Cast lists: special cases

drama cast list

castItem roleDesc hyperDiv role castGroup castList

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Encoding of cast lists using castList, situations where the original cast list is missing or incomplete, discussion of WWP changes to the TEI DTD

Some cast lists contain features that require special treatment or deserve more detailed discussion. Some special cases are described below.

In some cases, the castList contains a castItem which references two minor parts, such as Two Gentlemen (or various servants and others), but the body of the play contains instances of each of the two gentleman talking, with perhaps one of them called First Man and the other, Second Man. Since each speaker needs a separate role ID, you should use the cast list in the hyperDiv to declare these characters separately, using a single castItem for each character, giving each a unique ID. You should still transcribe the original castItem in its original place in the real castList, but it is not neccesary to give it an id attribute with a unique value.
Two-part plays usually contain a separate cast list for each part, with some redundancy of characters. If you are encoding both parts within a single encoded file, you need to make sure that each character’s ID is only declared once. Characters appearing in both parts (or in the first part only) should be given a single unique id attribute in the first cast list, and no id attribute in the second cast list. Characters appearing only in the second part should be given an id attribute only in the second cast list. For characters with names like First Gentleman, unless it is clear from the content of the play that the same designation is being used for two different characters, only one castItem is necessary.
For cast lists which give multiple descriptions for a single role, you can encode multiple roleDesc elements within a single castItem: see example 1.
For cast lists which group multiple roles under one description, enclose the roles within a single castGroup element, with the description encoded as a roleDesc (either preceding or following the castitems): see example 2.
If the description is positioned to the left of the cast items, the roleDesc should precede the castItems; if it is to the right of the cast items, the roleDesc should follow them (using the principle of reading order: reading left to right, left is before and right is after).
Groups of multiple non-speaking parts should be encoded with a single castItem, with a type value of list. Since these are non-speaking, they don’t need id attributes. But it is important to ascertain that the parts are all truly non-speaking. See example 3.
There are often cases where a set of character names is grouped together (e.g. with a brace), and some common label, prefix, or trailing description is applied to the entire group. The group should be encoded with castGroup. An identification that precedes the group should be encoded with head. An identification that follows the group should be encoded with trailer.
DTD Changes: TEI does not allow label to be a direct child of castGroup or castList. The WWP DTD has been changed to accomodate cases in which each item in a castGroup is preceded by a label of some sort, as shown in example 4.

Examples

Example 1.


<castList>
     <castItem>
         <role id="BWayne.sfx"><persName>Bruce Wayne</persName></role>
         <roleDesc>orphaned child</roleDesc>
         <roleDesc>millionare businessman</roleDesc>
         <roleDesc>nearly psychotic crimefighter</roleDesc>
     </castItem>
</castList>

Example 2.


<castList>
     <castGroup>
         <castItem><role id="VVale.nes"><persName>Vicky Vale</persName></role></castItem>
         <castItem><role id="SKyle.ing"><persName>Selina Kyle</persName></role></castItem>
         <roleDesc>suitors of <persName>Bruce Wayne</persName></roleDesc>
     </castGroup>
</castList>

Example 3.


<castList>
     <castItem type="list">
         <roleDesc>Joker’s cronies</roleDesc>
         <role>Henchman 1</role>
         <role>Henchman 2</role>
         <role>Henchman 3</role>
     </castItem>
</castList>

Example 4.


Strange People:
   1. The Lady Probiscus
   2. The Lady Unfortunate
   3. Sir John Hairpiece
Boring People:    
   1. Jane Smith
   2. John Doe
   3. George Johnson

With the WWP changes to the DTD, you can encode this example as follows: 


<castList>
   <castGroup>
   <head>Strange People</head>
   <label>1.</label> <castItem><role><persName>The Lady Probiscus</persName></role></castItem>
   <label>2.</label> <castItem><role><persName>The Lady Unfortunate</persName></role></castItem>
   <label>3.</label> <castItem><role><persName>Sir John Hairpiece</persName></role></castItem>
   </castGroup>
   <castGroup>
   <head>Boring People</head>
   <label>1.</label> <castItem><role><persName>Jane Smith</persName></role></castItem>
   <label>2.</label> <castItem><role><persName>John Doe</persName></role></castItem>
   <label>3.</label> <castItem><role><persName>George Johnson</persName></role></castItem>
   </castGroup>
</castList>