Search Tips
Beginning in May 2021, the London Stage Database is optimized using an open-source full-text search engine called Sphinx. (From July 2019 to May 2021, searches were conducted entirely using the database programming language SQL (Structured Query Language); that earlier search ecosystem is preserved under "Advanced Search (Legacy).")
At the top left of the search results page appears a link that reads "Toggle Sphinx Query." Click this link to view the way that your search was translated into SphinxQL (Sphinx's Query Language, similar to SQL or Structured Query Language) in order to generate the results that you see. Relational databases like the London Stage Database are organized as a series of tables (imagine Excel spreadsheets) with fields (imagine the column labels within those spreadsheets). For example, the London Stage Database has a table called "Events," and within that table, it has a field called "EventDate" that holds the date for each event.
Keyword Search
Search results are never case-sensitive in the London Stage Database. A keyword search for "dryden", "Dryden", or "DRYDEN" will return the same results. Special characters, such as hyphens and apostrophes, are ignored, in order to accommodate the inconsistent punctuation of entries in The London Stage, 1660-1800 and the London Stage Information Bank.
To search for an exact word or phrase, you can place it in quotation marks, "like this." If you enter a multi-word search term without quotation marks, our algorithm will return entries that include any of the words in your phrase. If you enter "Marriage a la Mode" with quotation marks, you will only get hits for that play, but they will include entries in which the title is spelled "Marriage a la Mode" as well as entries in which the title is spelled "Marriage a-la-Mode." If you enter the same term without quotation marks, you will also get hits for performances of The Man of Mode, for example, because the two titles share the word "Mode." Search results can be filtered by relevance on the results page, if desired, to prioritize more exact matches with the terms you entered.
Advanced Search and Filters
Boolean searching is possible for actors and for roles. To search for two or more actors who appear together in a single event, click the "+" button by the actor search box, and select the "AND" operation from the drop-down menu. This search will return events in which both actors appear together in the same play, as well as events in which Actor A appears in one performance (for example, the mainpiece) and Actor B appears in another (for example, the afterpiece). To search for events containing performances featuring either Actor A or Actor B, select the "OR" operation. Note that entering the words "AND" or "OR" into any of the search boxes will not trigger a boolean search.
On the Results page, you have the option to apply a number of filters, which correspond to the options on the Advanced Search page. These filters can help you narrow down your results. For example, if you search for all performances of "The Beggar's Opera," you can then use the date filter to limit your results to performances within a particular season or year. Entering dates into the search filters will trigger a new search that retains your original query for performances of "The Beggar's Opera;" it will return the same results as if you had searched for the title and dates all at once from the Advanced Search page. If, however, you enter new terms into a filter that corresponds to one of your previous search fields, you will overwrite your old query. For example, if you search for performances of "The Beggar's Opera" from the Advanced Search page, but then you filter by Performance Title = "Three Hours after Marriage," you will get the same results as if you had simply searched for "Three Hours after Marriage" from the Advanced Search page.