Introduction
Develop a rich understanding of a production's history through a combination of secondary and primary research.
Secondary sources include:
- Books, including biographies of the playwright and cast
- Critical editions of the play
- Journal articles
- Websites
Primary sources include:
- Newspaper articles
- Theatre reviews
- Playbills
- Ephemera (photos, posters)
- Other archival material (promptbooks, artwork)
Websites
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Internet Broadway DatabaseIBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive is the official database for Broadway theatre information. It provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today, and is a comprehensive database of shows produced on Broadway, including all "title page" information about each production.
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Internet Off-Broadway DatabaseA catalogue of all shows ever produced Off-Broadway
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Televised Opera and Musical Comedy DatabaseDeveloped in association with Indiana University Libraries, the Televised Opera and Musical Comedy Database documents more than three-quarters of a century of opera, operetta and musical comedy telecasts produced in the United States. The database traces performance programming from early presentations on experimental TV stations to current live and recorded productions released on broadcast and closed circuit television, cable, streaming platforms, and to theaters and select venues.
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Playbill VaultPlaybill Vault provides records of Broadway productions from 1930 to the present. Information on the website includes original and current casts, actor head shots, production credits, Playbill cover images, scanned Playbill Who's Who pages, production photos, and videos.
Journal Articles
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
The library's JSTOR account includes access to all fifteen Arts & Sciences Collections and the several topical collections such as Ireland, Life Sciences, Security Studies, and Sustainability. These encompass an archive of over 2,300 journals in classical studies, ecology, economics, history, language and literature, mathematics, music, the history and study of art and architecture, cultural studies, film, folklore, performing arts, philosophy, political science, sociology, and religion.
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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Full-text journals in the arts, humanities, history and social sciences
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MLA International Bibliography with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Indexes journal articles, books and dissertations dating back to the 1920’s, containing over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals and series and 1,000 book publishers. In Fall 2018, the database was enhanced to include the full text of articles published in 1,000 journals.
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Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
(Limit 2-3 concurrent users. Please close browser when done using.) Oxford Music Online (OMO) is the access-point for Oxford music reference subscriptions and products, including Grove Music Online, The Oxford Companion to Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
Theatre Histories and Reviews
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The New York Times Theater ReviewsCall Number: Reference PN2266 .N48Publication Date: 1870-1990 (some issues missing)Contains reprints of reviews from a variety of newspapers and magazines (New York Daily News, Wall Street Journal, Time, New York Post, Women's Wear Daily, WABC-TV, CBS-TV, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek) for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre. Use the index in the back of each volume to locate reviews.
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New York Theatre Critics' ReviewsCall Number: PN1601 .N4Publication Date: 1943-1995Theatre Critics' Reviews brings you the complete reviews from these New York publications and stations whenever covered by the critic: New York daily news, Wall Street journal, Time, New York post, Women's wear daily, WABC-TV, CBS-TV, New York times, Christian science monitor, Newsweek.
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A Guide to Critical Reviews byCall Number: Reference PN2266 .S34 1973 Pt.1See all parts:
Part 1: American Drama
Part 2: Musical Drama
Part 3: Foreign Drama -
Theatre WorldCall Number: PN2277.N5 A17Publication Date: 1980-2013Includes details of and photos of productions.
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International Dictionary of TheatreCall Number: Reference PN2035 .I49Publication Date: 19923 volumes:
v. 1. Plays
v. 2. Playwrights
v. 3. Actors, directors and designers -
American drama criticism : interpretations, 1890-1977 byCall Number: PS332 .E335 1979ISBN: 9780208017130Publication Date: 1979Interpretations and criticisms of plays by American dramatists published from 1890 to 1977 are indexed by author with indices of critics and playwrights and lists of books and periodicals drawn upon.
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Drama CriticismCall Number: Z1231.D7 .C6Publication Date: 1966-71v. 1. A checklist of interpretation since 1940 of English and American plays
v. 2. A checklist of interpretation since 1940 of classical and continental plays -
American theater and drama research : an annotated guide to information sources, 1945-1990 byCall Number: PN2266.3.D7 B1 1991
Reviews in Historical Databases
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowTo find current reviews: in the first search box enter: DE "THEATER -- Reviews" and in the next search box enter the name of the play.
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LexisNexis Academic This link opens in a new windowWorld newspapers from the 1980s-current. Include both playwright and play with quotes around the title in your search.
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The Times digital archive, 1785- This link opens in a new window
Contains the Times of London, fully scanned and searchable. Widely regarded as the world's "newspaper of record," The Times has offered readers in-depth, award-winning and objective coverage of global events since 1785, and is the oldest daily newspaper in continuous publication.
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TLS historical archive, 1902-2019 This link opens in a new windowThe Times Literary Supplement offers coverage of literature, current theatre, opera, exhibitions, and film.
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British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
This resource offers facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. The library's account includes all four collections released by ProQuest as of 2019.
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American Periodicals Series This link opens in a new window
The American Periodicals Series brings the early days of U.S. history alive through more than 7,000,000 digitized page images from over 1,000 periodicals spanning 200 years. The wide variety of content ranges from Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, first published in 1741, to literary and professional journals, specialized titles, and such well-known magazines as Vanity Fair, Ladies' Home Journal, Scientific American, and The Dial.
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Readers Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
This database offers an online archive of the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, which for many decades has been a major index to articles published in news magazines such as Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report as well as popular magazines like Good Housekeeping and Reader's Digest.
