Funding Entity: Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/HAH/72397/2006)
Principal Researcher: Maria Helena Serôdio e José Camões
Research Unit: CET – Centro de Estudos de Teatro
Duration: 01-10-2008 a 30-01-2011 (27 months)
Funding: 87.300,00  euros
Abstract: This proposal of a pilot-project to present Sources for the History of Theatre in Portugal online derives from some of the work done by Osório Mateus, founder of the Centre for Theatre Studies. It is meant to collect on a regular basis documents that will allow for the making of the history of theatre in Portugal (programmes MEMORY an DICTIONARY).\nIt also derives from the success reached both by the development of a data basis on line with the performances presented in our country (CETbase) – fed with data on a daily basis – and the production of electronic editions of Portuguese theatre classics (so far two editions have been completed: CDRom Gil Vicente Todas as Obras, CNPDP/CET and CDRom Textos de Teatro de Autores portugueses do século XVI, the latter sponsored by FCT as Project 33464). Design and implementation in both cases have been of the responsibility of the researchers of the Centre for Theatre Studies and have responded to the urgent need of bridging the gap of the study of theatre in Portugal that has been lagging behind the activity pursued in so many other countries in Europe and elsewhere.\nThe project aims at designing a documental basis – available on the internet and written partially in English – that will allow not only for the free research of reliable documents – accurately transcribed –, but also to gather information treated as dictionary entries. It will be a device to design in a format (perhaps Access or SQL Server) that will prove to be more suitable. It will collect an enormous quantity of data on artists, repertoires, venues, institutions, vocabulary, genres, legislation, etc. and it will establish two ways of reaching information: either by providing links to introductory texts (so that the researcher can read an informative synthesis as well suggestions for further research), or giving access to the documents themselves – first hand whenever possible – to be read by more specialised researchers.\nThe existence of this encyclopaedia on the Internet is not to be conceived as (and will not invalidate) monographic studies or more traditional histories of theatre. Rather it will be a starting point for the real study of theatre in Portugal and aims at making available both to national and foreign researchers a collection of documents that are often unavailable (or difficult to find) in national and foreign libraries and archives.\nWe could therefore define this Project as the study and construction of a browser for the production of History (/ies) of Theatre according to each user, with the advantage of being in continuous updating. The fact that this data basis is located on the internet and is on a free and easy reach will be, in our perspective, an enormous advantage. On top of that, it is in itself a container of information, first hand preferably, that can be examined and questioned by the researcher according to his/her interest and point of view.\nWe should moreover highlight the fact that the data basis will be on a constant updating through the insert of new documental sources that will be found by the researchers and, after an accurate sorting and analysis, set at the disposal of the scientific community.\nThe idea of making these documents available is an efficient contribution to insert the history of our theatre into the documental and research networks presently available on a world context, since besides foreign users, also researchers of Portuguese (and other) culture(s) will be motivated to include this website as providing reliable documents. Indeed, our most recent researches in North-American libraries has proved how many documents are waiting for whoever may show interest in them.\nIt is highly probable that a further study will be needed to design an interface with data bases already online (or about to be created) that will aim at joining this initiative. Thus a considerable network of collections of documents hard to reach will be made available on the website for the improvement of our knowledge on theatre.