LibGuides: Theatre Resources: Databases & Encyclopedias

Theatre Databases & Encyclopedias

Use the following databases and encyclopedias to find journal articles and other research materials.

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Journal Articles

Best Bets for Peer-Reviewed Articles

Humanities International Complete This link opens in a new window
Find article citations from over 1,900 publications containing articles, essays, reviews, poems, fiction, photographs, paintings, and illustrations. Includes full text for hundreds of journals, books, and other publications.
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance This link opens in a new window
Find articles citations and select full text for performing arts topics such as ballet, comedy, dance, drama, mime, opera, puppetry and theatre.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
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Index of scholarly materials for the study of language, literature, linguistics, rhetoric and composition, folklore, and film. Provides citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, series, translations, scholarly editions, websites, and dissertations with links to full text in JSTOR, Project MUSE, and other resources. Coverage: early 20th century to present.

Additional Resources

JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Electronic archive of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and basic sciences from the earliest issues to within a few years of current publication.
The collections include: Arts & Sciences I-VIII, Business Collection I-III, Ecology & Botany, General Science, and Language and Literature.
Web of Science Core Collection This link opens in a new window
Provides access to three multidisciplinary databases covering selected journal literature and conference proceedings in the areas of the arts and humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
Women's Wear Daily (WWD) This link opens in a new window
Provides full text access to breaking news and coverage of the fashion industry. Updated daily.

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Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window
Biographical information on more than 149,000 modern novelists, poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters. Sketches typically include personal information, contact information, career history, writings, biographical and critical sources, authors' comments, and informative essays about their lives and work.
Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television This link opens in a new window
Provides criticism on contemporary theatre, film, and television as well as biographical and bibliographical information on people in this field. Part of the Gale Virtual Reference Library. Coverage 1984-2013.
Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window
Learn about the lives and careers of authors from all genres, nationalities, and eras. Includes biographical and critical studies written by scholars, as well as suggestions for further reading.
Literary Reference Center Plus This link opens in a new window
Discover information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes. This full-text database includes major respected reference works, books, literary journals, study guides, and more.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Search the full-text of the the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.), Grove Music Online, the Oxford Companion to Music (2002 revision) and the Oxford Dictionary of Music (2nd ed. rev.).
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Contains entries from over 100 major discipline-related dictionaries and other publications from Oxford University Press. Coverage includes the sciences, foreign languages, art and architecture, politics, business, literature, and more.

Play Scripts

American Drama This link opens in a new window
Discover over 2,000 full-text plays from 1714 to present.
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare This link opens in a new window
Discover the full-text of select editions of Shakespeare, as well as adaptations and related writings, ranging from the 16th to the 19th century.
English Prose Drama This link opens in a new window
Offers the full text of 1600 plays written in prose between 1280-1915.
This source is based on plays listed in the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.
English Verse Drama This link opens in a new window
Explore the full text of over 2,200 plays written in verse by hundreds of different authors from the 13th through the19th centuries.
This source is based on plays listed in the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.
Loeb Classical Library Digital Edition This link opens in a new window
Search and read Greek and Latin texts alongside English translations. Also classifies each work by language, form, genre, subject, and date.

New Play Exchange
Digital library of scripts by living writers which can be filtered by title, length, age level, genre, subject matter, production history, script availability, cast size and characteristics, playwright, and playwright demographics. Includes a directory of organizations and one of people, which are faceted by role (dramaturgs and types of writers), gender identity, race/ethnic identity, sexual identity, and location. While the focus is currently North American, the intended scope is international
Women Writers Online
The Women Writers Online collection contains more than 320 texts published by women authors between 1526 and 1850. Search the full text of these works or browse by author/date/title.

Digital Media

Online Video

Digital Theatre+ This link opens in a new window
View streaming video of current British theatre productions. Also contains behind-the-scenes documentaries and learning resources, including introductions, plot summaries, character biographies, relationship maps, language analysis, scene studies, performance backgrounds, and historical contexts.
Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new window
View free films, videos, and documentaries with this by-request streaming video service for educational institutions. The Kanopy platform may not be supported on some devices, such as Chromebooks and mobile devices.
You must download the Kanopy App in order to stream videos on a mobile device.

Listen to Music Online

Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
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Streaming music collection. Includes classical music, historical recordings, Jazz, world music, and folk music.
Liner notes are available for some recordings.

Digital Images

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is now part of JSTOR. The ARTstor platform was retired on August 1st, 2024.
Search over one million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences. Images may be used in presentations for educational or other noncommercial uses.
Bloomsbury Fashion Central This link opens in a new window
Access peer-reviewed interdisciplinary research in fashion and dress. Content includes reference works, articles, scholarly e-books, case studies, biographies, lesson plans, bibliographic guides, textbooks, video content, runway and backstage photos from fashion shows, and images from museums around the world.

Digital Public Library of America
The Digital Public Library of America is a free, online library that provides access to millions of books, photographs, maps and audiovisual materials and more from libraries, museums and archives across the United States. The video below offers a brief introduction.
Europeana Fashion
Online access to outstanding fashion content from Europe’s leading museums and private fashion archives.
Google Images
Numerous images from Google that illustrate posters from a variety of sources. Some are templates, others examples of completed posters.
Google Images - Advanced Search Interface
Portraits of Actors, 1720-1920
Includes almost 3500 pictures of actors-studio portraits and actors posing in costume for a particular role or performing a scene from a play. Dramatists, theatrical managers, singers and musicians are also included, but the majority are British and American actors who worked between about 1770 and 1893.
Vintage Fashion Guild
The Vintage Fashion Guild™ (VFG) is an international organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of vintage fashion. Includes help and support on vintage fashion, with online resources, articles, forums and membership.

Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
Search the entire run of Vogue magazine (US edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month. Includes high resolution images of every page, advertisement, cover, and fold-out.

19th Century Actors and Theater Photographs
The 19th Century Actors and Theater Photographs database consists of over 600 photographs including cartes-de-visite and cabinet card studio portraits of entertainers, actors, and actresses who performed on the American stage in the mid- to late 1800s.

More Indexes

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Access the full text for more than 4,000 scholarly publications covering diverse academic areas of study.
Areas of study include social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.
Arts Journal - Theatre This link opens in a new window
Current international news on performances and other events.
Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global) This link opens in a new window
Search millions of citations to dissertations and theses from around the world. Includes downloadable full text for most dissertations added since 1997 and some retrospective full text coverage for older graduate works. Coverage: 1861 to present.
IPA Source This link opens in a new window
This resource is designed to assist educators and singers with language understanding and pronunciation.You can search by composer/author name or title.
Music Index Online This link opens in a new window
Search for articles on class and popular music. Includes research articles, magazine articles, and reviews of recordings and performances.
Newspaper Source This link opens in a new window
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Read selected full text for over 180 regional U.S. newspapers, international newspapers, newswires, newspaper columns, and other sources. Includes indexing and abstracts for national newspapers and full text television & radio news transcripts from CBS News, FOX News, NPR, and more.
Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Search the full-text of the the Encyclopedia of Popular Music (4th ed.), Grove Music Online, the Oxford Companion to Music (2002 revision) and the Oxford Dictionary of Music (2nd ed. rev.).
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature (1967-Present only) This link opens in a new window
Includes references (most with abstracts) to scholarly writings, including books, articles, and dissertations from 1969 to the present in English and most European languages. Updated monthly.
Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window
This resource provides online access to the full-text to all 10 of the Thomson Gale Literature Criticism Reference Sets, including Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, Shakespeare Criticism, etc. Provides access to criticism (excerpts or full-text) published from an author's own time to the present as well as biographical and bibliographical information.
Women's Wear Daily Archive (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
Explore Women's Wear Daily, from 1910 to approximately 6 months ago, through full color images. Updated twice yearly.
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online This link opens in a new window
Find citations to Shakespeare-related scholarship and theatrical productions published or produced worldwide from 1960 to the present.

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Theatre Resources: Databases & Encyclopedias

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Theatre Databases & Encyclopedias

Journal Articles

Best Bets for Peer-Reviewed Articles

Additional Resources

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Play Scripts

Digital Media

Online Video

Listen to Music Online

Digital Images

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