LibGuides: Theatre Databases: Databases

Theatre Databases & Encyclopedias

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

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Journal Articles

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Humanities International Complete
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
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
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
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
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)
Provides full text access to breaking news and coverage of the fashion industry. Updated daily.

Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Contemporary Authors
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
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
Provides information about the lives and careers of authors from all genres and eras. Also includes biographical and critical studies written by scholars, as well as suggestions for further readings and author bibliographies.

Literary Reference Center Plus
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
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
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

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

American Drama
Discover over 2,000 full-text plays from 1714 to present.

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare
Consists of selected full-text of Shakespeare's works, adaptations, and related writings. Items range from mid-16th century to mid-19th century.
English Prose Drama
Offers the full text of 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
Provides the full text of over 2200 plays by hundreds of different authors from the 13th century through the end of the 19th century. This source is based on materials listed in the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature.

Loeb Classical Library Digital Edition
Search and read Greek and Latin texts alongside English translations. Also classifies each work by language, form, genre, subject, and date.

New Play Exchange
The New Play Exchange is the world's largest digital library of scripts by living writers, and has over 20,000 plays. Users can discover, locate, and download scripts.
Women Writers Online

Play Index
Find full publication details needed to locate plays in their published manifestations. Searchable by title, author, subject, style, genre, cast type, and more.

Digital Media

Online Video

Digital Theatre+
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
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
Streaming music collection. Includes classical music, historical recordings, Jazz, world music, and folk music.

Liner notes are available for some recordings.

Digital Images

ARTstor

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
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
Browse an open access collection of more than 42 million images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States.

Europeana Fashion
Online access to outstanding fashion content from Europe’s leading museums and private fashion archives.
Google Images
Google Images - Advanced Search Interface
Portraits of Actors, 1720-1920
Vintage Fashion Guild

Vogue Archive
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

More Indexes

Academic Search Complete
Access the full text for more than 4,000 scholarly publications covering many 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
Current international news on performances and other events.

Dissertations & Theses Global (ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global)
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
IPA Source is a large collection of IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcriptions and literal translations of art songs and arias originally in Latin, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. IPA Now contains over 5,700 texts, including about 1,000 aria texts.

Music Index Online
Search for articles on class and popular music. Includes research articles, magazine articles, and reviews of recordings and performances.
Newspaper Source
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
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
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 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)
Explore Women's Wear Daily, from 1910 to approximately 6 months ago, through full color images. Updated twice yearly.

World Shakespeare Bibliography Online
The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online is a searchable electronic database consisting of the most comprehensive record of Shakespeare-related scholarship and theatrical productions published or produced worldwide.

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Theatre Databases: Databases

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Theatre Databases & Encyclopedias

Journal Articles

Best Bets for Peer-Reviewed Articles

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Encyclopedias & Dictionaries

Play Scripts

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Online Video

Listen to Music Online

Digital Images

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