Databases

Academic OneFile
This database provides access to peer-reviewed, full-text articles from the world's leading journals and reference sources. Includes extensive coverage of the physical sciences, technology, medicine, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects.

Academic Search Premier
The world's largest scholarly, multidiscipline, full-text database designed specifically for academic institutions. Contains full text for more than 4,500 peer-reviewed publications, in nearly all academic areas of study.

Cambridge Journals Online
Full-text database which covers multiple journals in the subject areas of music, drama, and theatre.   Under “Subjects” you may select “Music and Drama” to further define your search.

Columbia Granger's World of Poetry
A rich compilation of the world’s best remembered and most often taught poems and poets. Of the 450,000 citations almost half contain the full text and many in their original language.  Audio is included for some 100 poems as well.

Interplay
Inter-Play provides easy access to the locations of printed plays in collections, anthologies, and periodicals. Most of the plays cited are not indexed in the standard printed play indexes such as Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections or H.W. Wilson's Play Index.

JSTOR
A full-text archival database with access to 15 journals in the field of the performing arts including reviews of Broadway plays and musicals.

Literature Resource Center
Database provides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analyses of authors from every age and literary discipline including novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters.

MLA Bibliography
Covers literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore from 4,400 journals and series worldwide. Coverage from 1926 to the present. 

Play Index
Find citations to 31,000 plays published individually or in collections from 1949 to the present. It covers a wide range of plays written in or translated into English, including one-act plays, pageants, plays in verse, radio and television plays, and classic drama. Play Index also includes links to the full text of plays available on the Web, plus other resources.

Web resources

American Theatre Wing
Association dedicated to theatre education which operates an array of programs, including a long-running series of televised seminars, a weekly radio program, a free audio and video archive, as well as grants and scholarship programs.

Applied and Interactive Theatre Guide
Links to resources for interactive and applied theatre

Artslynx International Theatre Resources
Useful directory for all aspects of theatre, from acting, writing and directing to academic resources  Resource maintained by Professor Finkelstein, Professor of Theatre Design at James Madison University.

Center for Research in Early English Drama
Links for theater history and early music

Costume Site
History, research, instructions, and resources for the creation of costumes
Site sponsored by U.S. Institute for Theatre Technology

INFOmine: Visual & Performing Arts
Extensive set of links from INFOMine: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections, based at the University of California, Riverside.

The Internet Broadway Database
The official archival database for Broadway theatre information

The New York Times Online: Theater Section
Current news and topics in drama and theatre (Some content may be subscription-only; if so, access through New York Times Database.)

Theatre Glossary: Glossary of Technical Terms
Hosted by the University of Exeter (UK) Drama Department, it includes a comprehensive list of both American and British theater terminology.

WWW Virtual Library of Theatre and Drama
Links to resources maintained by the Virtual Library Consortium – original web directory of Tim Berners-Lee

Dictionaries

Facts on File dictionary of the theatre

International dictionary of theatre

Directories

Directory of theatre training programs

Regional theatre directory
 
Summer theatre directory

Encyclopedias

Backstage handbook

Cambridge guide to world theatre

The concise Oxford companion to the theatre (electronic resource)

Critical survey of drama

Encyclopedia of stage lighting

Oxford companion to American theatre (electronic resource)

Theatre backstage from A to Z

Theatre lighting from A to Z

Ultimate scene and monologue sourcebook

Professional organizations

Actors’ Equity Association
Labor union representing professional American actors and stage managers

Alpha Psi Omega
National Collegiate Theatre Honorary Society

Art Directors Guild
Guild for creative artists of narrative design

Association for Theatre in Higher Education
Organization advocates for theatre and performing arts in higher education

Christians in Theatre Arts
Organization dedicated to Christians in the theatre

Costume Society of America
Society which focuses and supports the understanding of costume and dress

Dramatists Guild of America
Guild which advances the interests of playwrights

Educational Theatre Association
Professional Association for Theatre Education

Screen Actors Guild
Labor union representing actors in film, television, commercials, and music videos

Theatre Support Organizations Gateway
Includes organizations in United States, Canada, and Europe

University/Resident Theatre Association
Consortium of professional theatre graduate programs serving as a resource and liaison to professional theatre companies

Finding books

By subject search

Below are some links to various subject searches in the catalog. The subject search is a specific and helpful way to find materials about your area of interest. Explore these or try some of your own subject searches using the "Subject" tab in Foxtrax. For more information on "power searching" by subject, ask your reference librarian.

Acting

Children’s Plays

College and School Drama

Community Theater

Costume

Costume Design

Drama

Monologues

Musical Theater

Passion-plays

Performing Arts

Shakespeare, William

Special Effects

Stage Props

Stage Lighting

Stage Machinery

Theater

Theater Management

Theater History

Theater Law and Legislation

Theater Production and Direction

Theater Religious aspects

Theater Sound effects

Theaters Stage-setting and scenery

Theater Rehearsals

Theater Reviews

Theatrical Makeup

Theatrical Managers

Tony Awards

By call number

If you want to browse for books in the library, use the call numbers below to find the subject areas that are of interest to you. You can use them to browse the reference section or the main stacks. The Library of Congress website may have a more detailed outline of call numbers for your subject area.

Google Search: Theater

This Google Custom Search engine searches quality, discipline specific web sites selected by the librarians.