Data for this project started as a list of curious overlaps between names in the Voltaire correspondents network and names of individuals involved in society theater. To the list of people, we added a corresponding list of theaters (or places where society plays were staged) with the intent of mapping them. An annotated inventory of society theaters created by Marie-Emmanuelle Plagnol-Diéval, Dominque Quéro, and David Trott already existed, but mapping all the theaters on that list proved complicated, as exact locations are not available for all of them. Our focus shifted to the organizers and participants of the practice, and gradually the data grew to include lists of plays, characters, and performances. The goal is to learn about the participants through the actual texts. Did the network of participants resemble the “network” of characters presented in the plays? In other words, how closely does this type of private theater depict the people who were so enthusiastic in creating and staging it?

The full database contains tables for people, theaters, plays, characters, and events (performances). This is the schema for Events.

Events Schema

Event ID: Internal unique ID number

Date: the date of the performance

PlayID: unique numeric or alpha-numeric ID assigned to each play (for linking with the plays file)

PlayTitle: the title of the play (to display on the map)

PlayAuthorName: the play’s author’s name

Theater ID: unique ID to link to theaters file

Coordinates: geographical coordinates for each location/theater (note the source; level of specificity)

TheaterName: name of the theater where the play was staged

Theater Owner: name of the theater’s owner