Provide suggestion for spoken content in stage directions with <said>

[jjokisch]

Despite the generally held belief that dramatic text can be divided into dialogical features (which are spoken) and non-dialogical features, i.e., stage directions, headings, speech prefixes, etc. (which are not spoken), stage directions can in fact contain spoken content. The guidelines do not mention this and consequently, there does not seem to be any consensus on how to encode this feature nor even any widespread awareness of its existence.

For example, Hauptmann's Der Biberpelz¹ contains the following stage directions, which, in turn, contains the spoken greeting "'N Abend" ("(good) evening"] conveniently in quotation marks:

In the markup of the Deutsches Textarchive, however, this structure is foregone for a somewhat simpler approach that plucks the spoken content out of the stage directions and turns it into a speech:

<sp who="#LEO"><speaker><hi rendition="#g">Leontine</hi></speaker> <stage>(ſucht ſchnell hinauszukommen, trifft aber in der
<lb/>Thür auf ihren Vater, ſagt flüchtig:</stage> 
<p>„’N Abend“</p> 
<stage>und wiſcht an<lb/>ihm vorüber hinaus).</stage></sp>

Something similar happens with the following passage in Genlis' L'isle heureuse² and its markup in Théâtre Classique (I am sadly unable to find the specific edition TC uses, but doubt this matters much concerning the structure of the play). With the addition that the non-dialogic parts of the stage direction are forced into the role of a <speaker>:

<sp who="ZULMÉE">
<speaker>ZULMÉE.</speaker>
<p>C'est une multitude de pauvres gens qui l'attendaient à son passage.</p>
</sp>
<sp who="FOULE">
<speaker>On entend crier distinctement.</speaker>
<p>Vive la Princesse Clarinde, vive notre généreuse Bienfaitrice.</p>
</sp>

The Women Writers Project is the only project I know that encodes this structure consistently using, as I find fitting, <said>. As an example, take the following stage direction from the anonymously published play She ventures, and he wins³ as well as the WWP markup:

 <stage type="business">They take him up and carry him off, who roars out <said>help, The Devil, the Devil</said>.</stage>

To create an awareness and enable consistent encodings, I think it would benefit greatly to directly reference this structure in 7.2.4 Stage Directions. I'd follow WWP in suggesting an encoding with <said>. Additionally, the example should be supplement with @who as speaker attribution is relied on quite heavily in computational drama research.

Footnotes

1. Hauptmann, Gerhart (1893): Der Biberpelz. Berlin: S. Fischer, 9. ↩

2. In: Genlis, Félicité de (1781): Théâtre à l’usage des jeunes personnes. Vol. I. Paris: M. Lambert & F.J. Beaudouin, 90. ↩

3. Anon (1696): She ventures, and he wins. A comedy, Acted at the New Theatre, in Little Lincoln's-Inn Fields, By His Majesty's Servants. London: Hen. Rhodes, J. Harris, Sam. Briscoe. ↩

[lb42]

FWIW, in this particular case, I agree that <said> is a much better solution than tag abuse of the kind indicated above. However, I am not sure that it meets all cases. Consider for example this, from Shirley Brooks' "The Creole" :

 <sp>
      <speaker>Bel.</speaker>
      <p> Victory ! Vive la France ! En avant.</p>
     <stage>[Seizes him, and makes him dance round, and then off with her—she singing "Cadet
      Rouselle" as loud as she can. [Exeunt.</stage>
</sp> 

Is "Cadet Rousselle" here <said>? well, yes. But I think I'd prefer to tag it as a <title>, if at all. And, in the same play, what of this stage direction:

     <stage>[Bellona's voice heard singing, "Cadet Rouselle e trois maisons," &amp;c.</stage>

OTOH <said> is certainly the easiest solution for this, from J.M. Morton's "Betsy Baker":

 <stage> (Great noise of Women's voices suddenly heard—“Stop, sir!” “Mr. Mouser!” “Don’t run!”
    “It’s only me!” &amp;c.; Mouser rushes in at D. L. F., followed by Women; after considerable
    trouble he turns them out again at door and slams it—noise of Women’s voices repeated) </stage>