Research materials for theatre arts include resources for acting, directing, scenography, costume design and construction, technical design and production, theatre history, literature and playwriting, stage management, and arts administration. While most
To find articles, search within any of the available databases, or use the libraries' main search, Discovery Search, to see an overview of available journals and other periodicals in which you'll find articles. Learn more about how Discovery Search works on the Find electronic and physical books tab.
Arts & Humanities Citation Citation Index indexes citations and abstracts of journal literature, books, and conference papers in the arts and humanities. It also includes citations that refer to or review books, works of art, music scores, and performances. You can search cited references. 1900-present.
Arts & Humanities Citation Citation Index indexes citations and abstracts of journal literature of the arts and humanities, including original research articles, reviews, editorials, chronologies, abstracts, scripts, and more. It fully covers 1,160 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals. It also indexes individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.
It also includes citations that refer to or review books, works of art, music scores, and performances.
Biography Index Retrospective indexes citations of biographical articles and book chapters, interviews and profiles, and obituaries covering over 300,000 people: public figures, writers, artists, sports figures, politicians, religious leaders, scientists, educators, military leaders, teachers, actors, and business people. 1946-1983.
For educators, students, media professionals, book clubs, researchers, and anyone looking for trustworthy information on notable individuals from antiquity through 1983, Biography Index Retrospective: 1946-1983 is an invaluable resource. Included are entries on individuals that reflect the perspective of the time when they were written. Includes over 627,000 article and book citations, indexing of interviews and profiles of history makers, as well as obituaries, collections of letters, diaries, memoirs, juvenilia, book reviews, bibliographies, and exhibition reviews. Subject-specific thesaurus developed specifically for this database, ensuring the most precise searching.
Search across multiple ProQuest databases for journal and magazine articles, reviews, news reports, and dissertations in the humanities and performing arts.
Humanities Index Retrospective indexes citations and abstracts of journal articles in archaeology, area studies, art, classical studies, communications, dance, film, folklore, gender studies, history, journalism, linguistics, literary and social criticism, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, religion and theology.
Humanities International Complete indexes citations, abstracts, and full text from journals, books and book reviews, art work and images, performances and reviews, literature and criticisms, poems and short stories, and conference proceedings. Full text is available as HTML and PDF; images are available in a variety of formats. You can limit to peer-reviewed sources.
LitFinder provides access to literary works and secondary-source materials covering world literature and authors throughout history, including full-text poems and poetry citations, short stories, inaugural presidential speeches, and plays. LitFinder also contains biographies, work summaries, photographs, and a glossary. Users can quickly search for a particular author or identify authors linked by qualities such as gender, nationality, century, and genre using person search. Works search functions similarly, giving users the ability to browse works by thousands of subjects, themes, genres, and literary movements.
MLA International Bibliography indexes citations and full text of journal articles, books, dissertations, and scholarly web sites in disciplines such as language, literature, folklore, linguistics, literary theory and criticism, and the dramatic arts. Coverage includes literature from all over the world and includes citations to materials in many languages other than English. 1926-present.
The Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive (EIMA) is a digital high-resolution archive of over 40 US and UK trade and consumer magazines covering the broad spectrum of the entertainment industry and media including film, television, popular music, radio, and theatre. Titles include Variety (1905-2000), Billboard (1894-2000), Spin (1985-2000), Broadcasting & Cable (1931-2000), Vibe (1993-2014) and more. Each title includes individual indexing of articles, covers, ads, and reviews.
News is a full-text newspaper resource providing access to major U.S. regional, local, and national newspapers, as well as leading titles from around the world. It also includes thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.
Note: Users may obtain an academic pass using the University Libraries' subscription or access through the library databases page.
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership and 8 million total subscriptions. Founded in 1851, the Times has since won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded within the industry as a national 'newspaper of record'.
Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television are named), it remains the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region. It had the sixth-highest circulation for American newspapers in 2017.
The Chicago Tribune from ProQuest includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue spanning from 1849 to the 1990's with a 24 year rolling embargo.
The Los Angeles Times (abbreviated as LA Times) is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881 and is now based in the adjacent suburb of El Segundo. Covering Southern California and the region for more than 140 years, it has the fifth-largest circulation in the U.S. and is the largest American newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast.
The Los Angeles Times from ProQuest offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue (Dec. 4, 1881). The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue from 1881 through the 1990's.
The New York Times (nicknamed NYT and the Gray Lady) is an American daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership. It was founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, and was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The New York Times from ProQuest Historical Newspapers offers full-text and full-image articles dating back to the 19th Century. The database includes digital reproductions of every page from every issue, cover to cover, in downloadable PDF files. Coverage spans from 1851 to 4 years ago.
Shakespeare in Performance provided digitize prompt books of Shakespeare's plays and other plays performed by influential Shakespearean actors. It also includes playbills, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photos and sketches, prop lists, cue sheets, lighting plots, musical scores, and correspondence of actors, directors, and managers. 1590-1965.
Please provide feedback on this database, which is currently on trial until October 31, 2025.
The Bloomsbury Acting and Practical Theatre Guides is a collection of over 100 applied theatre guides designed for and written by practitioners, including actors, directors, writers, and designers. It brings together works originally published under the renowned imprints of Applause, Limelight, and Scarecrow Press. Topics include acting techniques, voice, movement, directing, playwriting, costume, lighting, and stage management, emphasizing practical application rather than pure theory.
MediArXiv is a free, community-driven digital archive for media, film, and communication studies. It provides open access to preprints, post-prints, and published works, including articles, conference papers, books, and book chapters. It is also intended for researchers, instructors, and students in related fields across the humanities and social sciences.
Royal Shakespeare Company Archives (Adam Matthew Digital) provides access to archival materials documenting the history and productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and its predecessor, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. The collection includes production records, prompt books, photographs, costume and set designs, and administrative documents, offering insights into the performance and interpretation of Shakespeare and other dramatic works. This resource supports research in theater history, performance studies, and literary adaptation.
Shakespeare Survey Online is the electronic version of the annual yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production, which has been published since 1948. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains reviews of that year's textual and critical studies, and of the year's major British performances. The books are illustrated with a variety of Shakespearean images and production photographs.
Shakespeare's Globe Archive is a collection of digitized production and architectural materials that offers insights into the performance practice in the particular space of the reconstructed 1599 Globe Theatre. It details the way in which the theatre was constructed as a place of radical experiment and documents over 200 performances through prompt books, wardrobe notes, programmes, publicity material, annual reports, show reports, photographs and architectural plans.
Academic Video online provides 70,000 streaming videos: documentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, arthouse movies, TV programs, and more. Public performance rights are included for all films except Film Platform content.
Alexander Street Press provides streaming videos, including feature films, television programs and segments, documentaries, educational films, and more. You can search against transcripts of most videos and create clips from segments for inclusion in course materials. Includes archives of "Meet the Press" 1947-2013.
Digital Theatre+ provides streaming videos of theatrical performances; interviews with actor directors, and technicians; reviews and critiques of shows; and educational materials about productions.
The Hollow Crown series brings together Shakespeare’s history plays featuring a star-studded cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, David Tennant, Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons, Judi Dench, Hugh Bonneville and Tom Hiddleston. These films are woven with the finest of Shakespeare's poetry and are filmed in the architecture and landscape of the period. The collection adds to Drama Online's rich Shakespeare content, allowing the plays to be viewed and studied alongside the The Arden Shakespeare playtexts in the core play collection.
NOTE: As of Spring 2021 Kanopy made changes to links and access, so proxied links to streaming videos on the platform will no longer work. Please update any links to Kanopy videos in Canvas, syllabi, etc, with the new URLs.
The new base URL is https://vt.kanopy.com with specific videos using the following format: https://vt.kanopy.com/video/seadrift
Kanopy provides hundreds of streaming videos in a wide variety of subjects. For videos outside our collection, you'll be presented a form to request they be added.
