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 Theatre & Dance

Databases

  • Academic Search Complete (approximately 1880s to date). Provides abstracts of articles (summaries), and full-text articles from more than 10,000 books, scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, and reference works on a wide variety of topics.
  • Accessible Archives (coverage varies). Provides access to the Virginia Gazette (1736-1780), the South Carolina Gazette (1732-1780), the Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800), Godey's Lady's Book (1830-1898), the Liberator (1831-1865), and assorted other publications, including Civil War-era newspapers, 19th-century African American newspapers, and American county histories (to 1900).
  • American Periodicals Series Online (1741 to 1900). Provides digitized images of more than 1,000 American magazines, journals, and newspapers.
  • Arts & Humanities Search (1980 to date). Indexes more than 1,300 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals.
  • Humanities Abstracts (1983 to date). Indexes a broad range of some 500 magazines and journal publications.
  • Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984. Indexes nearly 1,200 periodicals in the social sciences and humanities.
  • JSTOR (archived publications from the 1800s to the last 1-5 years).  A full-text collection of scholarly journals in a wide variety of disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.  UMW has the Arts and Sciences Collections I, II, and III, as well as the Ecology, Botany, and Business Collections. 
  • Literature Resources from Gale (coverage varies by publication).
    Provides access to critical analyses of and biographical information on living and deceased authors from around the world.
  • MLA International Bibliography (1963 to date). A comprehensive, international index to articles and books on language, literature, and the dramatic arts.
  • Periodicals Index Online (formerly PCI) (1665 to 1995). Provides author, title, and keyword access to the table-of-contents pages of more than 4,000 worldwide periodicals.
  • Project Muse (coverage varies; mostly 1995 to date). Provides online access to more than 400 scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, and social sciences.

Databases in Related Disciplines

  • ARTstor. A collection of some 300,000 images that documents numerous artistic traditions and cultures from around the world.
  • Biography and Genealogy Master Index (coverage varies by publication). An index to millions of biographical sketches in hundreds of reference books and other sources.
  • Humanities International Complete (coverage varies; approximately 1985 to date). Provides the full text of hundreds of magazines, journals, books, and other published sources from around the world.
  • MasterFile Premier (coverage varies). Furnishes full-text coverage of thousands of reference books, biographies, and primary source documents. Also contains an image collection.
  • OmniFile Full Text, Mega Edition (1982 to date). A multidisciplinary database that provides the full text from a variety of the company's full-text databases, including Education, General Science, Humanities, Readers' Guide, Social Sciences, and Business. When available, the full text is included from these databases: Applied Science & Technology, Art, Biological & Agricultural Index, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books, and Library Literature & Information Science. Coverage dates: Indexing, 1982+; Abstracting, 1984+; select full text, 1994+ (start dates for full-text coverage vary from journal to journal within a database).
  • ProQuest Historical Newspapers (coverage varies). Provides full-text and full-image articles for the New York Times (1851 to within the last several years) and the Washington Post (1877 to 1991). Users can search the newspapers separately or together.

For a complete listing of databases provided by UMW Libraries, please see Databases A-Z.

 

Notes

Databases are useful for finding abstracts, citations, and often the full-text of journal and newspaper articles.

selected reference books in simpson library

dance

  • Biographical Dictionary of Dance REFB GV 1785 .A1 C58 1982
  • International Dictionary of Ballet REFB GV 1585 .I57 1983
  • International Encyclopedia of Dance REFB GV 1585 .I586 1998
  • The Oxford Dictionary of Dance RERB GV 1585 .C78 2000

Scenic design

  • A Complete Dictionary of Furniture REFB NK 2205 .G54 1991
  • A Dictionary of Architecture and Building REFB NA 31 .S84 1904
  • Encyclopedia of Interior Design REFB NK 1165 E.48 1997
  • Furniture: World Styles for Classical to Contemporary REFB NK 2235 .M54 2005
  • Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture REFB NA 31 .H56 1983
  • An Illustrated Dictionary of Ornament REFB NK 1165 .S72 1975

costume design

  • The Chronicle of Western Fashion REFB GT 511 .P42 1991
  • Clothing Through American History: 1900 to the Present REFB GT 615 .G74 2008
  • The Complete Fashion Sourcebook REFB GT 596 .P393 2005
  • Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion REFB GT 507 .E53 2005
  • The Fairchild Dictionary of Fashion REFB TT 503 .C34 2003
  • Fashion, Costume, and Culture: Clothing, Headwear, Body Decorations, and Footwear Through the Ages REFB GT 511 .P46 2004
  • The Guide to Historic Costume REFB TT 503 .B33 1995
  • An Illustrated Dictionary of Jewelry REFB NK 7304 .N43 1981

lighting

  • The Lighting Art PN 2091 .E4 P35 1994
  • Projection for the Performing Arts PN 2091 .S8 P76 1995

Sound

  • Sound and Music for the Theater PN 2091.S6 K3 2000
  • Theatre Sound TK 7881.4 L5425 2001

makeup

  • Fashions in Hair: The First Five Thousand Years GT 2290 .C6 1971b
  • Fashions in Makeup: From Ancient to Modern Times GT 2340 .C67 2003
  • History of Beauty BH 81 .H57 2004

performance

  • American Decades REFB E 169.12 2004
  • American Eras REFB E 162 .A5144 1997
  • Encyclopedia of World Biography REFB CT 103 .E56 1998
  • This Fabulous Century REFB E 161 .T55
  • Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life REFB GN 333 .W67 1998

Play Reviews and Criticism

history

  • American Women Playwrights, 1964-1989 REFB PS 338 .W6 G38
  • An Annotated Dictionary of Technical, Historical, and Stylistic Terms Relating to Theatre and Drama REFB PN 2035 .W48 1995
  • Black American Playwrights, 1800 to the Present REFB PS 153 .N5 A7
  • Critical Survey of Drama REFB PN 1625 .C68 2003
  • The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre REFB ML 102 .M88 G3
  • The Female Dramatist REFB PN 471 .P37 1998
  • The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama REFB PN 1625 .M3 1984
  • Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance REFB PN 2035 .O94 2003
  • Play Index REFB PN 1655 .P57x
  • Show Tunes REFB ML 128 .M78 S86 2000
  • Songs of the Theatre REFB ML 128 .S3 L55 1984
  • Twentieth Century American Drama REFB PS 350 .T93 2006
  • The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre REFB PN 1861 .W67 1994

 

notes

Reference books are shelved on the first floor of Simpson Library. See also the Oxford Reference Online Premium for background information on a topic. If you need assistance, stop at the Information Desk (located to the right as you enter the Library's front door).

Websites

 

Virtual Libraries

Virtual libraries contain annotated collections of high-quality Internet resources that librarians or other information specialists have carefully selected. Users can usually browse by subject or search.

Criticism and Reviews

  • CurtainUp. An e-zine of theatre reviews, feature articles, and annotated theatre listings from productions in major American cities and London.
  • Glossary of Technical Theatre Terms. A searchable dictionary of theatre terms.
  • HOTREVIEW.org. Hunter College theatre department's online journal of critical writing about the theatre, including New York City theatre reviews and essays on various contemporary theatre subjects. Includes a searchable archive.
  • Talkin' Broadway. A non-profit site that seeks to provide reviews, commentary, criticism and interactive discussion on contemporary theatre productions and issues, covering both Broadway and off-Broadway as well as U.S. regional theatre. There is a searchable archive.
  • TheaterMania.com. A site primarily to sell theatre tickets, it also includes theatre reviews, theatre news, and staff columnists writing on various contemporary theatre issues.
  • The Online Books Page. A collection of over 25,000 digitized books freely available from a site at the University of Pennsylvania, including some dramatic criticism. Most of the titles are out of copyright. The most effective way to search is to click on "Subjects," then "Fine Arts," and then search by Library of Congress Prefix for the subject you want. For example, search by "PN" for dramatic criticism.

Costume Design, History, and Fashion

Dance

Online Theatre Publications

  • EServer.org. Hosted by Iowa State University, EServer is an open [free] archive of articles and essays covering several subjects in the Humanities, broken into subject collections, including: "Drama," "Art & Architecture," and "Music." There is also a link to The Mamet Review for critical research into works of David Mamet. Not all articles list an author.
  • The Journal of Religion and Theatre. This peer-reviewed journal provides "descriptive and analytical articles examining the spirituality of world cultures in all disciplines of the theatre."
  • Theatre Central. This "largest compendium of theatre links on the Internet" is produced by Playbill On-line. Includes pages devoted to celebrities, dance, classical music, theatre companies and schedules, Shakespeare, publications, discussion groups, stagecraft, and related performing arts information. It is updated daily, the searchable News features both current and past (back to 1996) articles on U.S., Canadian, and international theatre news, as well as stories covering the Tony Awards.

Lighting Design and History

Performance

  • IDEA: The International Dialects of English Archive. A site with downloadable clips of English dialects from non-native speakers. The site is in English “and you will find both English language dialects and English spoken in the accents of other languages.” Useable with both PC and Macintosh formats.

Play Scripts

  • FINDaPLAY.com. A searchable database (author and/or title) of 16,000 play scripts published by twenty-five companies that is updated only "from time to time."
  • The Internet Classics Archive. Online English versions of classical Greek and Roman works as well as some Eastern authors, such as Confucius. Use the "Browse Here" link.
  • Internet Public Library: Online Texts. A finding aid for online texts--including plays--compiled by librarians at the Internet Public Library.
  • Internet Shakespeare Editions. Online editions of Shakespeare's plays and poems from the University of Victoria, British Columbia. The site also includes critical and textual analysis of some works.
  • Music Theatre International. A searchable catalogue of the play titles licensed by Music Theatre International. Search by author, title, cast size or music style.
  • Perseus Digital Library. This site, devoted to the study of Classics, includes English copies of Greek and Roman plays, as well as first folio editions of Shakespeare and the complete works of Christopher Marlowe. It also has extensive sections on the history of the classical world.
  • The Playfinder. A searchable catalogue of the play titles licensed by Dramatists Play Service. Search by author, title, cast size or genre (play, one act, musical).
  • R&H Theatricals. A searchable catalogue of the play titles licensed by Rogers and Hammerstein Theatricals. Search by author, title, cast size or producing venue (college, high school).
  • Samuel French, Inc. A searchable catalogue of the play titles licensed by Samuel French. Search by author, title, cast size or genre (play, one-act, musical).
  • Show Finder. A searchable catalogue of the play titles licensed by Dramatic Publishing Company. Search by author, title, cast size or genre (play, one-act, musical).
  • Tams-Whitmark Music Library. An alphabetical listing of the musicals available from Tams-Whitmark. No searchable database is available.

Scenic Design and History

Theatre Genres

Non-Western Theatre
  • Pear Garden in the West: Chinese Theater in America. An online exhibition from the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum detailing Chinese theatre in America from 1852-2003.
  • USF Asian Theatre Site. A site from the University of San Francisco dedicated to the study of Asian American theatre as well as the theatre of Japan, China and other South Asia cultures.
Improvisational Theatre
  • The IMPROV Page. Includes a history of improve and its key elements, suggestions on how to start an improv group, a glossary of terms, and an extensive list of links to improvisational theatre groups.
Musical Theatre
  • The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. This extensive archive of all things Gilbert and Sullivan includes full-text copies of their plays as well as some scholarship. Also included are other light operas and musicals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  • Musicals101.com. This site is a "cyber encyclopedia of Musical Theatre, TV and Film." It includes biographies of performers, authors, and composers, as well as information on productions.
  • American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920. A multimedia collection from the Library of Congress. Search by keyword or use the subject index to see a list of alphabetized subject links.
Minstrel Shows
Opera
  • OperaGlass. From Stanford University, this site provides libretti, performance histories, synopses, and discographies of several operas.
Puppetry
Theatre History
  • The Ancient City of Athens. A photographic archive of the archaeological sites in Athens, which includes brief essays on each of the sites and monuments.
  • The Ancient Theatre Archive. "A virtual reality tour of Greek and Roman theatre architecture."
  • Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia. An online encyclopedia dedicated to Canadian Theatre.
  • Didaskalia. An electronic on-line journal dedicated to Greek and Roman drama in performance from the University of London.
  • The Development of Scenic Spectacle. This site, maintained by a Theatre professor, is devoted to the development of scenic spectacle in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
  • The Early Modern Drama Database. A database that organizes information on "the performance of Early Modern English drama" in London from 1576-1642, authored by Tom Dale Keever, graduate fellow at Columbia University.
  • English Actors at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Primary source photographs originally published in Players of the Day, circa 1902.
  • Federal Theatre Project Collection. A collection from the Library of Congress highlighting over 13,000 images of items from the Federal Theatre Project in America from 1935-1939. Includes scripts, designs, production photographs, posters, and records of the project administrator Hallie Flanagan.
  • Footlight Notes. This site is devoted to British popular entertainment forms from 1850-1920, including Variety, Burlesque, and Vaudeville. It includes images of performers as well as title cards and sheet music covers. While the scholarship is undocumented, the site is most valuable for the primary source images of performers and productions.
  • George M. Cohan in America's Theater. The author of this site notes that the information provided on the life and works of Cohan are taken from works in the public domain, but there are no citations for those sources.
  • The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. This extensive archive of all things Gilbert and Sullivan includes full-text copies of their plays as well as some scholarship. Also included are other light operas and musicals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
  • The Golden Age of British Theatre (1880-1920). An archive of theatre postcards of actors from 1880-1920, with biographical and performance information on all the performers. Some of the biographical information is documented.
  • Perseus Digital Library. This site, devoted to the study of Classics, includes English copies of Greek and Roman plays, as well as first folio editions of Shakespeare and the complete works of Christopher Marlowe. It also has extensive sections on the history of the classical world.
  • Talkin' Broadway--Broadway 101. Part of the Talkin' Broadway site, this is an illustrated history of Broadway (1900-1950) subdivided by decades and written by Robert Rusie.
  • Theatre Ephemera. This site has primary source images of actors, theatres, and productions of American theatre prior to 1900.
  • Theatre History on the Web. Maintained by Jack Wolcott, Professor Emeritus of Theatre at University of Washington, this site includes included annotated links to online research sources in all areas of theatre history.
  • Tony Awards. The official website of the American Theater Wing, which presents the Tony awards, includes history of the award, lists of winners, and other articles and photos related to the award.
  • Shakespearean Prompt-Books of the Seventeenth Century. Facsimile copies of seventeenth-century Shakespeare prompt books from the University of Virginia, with preface and general information provided by the editor G. Blakemore Evans.

Additional Internet Finding Aids on Theatre Subjects

Can't Find Information on Your Topic

  • If you are having trouble finding results online or in the catalog for your search term, try to think of another way of describing or saying the term. For example, if a search for "car" yields no results, try searching for "automobile" or "auto." If you are looking up books by subject in the online catalog and cannot find what you need, you can also consult Library of Congress Subject Headings, a five-volume reference work located near the catalog terminals on Simpson Library’s first floor. LCSH can be useful not only to establish the correct subject heading, but also to suggest alternate terminology, variant spellings and related terms.
  • Of course, all library patrons are encouraged to ask a reference librarian if they have questions or need assistance.

Notes

Unsure about information you found on the Web? See our Guide to Evaluating Resources.

Last Modified: November 6, 2009