Guides: Theatre, Drama and the Performing Arts : Home

Specialized Reference Sources

Theatre in Context Collection
Includes reference works on American Playwrights, Theater Companies, Annals of the New York Stage, collections of playbills and more.
Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theatre
essays on the chorus, dance, style and religious, social and political aspects
A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama
covers Greek tragedy, comedy, and satyr play; the critical approaches, synopsis of plays
Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance
important people and companies, events, concepts and practices; entries include important historical and contextual information, detailed analysis and an annotated bibliography.
Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance
styles, movements, terminology, organizations, regions and traditions;; bios of actors, playwrights, directors, and designers.
Cambridge Companion to Modernist Theatre
essays on Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism Agitprop and epic theatre and more
Oxford Companion to American Theatre
playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements,
Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Information on plays, playwrights, performers, directors, set designers
Oxford Companion to Canadian Theatre
published in 1989, but has historical interest. An A-Z dictionary of actors, playwrights, directors, designers, major plays, theatres and theatre companies, ethnic theatre, musical theatre, and radio and television drama.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Antiquity (Roman Period) to current. Extensive bio profiles of those who shaped UK history. Bibliographies include manuscript locations.

American National Biography Online (Oxford University Press)
Pre-colonial era to current. Lengthy biographies on deceased US citizens and others who have shaped the history of the United States. Bibliographies often include links to supplementary information.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography / Dictionnaire biographique du Canada
1000AD to 1940. Detailed bio profiles with extensive bibliographies including info on location of the papers and manuscripts.

Drama Online (Bloomsbury)
access to a core collection of plays all historical periods, collections of plays pre-modern to the 19th C., and collections of plays of the 20th and the 21st Centuries. Also includes plays published by Playwrights Canada Press. See below for links

Black drama : African, African American, and Diaspora 1850 to present.
1,462 plays from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.

Asian American Drama (Alexander Street)
252 plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more
North American Indian Drama Second Edition (Alexander Street)
Contains 244 plays by 48 playwrights representing the stories and creative energies of American Indian and First Nation playwrights of the twentieth century.
North American Women's Drama (Alexander Street)
From colonial times to the present, this collection presents over 1,500 full-text plays by 330 women playwrights from the United States and Canada.

Performing Arts Periodicals Database (ProQuest)
Coverage: 1864 - current. Includes dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
MLA International Bibliography (EBSCO)
Literature Online (ProQuest)
Includes the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL), one of the most important bibliographic sources for English studies.

Drama Criticism
Click on the "all volumes" option at the right before "search within publication"
Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism
Click on the "all volumes" option at the right before "search within publication".
Literature Criticism from 1400-1800
Click on the "all volumes" option at the right before "search within publication".
Shakespearean Criticism
Click on the "all volumes" option at the right before "search within publication".
Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism
Click on the "all volumes" option at the right before "search within publication".
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism
Click on the "all volumes" option at the right before "search within publication".

Theatre in Video (Alexander Street)
Documentaries, interviews, and performances from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre collection (Opus Arte); Theatre Arts Films, the BBC, TMW Media Group and others.
National Theatre Collection (Alexander Street)
The collection of the National Theatre (UK). Greek drama to contemporary plays and musical theater. In addition to filmed plays, transcripts, costume and set designs are included.
Royal Shakespeare Company Collection (Alexander Street)
Performances filmed at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Stratford-upon-Avon theatre.

Stratford Festival (Ontario)
Stratford Festival productions of Shakespeare are included in the Academic Video Online collections
Shakespeare's Globe on Screen 1
21 plays recorded live on the London Globe Stage, 2008-2015. All Shakespeare with the exception of Marlow's Doctor Faustus,
Shakespeare's Globe on Screen 2
8 productions of Shakespeare's plays and Websters The Duchess of Malfi recorded 2016-2018.

Kanopy
includes modern play productions, documentaries on theatre directors and performance theorists

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Subjects: Canadian studies, Comparative literature and translations, English language and literature, Film studies, Translation studies