In their assessment of the schema.org ontology, the Canadian Association for the Performing Arts (CAPACOA) and its partners have encountered a lack of expressiveness of schema.org when it comes to describing performing arts events (live events) and related entities. We therefore propose the definition of two new classes to complement the schema.org ontology - the second one of them being a new sub-class of Event: PerformingArtsEvent.

Rationale

There is currently no possibility to describe live performance events of the performing arts in general. The existing approach of defining specific event types only partly lends itself to the description of such events: Whereas schema:TheatreEvent (“Theatre performance.”) might be used for this purpose, schema:MusicEvent (“Music event.”) is not limited to live music events, and schema:DanceEvent (“A social dance.”) does not include dance performances at all. Furthermore, there would be a variety of mixed types that combine several of these main genres, such as opera or ballet, leaving it unclear whether each of them should get their own type in schema.org or whether a complex combinatory of specific event types should be used instead.

Definition of PerformingArtsEvent

The new class schema:PerformingArtsEvent is defined as an equivalent of the class LRMoo-F31 Performance, which comprises activities where an instance of schema:CreativeWork is presented or communicated directly or indirectly to an audience, in the form of a theatrical play, a musical work or a choreographic work.

It is defined as a sub-class of schema:Event, which is described as: “An event happening at a certain time and location, such as a concert, lecture, or festival. Ticketing information may be added via the schema:offers property. Repeated events may be structured as separate Event objects.”

The semantic scope of schema:PerformingArtsEvent is specified to englobe all the branches of the performing arts (music, theatre, dance, acrobatics, spoken word), including performance art and performative sports.

It is implied that events of the type schema:PerformingArtsEvent involve a live audience. Thus, recording events or rehearsals may be described using this class if they occur in front of an audience. In all other cases, its use is discouraged. For reasons of conciseness, this is not explicitly stated in the proposed definition and usage note.

The textbox below contains the proposed definition and usage note of schema:PerformingArtsEvent.

Thing > Event > PerformingArtsEvent

Live performance event of the performing arts (music, theatre, dance, acrobatics, spoken word), 
including performance art and performative sports (e.g. choreographed forms of martial arts, figure skating, 
competitive ballroom dancing). 

Note: Use additionalType to differentiate between productions / shows (PerformanceWork, EventSeries), 
tours (EventSeries), and individual performances.

Additional Properties of PerformingArtsEvent

As a subclass of schema:Event, schema:PerformingArtsEvent inherits the properties of schema:Event. At the time of writing, no additional properties have been suggested for the newly proposed class schema:PerformingArtsEvent.

Further Information

See also the related proposal for the creation of a new sub-class of CreativeWork: PerformanceWork.

The rationale and conceptual underpinning for the proposal of the two new classes have been described in more detail in the following document: Modeling Performing Arts Events (Version 1.0). If you would like to comment directly on that document, please do so in the related Google Doc.