THEATER: A Guide to Resources  Tags: theater theatre drama performing_arts  

The Library provides networked access to many more full-text, primary source databases than can be listed here. Others may be located through the Library Catalog and Find It! Databases, which contains an alphabetical list of online resources related to Linguistics, Language and Literature. NOTE: Also check the Periodical Indexes & Databases tab (above) for resources covering periodical articles from the 19th century and earlier.

ARTFL. Chicago, Ill.: Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Chicago

"...consists of nearly 2000 texts, ranging from classic works of French literature to various kinds of non-fiction prose and technical writing. The eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries are about equally represented, with a smaller selection of seventeenth century texts as well as some medieval and Renaissance texts ... Genres include novels, verse, theater, journalism, essays, correspondence, and treatises. Subjects include literary criticism, biology, history, economics, and philosophy. In most cases standard scholarly editions were used in converting the text into machine-readable form, and the data contain page references to these editions."

 

Asian American Drama.

"This edition of Asian American Drama contains 252 plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Some 50% of these plays have never been published before. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays." - Homepage, viewed February 2, 2006.

 

Black Drama, 1850 to Present.

"This edition of Black Drama contains approximately 1200 plays by 201 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.Some 440 of the plays are published here for the first time, including a number by major authors. "--Homepage, viewed April 2, 2004.

 

Early English Books Online (EEBO)

From the first book printed in English by William Caxton, through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare and the tumult of the English Civil War, Early English Books Online) contains over 125,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475 - 1640), Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661)

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Eighteenth Century Collections Online. (ECCO)

A comprehensive digital edition of The Eighteenth Century microfilm set, which has aimed to include every significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in the United Kingdom, along with thousands of important works from the Americas, between 1701 and 1800. Consists of books, pamphlets, broadsides, ephemera. When completed, the full collection will include nearly 150,000 titles and more than 33,000,000 pages of searchable material.

 

Federal Theatre Project Collection (Library of Congress)

The Federal Theatre Project Collection contains documentation for stage productions mounted by the Federal Theatre Project in the period 1935-39. These include a wide variety of materials: billboards, cast lists, correspondence, costume designs, ground plans, lighting cue sheets, lighting plots, music, photographs, playbills, playscripts and playscript "sides" (a "side" is an individual role or part), posters, production notebooks, programs, property lists, publicity reports and clippings, radio scripts, research reports, reviews, scenarios, set designs, study guides, and technical reports. There are approximately 5,000 playscripts and 2,500 titles ranging from vaudeville to classic theater.

 

Global Performing Arts Database (GLOPAD) Ithaca, N.Y. : Global Performing Arts Consortium, Cornell University, c2003-

GloPAD is a multimedia, multilingual, Web-accessible database containing digital images, texts, video clips, sound recordings, and complex media objects (such as 3-D images) related to the performing arts around the world. All GloPAD records include authoritative, detailed descriptions of the digital objects, in addition to information about related pieces, productions, performers, and creators.

 

Literature Online. (LION)

A full-text collection of poetry, drama, and prose with complementary references sources. Primary texts include English poetry from 600 to the present; American and African-American poetry from 1603 to the present; English drama; English prose; full-text articles from literary journals; and biographical information on widely studied authors. Individual collections include American Drama (1714-1915); English Drama (1280-1915), and Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare.

 

North American Women's Drama.

When complete, the collection in this searchable database will include the full text of more than 1,500 plays by women playwrights of the United States and Canada, some not published before. Included are selected playbills, production photographs, and biographical data.

 

Teatro Campesino Online Collection

From the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) at University of California, Santa Barbara. This collection of 118 videos contains El Teatro Campesino plays, television specials, concerts, interviews, news footage, commercials, and workshops. The series includes the first known film that has a segment about the Teatro, "Huelga," narrated by Cesar Chavez. Other films range from the early actos to television specials on the movie "Zoot Suit." There are films of scenes from plays and whole plays, interviews with Luis Valdez and others, footage of the twentieth anniversary gala of El Teatro Campesino, and a documentary on the history of the Teatro made in 1981. Finding aid available online.

 

Theatre in Video

Contains performances of the world’s leading plays and film documentaries on the subject of theater in streaming video. Some plays presented in multiple productions exemplifying various interpretations of the text, and technical and cultural differences among the presentations. Stage work of directors and actors are cross-searchable and available for side-by-side comparison. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances, provide illustration of the development of texts and the productions.