Research Guides: *Theatre: Find Plays

Find Plays

Below is a list of full text play databases offered through FSU Libraries, but you can also search the library catalog for individual titles.

We offer a robust selection of both print and electronic play scripts for your research and performance needs!

Alexander Street Theatre This link opens in a new window
Theatre from Alexander Street features performances of works by American, European, Asian, and other worldwide dramatists from the past several centuries. In addition to performances, Theatre also features dozens of documentaries and interviews about theatre, discussing the history of theatre, acting methods, pioneering dramatists and actors. Major reference materials, together with records to plays, people, theatres, productions, and production companies are included.

FSU has access to the following collections: Asian American Drama, Black Drama: Second Edition, BroadwayHD Collection, North American Indian Drama, North American Women's Drama, Theatre in Context Collection, Theatre in Video: Volume I, Theatre in Video: Volume II, and Twentieth Century North American Drama.
Abbreviation: nato
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Subjects: Literature, Theatre
Type: E-Book Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Historical / Primary Sources, Images, Indexes / Catalogs, Music Scores, Streaming Audio, Streaming Video
American Memory (changing to Library of Congress Digital Collections) This link opens in a new window
A collection of digital texts and images, including books, manuscripts, photographs, and film created from the collections of the U.S. Library of Congress. American Memory provides free and open access through the Internet to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music that document the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity.
Note: American Memory has been retired. Its content is available via the Library of Congress Digital Collections website.
Abbreviation: locdig
Vendor: Library of Congress
Subjects: African-American Studies, History, Literature, Theatre
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Open Access
Asian American Drama This link opens in a new window
Asian American Drama contains 252 plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more.
Abbreviation: aad
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Coverage: 1891–2004
Subjects: Dance, Literature, Music, Theatre
Type: Historical / Primary Sources, Indexes / Catalogs
Black Drama This link opens in a new window
Black Drama contains approximately 1,462 plays by 233 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
Abbreviation: bd2
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Coverage: 1846–2009
Subjects: African-American Studies, Literature, Theatre
Type: E-Book Collections, Historical / Primary Sources, Images
Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Drama Online features plays from Methuen Drama, the Arden Shakespeare and Faber and Faber as well as production photos from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Play Tools with Character Grids, Words and Speech graphs and Part Books offer a new way to engage with plays for close study or for performance. Additional content includes scholarly notes, annotated texts, critical analysis, contextual information, reference works, performance and practitioner texts, acting and backstage guides. Nick Hern Books is one of the UK’s leading specialist performing arts publishers, with a vast collection of plays, screenplays and theatre books in their catalogue.
Subject Terms:
Performing Arts
Theatre
Theater
Drama
Plays

Abbreviation: do
Vendor: Bloomsbury Publishing
Subjects: Literature, Theatre
Type: Biographies, E-Book Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Images, Streaming Audio, Streaming Video
Latin American Women Writers This link opens in a new window
What we call "Latin American culture" is a composite of the rich and diverse output of 20 sovereign countries. This collection comprises 100,000 pages of literary works, along with memoirs and essays, in their original language, by Latin American women from the colonial period in the 17th century to the present. It brings together all the voices of Latin American women and presents a tool for understanding the diversity and development of Latin America through a feminine perspective.
Abbreviation: laww
Vendor: ProQuest
Subjects: Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Literature
Type: E-Book Collections
Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction This link opens in a new window
Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction includes more than 100,000 pages of poetry, short fiction, novels, and more than 450 plays. Nearly all of the content is in copyright, and most of the other items are long out of print or have never before been published. Besides serving as a rich resource for literature scholars, the collection also supports the study of American history, ethnic diversity, immigrations issues, and political history.
Abbreviation: latlit
Vendor: ProQuest
Subjects: Latin American & Caribbean Studies, Literature
Type: E-Book Collections, Historical / Primary Sources
Nineteenth Century American Drama: Popular Culture and Entertainment, 1820–1900 This link opens in a new window
This collection includes a wide variety of works such as historical plays, melodramas, political satires, minstrel shows, comic operas, musical extravaganzas, parlor entertainments, adaptations of novels, and many others. Also included are hundreds of prompt books and manuscripts—annotated copies that help reveal the changing intentions of authors and the artistic views of directors. Together, these unique materials written by both the famous and the obscure provide students and scholars with rich new opportunities to study the dramatic arts and the American past from diverse perspectives.
Abbreviation: ncad
Vendor: NewsBank
Coverage: 1820–1900
Subjects: History, Literature
Type: E-Book Collections, Historical / Primary Sources
North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new window
This edition of North American Indian Drama contains 172 plays by 33 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more.
Abbreviation: naid
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Subjects: Literature, Theatre
Type: Datasets / Statistics, E-Book Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Historical / Primary Sources, Images, Newspapers and Newswires
North American Women's Drama This link opens in a new window
This edition of North American Women's Drama contains 1,517 plays by 330 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more.
Abbreviation: nawd
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Subjects: Literature, Theatre
Type: Datasets / Statistics, Directories, E-Book Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Historical / Primary Sources, Images, Newspapers and Newswires
Twentieth Century North American Drama This link opens in a new window
This edition of Twentieth Century North American Drama contains 2,059 plays by 434 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
Abbreviation: tcnad
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Subjects: Literature, Theatre
Type: Datasets / Statistics, Directories, E-Book Collections, Encyclopedias & Dictionaries, Historical / Primary Sources, Images

The Crown Guide to the World's Great Plays, from Ancient Greece to Modern Times by Joseph T. Shipley
Call Number: Call Number: FSU John A. Degen Resource Room General Collection -- PN6112.5 .S45 1984
(Access to the Degen Resource Room is limited to current faculty, staff, and students of the FSU School of Theatre.)
Digests of Great American Plays: Complete Summaries of More Than 1000 Plays from the Beginnings to the Present by John Lovell
Call Number: FSU STROZIER LIBRARY General Collection 5th Floor -- PS338.P5L6
Drury's Guide to Best Plays by K. W. Drury
Call Number: FSU STROZIER LIBRARY General Collection 5th Floor -- Z5781.D8 1978
Guide to Broadway Musical Theatre by Tom N. Tumbusch
Call Number: FSU John A. Degen Resource Room General Collection -- MT955 .T844
(Access to the Degen Resource Room is limited to current faculty, staff, and students of the FSU School of Theatre.)
Masterplots (Vol. 1-6) by Frank N. Magill
Call Number: FSU STROZIER LIBRARY General Collection 5th Floor -- PN44.M32
Masterplots II, Drama Series (Vol. 1-4) by Frank N. Magill
Call Number: FSU STROZIER LIBRARY General Collection 5th Floor -- PN44 .M324
Musical Theater Synopses by Jeanette Marie Drone
Call Number: FSU Electronic Resource See Link to Connect
Plot Summary Index by Carol K. Kolar
Call Number: FSU STROZIER LIBRARY Reference -- Z6514.P66 K64 1981

The (Re)making Project
Playwright Charles L. Mee's plays online.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
All of Shakespeare's plays available in full text, online.
Eugene O'Neill eText Archive
Selected O'Neill plays online.
Internet Classics Archive
Contains the full text of many classical plays, including works by Aeschylus and Sophocles.
The Online Books Page
Search this website for freely-available texts, including plays.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg offers over 42,000 free ebooks: choose among free epub books, free kindle books, download them or read them online.

You can also search for plays in Google Books (see the Google Books tab on "Find Books and Dissertations" page in this guide for more information on effectively search this online resource).