This digital library consists of four main parts:
- •Genres: the style of theatre that a production is presented in.
- •Plays: The original story or text from which productions are created.
- •Productions: A particular company’s run of a play.
- •Performances: Individual performances from a production.
The relationship between these four parts is shown in the following chart and these four parts can be linked to each other through hyperlinks.
We suggest that viewers start with ‘Plays’, here you can see the introduction to a specific play and find a specific production or productions of it. In ‘Productions’, viewers can click ‘Genre’ to get information about the particular genre that a specific production employs, as well as other information including play texts, reviews and more. In Chinese theatre a play may be presented by a number of different genres; The Orphan of Zhao, (one of the four main works featured in this Pilot), is a good example of this. At the end of this hierarchical system, there are performance video(s) or images that a production contains. They offer viewers audio/visual or at least a visual impression of how a play is actually presented on the stage and the features of a specific genre.
本资料库将内容分为四个部分：戏剧形式、剧目、作品和演出。这四部分内容的关系如下图所示、并可以通过链接相互串联。
我们建议读者从“剧目”开始，使用者可以首先了解有关那个剧目的情况，并可以看到上演该剧的不同戏剧作品。在“戏剧作品”中，观众可以通过点击“戏剧形式”链接，了解该作品所采用的戏剧形式并获得其他信息如剧本、评论等等。中国戏剧的一大特点就是一部剧可以由各种不同的戏剧形式（包括不同戏曲剧种）来演出，本实验品中的《赵氏孤儿》即是一例。最后，每个作品都有相应的“演出”视频或者照片供大家欣赏。
