01 March 2010
Researchers bring historical work into the digital age
Researchers at the University of Sheffield and Royal Holloway, University of London have launched a unique online edition of the collected plays of dramatist Richard Brome, which marks the culmination of a four-year project to digitise the works.
The aim of the project, which was led by Emeritus Professor Richard Cave from Royal Holloway and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), was to provide wide-spread access to Brome´s work for scholars, theatre practitioners, and members of the public alike.
Brome´s plays, which have not appeared in a complete edition since 1873, are now available through the fully-searchable website, created by HRI Digital at the Humanities Research Institute, University of Sheffield and launched today (Monday 1 March 2010.)
Brome, one-time secretary and assistant to Ben Jonson, wrote numerous comedies in a range of styles that were popular from the late 1620s until the closing of the theatres in 1642. Sixteen of these (fifteen exclusively by him, and one written in collaboration with Thomas Heywood) saw print in the seventeenth century. Until now they have not been reissued in a scholarly collected edition, though several plays have been individually edited.
Each play is offered in Richard Brome Online as a period text and in an annotated, modernised version and is accompanied by both a critical and a textual introduction. The site contains a full glossary, bibliography, stage history and search engine. Most of the material contained in the site is printable and access is free.
Two highly innovatory features of the edition are a result of the online format. Both period and modernised texts can be viewed independently or summoned on screen side-by-side for comparative reading and viewing. Uniquely, the annotations to the plays give access to a wealth of extracts explored in workshop by 22 professional actors, drawn chiefly from the alumni lists of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare´s Globe. More than 30 hours of such performance work is included on the site, divided into 640 episodes illustrating the theatricality and stageability of the plays.
The project has utilised the expertise of a number of scholars from across the globe to bring together a range of materials to help shed light on the social, political and theatrical influences of the time. The website also includes prints, maps, a glossary and bibliography, alongside enacted sequences and texts which will all be connected together and readily searchable.
Michael Pidd, Digital Manager for the HRI at the University of Sheffield, said: "The project has demonstrated the effectiveness of using an online, collaborative research environment in order to build a new type of scholarly edition. This environment not only overcame the problems of location but also altered the editorial process itself because it gave editors 24/7 access to each other´s work.
"To truly understand Brome´s work, we need to see it alongside other materials such as art work, performances and bibliographies. By bringing all these materials together in one searchable website, we are able to go beyond the confines of a book and allow researchers to maximise their understanding of Brome´s work, by seeing it in the context of other sources from the period."
Professor Cave said: "Working with actors in the editing process was, for the editorial panel, one of the most exciting aspects of the collaboration. In our discussions together around meanings, tone, actor-audience relations or characterisation, the actors´ contributions were fresh, informed, exploratory, and full of the insights that come only from their particular kinds of experience." For further information please contact: Lauren Anderson, Media Relations Officer, on 0114 2221046 or email l.h.anderson@sheffield.ac.uk
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