Theater resources that are mostly online and a few that are not- These are places to start, not a comprehensive list.
Theater terms, key figures, and theater history-ebooks
Credo Reference – an ebook collection
“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.”
ProQuest Ebook Central – an ebook collection
Theater history from articles in scholarly journals in the following databases
Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
Theater performances/Acting/Stagecraft videos
Ambrose Video
- BBC Shakespeare Plays – The 37 Shakespeare plays (performances)
Films on Demand
- Broadway Digital Archive (performances)
- Be aware that there are other stage performance videos in Films on Demand besides the Broadway Digital Archive.
Academic Video Online Premium (Alexander Street Press)
- Broadway HD Collection (performances)
- Theatre in Video Collection (performances, acting, stagecraft)
- Dance Online: Dance in Video– These are primarily on ballet, modern dance, and classical and folk dance, but look for Tezoro Production films for those concerning dancing in musicals. Filter results by clicking on the orange cup symbol and Search in Publisher for Tezoro Productions.
Theater performances in audio-only
NAXOS Spoken Word Library Our subscription is for 3 simultaneous users only so please log out at top of the screen when you have finished using the database.
Play Texts
American Drama 1714 to 1915 contains more than 1,500 dramatic works from the early eighteenth century up to the beginning of the twentieth.
ProQuest One Literature Full text of more than 500,000 works of poetry, drama, and prose from the eighth century to the present day.
ProQuest Ebook Central has 58 ebooks of single plays, play collections, and other titles on theater subjects from Theatre Communications Group.
Some resources are only available in print books, on CD for Broadway cast recordings or film soundtracks or for spoken word performances of plays, or on DVD for filmed plays or movie versions of plays.
Some suggested subject terms to use with the library catalog: Costume, Theatrical makeup, Stage lighting, Stage design, Acting, Musicals, Vocal Scores, Vocal Selections, Theater direction, Dramaturgy.
