Research Guides: Theatre: Get Started

Subject Specific Databases

Black Drama
Full text of more than 1,200 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.
Digital Theatre Plus
Offering "a vibrant, relevant and inspiring theatre arts experience that enriches, entertains and educates teachers and students all over the world", Digital Theatre Plus content is "created in-house in association with some of the UK's leading theatre practitioners, film makers and academics."
Humanities International Complete
This resource provides full text of journals, books and other published humanities sources from around the world. It includes all data from Humanities International Index plus unique full-text content, much of which is not available in other databases.
International Bibliography of Theater & Dance w/ Full Text
Journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations covering all aspects of theatre and performance for more than 126 countries.
JSTOR
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Academic journals, books, and primary sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.
Literature Criticism Online
Includes: Contemporary Literary Criticism; Drama Criticism; Poetry Criticism; Shakespearean Criticism; Short Story Criticism; and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Literature Resource Center
Biographical, critical, and bibliographical information on various literary figures.
Theatre in Video
Contains hundreds of videos, including documentaries and definitive performances of the world’s most important plays. The collection covers a wide range of 20th century theatre history via interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances.

Theater Web Resources

Library of Congress Performing Arts Reading Room
PAE is a guide to performing arts resources at the Library of Congress. See, hear, and explore the Library's unsurpassed collections of scores, sheet music, audio recordings, films, photographs, and other materials.
Performing Arts Encyclopedia
Search and browse descriptions of more than 235 music, theater and dance resources by subject, title, or name.
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center houses reference and research materials on music, dance, theatre, recorded sound, and other performing arts.
Theatre & Performance at the V&A
The V&A's Theatre Collections hold the UK's national collection of material about live performance in the UK since Shakespeare's day, covering drama, dance, musical theatre, circus, music hall, rock and pop, and other forms of live entertainment.
The National Theatre Archive - Britain
The collection covers the period from the inception of the company in 1963 to the present day. Material accessible to the public includes programmes, posters, photographs, videos, sound recordings of Platform events, press cuttings, prompt scripts, production drawings, costume, lighting, and sound information.
Internet Broadway Database
IBDB was created by the Research Department of The Broadway League, the national trade association for Broadway. In 1996, the Research Department began to organize and expand the League's data collection in order to produce a website that would serve as a comprehensive history of Broadway for the benefit of League members, press, theatre professionals and enthusiasts.
Internet Off-Broadway Database
The Lortel Archives, also known as the Internet Off-Broadway Database, provide a catalogue of shows produced Off-Broadway.
The Costume Institute at the Met
The Costume Institute houses a collection of more than thirty thousand costumes and accessories spanning five continents and as many centuries.
Fashion, Jewellery & Accessories at the V&A
The Victoria and Albert Museum has collected dress since its earliest days.
The collection covers fashionable dress from the 17th century to the present day, with the emphasis on progressive and influential designs from the major fashion centres of Europe. The V&A collections also include accessories such as jewellery, gloves and handbags.
The Fashion Museum - Britain
Menswear, womenswear, accessories, dresses, coats, jackets, corsets, knitwear, fashion photographs, pockets, shirts, blouses, waistcoats, fans. The collection at the Fashion Museum includes examples of all of these types of fashions, and more.
The earliest pieces in the collection are embroidered shirts and gloves from about 1600.

Suggested Subject Terms

Try searching for:

General

Acting
Actors
Black theater
Experimental theater
Feminist theater
Theater audiences
Theater history
Theater and society
Women in the theater

Performance

Acting
Costume
Improvisation (Acting)
Theatrical makeup
Theater production and direction

Career

Acting -- vocational guidance
Theatrical agents
Theatrical producers and directors
Theater production and direction

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Suggested Subject Terms