rom Shakespeare's time to Sheridan's, the prompter was an irreplaceable part of a professional theatre.

During a performance he used a bell and a whistle to direct entrances and exits, and to order scene changes. When necessary, he also fed actors their lines.

When a play was chosen for performance, one of the prompter's many tasks was to prepare 'parts' for all the actors to memorize. Each 'part' provided only the lines of the actor's character, with a few words from his or her cue. Creating parts by hand was a laborious task, and the finished products were jealously guarded by performers.

This website allows you to take on the responsibility of a prompter, and create the parts for your actors. What will you discover about plays before 1800 when you look at them through the eyes of the prompter?

There are two ways to interact with the Cyborg Prompter.

• EITHER select a play in XML format with TEI tags to upload from your computer:
  
  SELECT XML FILE
  
  
• OR choose a sample play already encoded in TEI and stored on this website:
  
  William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, 2017 (source)
  John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, 1623 (source)
  John Dryden, All for Love, 1692 (source)
  Susanna Centlivre, The Wonder, 1714 (source)