performances to be associated with a text, each


                                                <surface>

in a


                                                <facsimile>

must be given an


                                             @xml:id

. Each scene’s


                                             @xml:id

must begin with the document’s root


                                             @xml:id

and must be unique both within the file as well as within the document collection as a whole. If the


                                             @xml:id

is not unique within the file, a schema error will be raised; if the


                                             @xml:id

is not unique within the project, then the diagnostics process will break the build.

The


                                             @xml:id

for each scene might look something like this:

<facsimile>


  <surface xml:id="perf_FV_QME_scene1">
    <label>Famous Victories of Henry V, Scene 1</label>
    <media url="sourceperf:FV/fv_01s.mp4" mimeType="video/mp4"/>
    <note type="commentary">
      <p>
        <title level="m">FV</title> launches us dynamically into the action without preamble but that was not clear to the company when first approaching this scene. </p>
    </note>
  </surface>
  <surface xml:id="perf_FV_QME_scene2">
    <label>Famous Victories of Henry V, Scene 2</label>
    <media url="sourceperf:FV/fv_02s.mp4" mimeType="video/mp4"/>
    <note type="commentary">
      <p>The Queen’s Men apparently found their contemporary volunteer police force, the town watch, to be an excellent source of fun. </p>
    </note>
  </surface>
  
</facsimile>

Once a


                                                <surface>

has a unique


                                             @xml:id

, it can then be used as a pointer within the modernized text. The most common case it to point a scene in the text (denoted by


                                                <div>


                                             @type

= "scene" ) to the surface. To do so, use the


                                             @corresp

attribute with a pointer constructed like so:

Begin with "perf:" to signal that you are pointing at a performance

Then input the performance document’s


                                                   @xml:id

(in this case, FV_QME)

Use the pipe character (|) and the part of the


                                                   @xml:id

of the scene that follows the root


                                                   @xml:id

Let’s take the performance edition of Famous Victories as an example, which has a performance file (emdFV_QME) and a modernized text (emdFV_M). The following example demonstrates how to link the first scene of the text with the first scene of the performance:

<div type="scene" n="1" corresp="perf:FV_QME|scene1"></div>

Notes

1.See the QME Guidelines on performance for a broader theoretical discussion on the nature of performance editions.↑

2.The Music Encoding Initiative does, however, offer a mechanism for encoding performances.↑

Prosopography

Isabella Seales

Isabella Seales is a fourth year undergraduate completing her Bachelor of Arts in English at the University of Victoria. She has a special interest in Renaissance and Metaphysical Literature. She is assisting Dr. Jenstad with the MoEML Mayoral Shows anthology as part of the Undergraduate Student Research Award program.

Janelle Jenstad

Janelle Jenstad is a Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Director of The Map of Early Modern London, and Director of Linked Early Modern Drama Online. With Jennifer Roberts-Smith and Mark Kaethler, she co-edited Shakespeare’s Language in Digital Media: Old Words, New Tools (Routledge). She has edited John Stow’s A Survey of London (1598 text) for MoEML and is currently editing The Merchant of Venice (with Stephen Wittek) and Heywood’s 2 If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody for DRE. Her articles have appeared in Digital Humanities Quarterly, Elizabethan Theatre, Early Modern Literary Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, Renaissance and Reformation, and The Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies. She contributed chapters to Approaches to Teaching Othello (MLA); Teaching Early Modern Literature from the Archives (MLA); Institutional Culture in Early Modern England (Brill); Shakespeare, Language, and the Stage (Arden); Performing Maternity in Early Modern England (Ashgate); New Directions in the Geohumanities (Routledge); Early Modern Studies and the Digital Turn (Iter); Placing Names: Enriching and Integrating Gazetteers (Indiana); Making Things and Drawing Boundaries (Minnesota); Rethinking Shakespeare Source Study: Audiences, Authors, and Digital Technologies (Routledge); and Civic Performance: Pageantry and Entertainments in Early Modern London (Routledge). For more details, see janellejenstad.com.

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is LEMDO’s Consulting Programmer and Designer, a role he assumed in 2020 after three years as the Lead Developer on LEMDO.

Mahayla Galliford

Project manager, 2025-present; research assistant, 2021-present. Mahayla Galliford (she/her) graduated with a BA (Hons with distinction) from the University of Victoria in 2024. Mahayla’s undergraduate research explored early modern stage directions and civic water pageantry. Mahayla continues her studies through UVic’s English MA program and her SSHRC-funded thesis project focuses on editing and encoding girls’ manuscripts, specifically Lady Rachel Fane’s dramatic entertainments, in collaboration with LEMDO.

Martin Holmes

Martin Holmes has worked as a developer in the UVic’s Humanities Computing and Media Centre for over two decades, and has been involved with dozens of Digital Humanities projects. He has served on the TEI Technical Council and as Managing Editor of the Journal of the TEI. He took over from Joey Takeda as lead developer on LEMDO in 2020. He is a collaborator on the SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Janelle Jenstad.

Navarra Houldin

Training and Documentation Lead 2025–present. LEMDO project manager 2022–2025. Textual remediator 2021–present. Navarra Houldin (they/them) completed their BA with a major in history and minor in Spanish at the University of Victoria in 2022. Their primary research was on gender and sexuality in early modern Europe and Latin America. They are continuing their education through an MA program in Gender and Social Justice Studies at the University of Alberta where they will specialize in Digital Humanities.

Tracey El Hajj

Junior Programmer 2019–2020. Research Associate 2020–2021. Tracey received her PhD from the Department of English at the University of Victoria in the field of Science and Technology Studies. Her research focuses on the algorhythmics of networked communications. She was a 2019–2020 President’s Fellow in Research-Enriched Teaching at UVic, where she taught an advanced course on Artificial Intelligence and Everyday Life. Tracey was also a member of the Map of Early Modern London team, between 2018 and 2021. Between 2020 and 2021, she was a fellow in residence at the Praxis Studio for Comparative Media Studies, where she investigated the relationships between artificial intelligence, creativity, health, and justice. As of July 2021, Tracey has moved into the alt-ac world for a term position, while also teaching in the English Department at the University of Victoria.

Orgography

LEMDO Team (LEMD1)

The LEMDO Team is based at the University of Victoria and normally comprises the project director, the lead developer, project manager, junior developers(s), remediators, encoders, and remediating editors.

Metadata

Authority title	Encode Performances
Type of text	Documentation
Publisher	University of Victoria on the Linked Early Modern Drama Online Platform
Series	Linked Early Modern Drama Online
Source	TEI Customization created by Martin Holmes, Joey Takeda, and Janelle Jenstad; documentation written by members of the LEMDO Team
Editorial declaration	n/a
Edition	Released with Linked Early Modern Drama Online 1.0
Encoding description	Encoded in TEI P5 according to the LEMDO Customization and Encoding Guidelines
Document status	prgGenerated
Funder(s)	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
License/availability	This file is licensed under a CC BY-NC_ND 4.0 license, which means that it is freely downloadable without permission under the following conditions: (1) credit must be given to the author and LEMDO in any subsequent use of the files and/or data; (2) the content cannot be adapted or repurposed (except in quotations for the purposes of academic review and citation); and (3) commercial uses are not permitted without the knowledge and consent of the editor and LEMDO. This license allows for pedagogical use of the documentation in the classroom.