Research Guides: *Theatre: Home

Welcome

Welcome to the FSU Libraries' Theatre Research Guide

Catalog Tips and Tricks

These are my recommendations for your best bets in researching Theatre topics. For additional links and resources please see the navigation bar on the left side of this research guide.

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. Note: FSU has access to Asian Theatre; Aurora Metro Books; British, American, Australian Theatre Video Collection; Critical Studies and Performance Practice; Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy; Drama Online Core Collection; European Theatre Video Collection; National Theatre Collections 1-3; Nick Hern Books Modern Plays; Oberon Books Collections 1 & 2; Playwrights Canada Press; RSC Live Collections 1-3 (2013–2023); Shakespeare's Globe on Screen 1 & 2 (2008–2018); and the Theatre Communications Group Play Collection.
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
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text This link opens in a new window
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text contains all of the content available in International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance as well as full text for 100 titles.
Abbreviation: ibtd
Vendor: EBSCO
Subjects: Dance, Literature, Music, Theatre
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new window
Performing Arts Periodicals Database indexes around 400 scholarly and trade journals, magazines, books, and newspapers covering theater, dance, film, television, stagecraft, broadcast arts, storytelling and more; drawing from both current files and selected back files to 1864. 160 publications are included in full text.
Subject coverage:
Dance
Theater
Film
Mime
Opera
Puppetry
Radio
Television
Storytelling
Video
Performance Art

Abbreviation: iipa
Vendor: ProQuest
Coverage: 1864–Current
Subjects: Dance, Literature, Music, Theatre
Type: Indexes / Catalogs
Routledge Performance Archive This link opens in a new window
The Routledge Performance Archive is a developing resource produced in partnership with Digital Theatre, providing unique access to an unprecedented range of audio-visual material from past and present practitioners of performance. This ground-breaking and constantly growing online collection delivers essential resources direct to the classroom, lecture theatre and library.
Subjects include:
Acting & Actor Training
Comedy
Dance
Form & Genre
Performance Art / Live Art & Performance
Political Theatre & Performance
Popular Theatre & Performance
Theatre-Making & Processes

Abbreviation: rpa
Vendor: Taylor and Francis Group
Subjects: Dance, Music, Theatre
Type: Streaming Video
Theatre in Video This link opens in a new window
Theatre in Video: Volume I brings together hundreds of the world’s most important plays, documentaries, interviews, and instructional materials in more than 500 hours of streaming video. Volume II brings together 400 additional hours of classic and contemporary plays and documentaries.
Tutorial:
Tutorial on the Video Player

Abbreviation: tiv
Vendor: Alexander Street, a ProQuest Company
Subjects: Literature, Theatre
Type: Biographies, E-Book Collections, Historical / Primary Sources, Streaming Video

Use the Library of Congress Classification Outline to browse for books in your subject area. Here are some examples in theatre to get you started:

GT (500) --- Costume, Dress, Fashion
GV (1580-1799.3) --- Dancing
M --- Music
NA (278.T5-6845) --- Fine Arts: Theaters, Architecture
PN (1530) --- Monologue
PN (1551) --- Dialogue
PN (1560-1590) --- Performing Arts; Show Business
PN (1585-1589) --- Centers for the Performing Arts
PN (1600-3307) --- Drama
PN (1720-1861) --- Theatre History
PN (1997) --- Plays and Scenarios
PN (2000-3307) --- Dramatic Representation
PN (2061-2071) --- Art of Acting
PN (2085-2091) --- The Stage and Accessories
PN (2131-2193) --- Theatre History by Period (Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern)
PN (3175-3191) --- College and School Theatricals
PQ (500-591 and 1211-1241) --- French Literature and Drama
PQ (4133-4160 and 4227-4245) --- Italian Literature and Drama
PQ (6098.7-6129 and 6217-6241) --- Spanish Literature and Drama
PR (621-744 and 1241-1273) --- English Literature and Drama
PS (330-353 and 623-635) --- American Literature and Drama
PT (605-709 and 1251-1299) --- German Literature and Drama
TK (4399.T6 and 7881.9) --- Technology in the Theater

Classification suggestions for World Theatre:

PA --- Greek language and literature; Latin language and literature (Greek and Roman drama)
PJ --- Oriental languages and literatures (East Asian drama)
PK --- Indo-Iranian languages and literatures (South Asian and Iranian drama)
PL --- Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, and Oceania (East Asian and African drama)
PM --- Hyperborean, Indian, and artificial languages (Indigenous drama)

The following are just a few subject headings that may be used when searching the catalog:

Acting
Actors
Actresses
African Americans -- Drama
American Drama
Auditions
Authors and the Theater
Comedy
Commedia dell'Arte
Community Theater
Costume
Drama
Dramatists
Experimental Theater
Feminism and Theater
Folk Drama
Historical Drama
Improvisation
Method Acting
Monologues
Motion Pictures and Theater
Musical Theater
Performing Arts
Playwriting
Religion and Drama
Set Design
Stage Adaptations
State Directions
Stage Lighting
Summer Theater
Theatre and Society
Theater Critics
Theater History
Theater Management
Theatrical Makeup
Tragedy
Vaudeville

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These FSU Research Guides may be of interest to your research; a full list of guides can be found here. Each guide will also include contact information for the subject librarian in that area of study: