Theater Subject Guide

Subject guides are designed to help students begin the research process, find reputable sources, and save time.

Searching the Library Catalog for Books & Other Materials

To locate books and other materials in the Limestone College Library, select KATE, the library’s catalog, from the Library's Homepage (http://library.limestone.edu). You will notice many ways to search, such as Title, Author, Subject, Search Everything, etc.

Examples of Subject searches include: Acting, Actors, Actresses, Amateur theater, American drama, Authors and the theater, Classical drama, Copyright--drama, Copyright--performing rights, Costume, Costume design, Drama, Drama--history and criticism, Dramatists, English drama, Expression, Gesture, Monologues, Performing arts, Playbills, Set designers, Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616, Stage, Stage lighting, Stage photography, Theater, Theater and society, Theater architecture, Theaters, Theaters--decorations, Theaters--stage setting and scenery, Vaudeville.

Browsing the Library CollectionMaterials in the Library are shelved by call number according to the Library of Congress classification system, and are placed on the shelves according to subject. Relevant areas in the collection to find materials on theater include:

SUBJECT HEADING	CALL NUMBER RANGE
Drama (works about drama in a literary form)	PN 1600-1861
Theater (works about drama as acted on stage)	PN 2200-3307
Acting	PN 2055-2073
Shakespeare	PN 1995.9.W6

Using Key Reference Sources

Reference books provide background information and overviews on a given topic. Some relevant reference books in theater include:

Hartnoll, Phyllis, ed. The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre : Oxford University Press, 1992. REF PN 2035 .C63 1992

Banham, Martin, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre : Cambridge University Press, 1995. REF PN 2035 .C27 1995

Kennedy, Dennis, ed. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance : Oxford University Press, 2003. REF PN 2035 .O92 2003

Bordman, Gerald, ed. The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, 3rd ed. : Oxford University Press, 2004. REF PN 2220 .B6 2004

Searching for Articles in Periodical Databases

Periodical databases group together journal, magazine, and newspaper articles by subject. They also usually provide abstracts (brief summaries) and the full text of the articles.

Infotrac Web

Infotrac is a brand name for several databases with coverage from 1980 to the present. Most useful for drama and theater topics are the InfoTrac Expanded Academic ASAP, OneFile. A few examples of magazines and journals included are: American Drama, American Theatre, Arts Journal: The Daily Digest of Arts, Costume, Comparative Drama, Drama: The Quarterly Theatre Review, Modern Drama, New Theatre Quarterly, Performing Arts Journal, Plays, Shakespeare Quarterly, Shakespeare Newsletter, Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Survey, TDR: The Drama Review, Theatre, Theatre History Studies, Theatre Journal, Theatre Notebook, Theatre Research International, Theatre Survey.

Infotrac allows you to limit your results to articles only from scholarly journals by checking the box "Refereed titles."

Finding Web Resources

Below are some examples of academic/scholarly web sites for drama and theater studies. If you use a search engine, such as Google, remember to evaluate the quality of the results.

Library of Congress Internet Resources for Music, Theater, and Dance www.loc.gov/rr/perform/new.internet.resources.html

Drama Library: Homepages Developed http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Drama/hp.html
A collection of Web pages useful for those doing research in theater. Created by Liz Fugate, Librarian at the Drama Library, University of Washington Libraries.

Artslynx International Theatre Resources http://www.artslynx.org/theatre
A collection of Web pages ranging from acting to world theatre. Edited by Richard Finkelstein, professor of theatre design.

Performing Arts Links http://www.theatrelibrary.org/links
A collection of theater and performing arts Web sites with an international focus. Edited by Maria Teresa Iovinelli, Burcardo Library and Theatre Collection in Rome.

Theatre and Drama / WWW Virtual Library http://www.vl-theatre.com
Provides links to international online articles, journals, museums, organizations and theatre companies, etc. Developed by CTI Center for Textual Studies, Oxford.

Visual and Performing Arts http://infomine.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/search?arts
A searchable database of scholarly resources on the Internet related to the visual and performing arts. Developed by Infomine.

Voice of the Shuttle: Drama, Theater, & Performance Art Studies http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=782
A collection of selected links to Web resources related to theatre and drama. Created by University of California, Santa Barbara, English Department.

Yahoo Theater Subject Directory http://dir.yahoo.com/arts/performing_arts/theater/
An online guide to professionally-evaluated Web sites related to theater.

The Queen of All Theatre Link Sites http://www.geocities.com/Shalyndria13/link.htm
Links to information about academic programs, technical resources, shows and performances, theatres, groups, and other general information.

McCoy’s Guide to Theatre and Performance Studies www.stetson.edu/csata/thr_guid.html

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare http://www.-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.html
Complete works of William Shakespeare, including Internet resources, a discussion area, quotations, and a glossary.

Shakespeare.com http://www.shakespeare.com
Interactive site to increase the popular understanding and enjoyment of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare Resources on the Internet http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/shakespeare
The Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library's holdings include a variety of Shakespeare resources that range from early Quartos, the complete 1623 First Folio, and early playhouse promptbooks, to more modern editions and to many bibliographical articles that discuss Shakespeare's works.

Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet http://shakespeare.palomar.edu
Provides links to online scholarly resources as well as new Shakespeare materials, such as a genealogy, a time line, information about the Shakespeare canon, etc.

[Borrowed in large part from City College of San Francisco] revised 8/07