First stops- Baylor Libraries website and search portal OneSearch
- OneSearch (your first stop for searching)OneSearch is a discovery resource that provides a single place to search most of the content available from the Baylor University Libraries, including the library catalog (books, journal titles, recordings, etc.), digital collections, library guides, databases, articles, etc.
Finding Books on Various Aspects of Theatre
Many of the theatre-related materials in our library are organized by subject (examples below) and it's important to note that all of the theatre resources aren't found in the same part of the library! These links will take you to the materials collected under each subject heading. This list will also introduce you to some of the commonly used vocabulary for how to discover theatre related materials in libraries. For physical materials housed in the libraries (versus online resources), be sure to pay attention to the location and call number when you're looking at specific resources.
Examples of Theatre-Related Subject Headings
- Acting
- Acting in Musical Theater
- Acting--Auditions
- Acting--History
- Acting--Psychological aspects
- Acting--Study and teaching
- Acting--Vocational guidance
- African American Theater
- Clothing and dress--History
- Costume--History
- Costume design
- Costume designers
- Drama--Technique
- Drama Collections
- Dramatic Criticism
- Dramatic Production
- Dramatists, American
- Dramaturges
- Monologues
- Musical Theater
- One-Act Plays
- Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Dramatic production
- Set designers
- Stage lighting
- Stage management
- Theater audiences
- Theater critics
- Theater--Dictionaries
- Theater--England
- Theater--Great Britain
- Theater--History
- Theater in art
- Theater in literature
- Theater--Ireland
- Theater--Moral and ethical aspects
- Theater--Political aspects
- Theater--Production and direction
- Theater--Religious aspects
- Theater--Reviews
- Theaters--Stage-setting and scenery
- Theatrical companies
- Theatrical Producers and directors
- Voice culture
You can also search for individual playwrights and other people as subjects, as well as organizations such as theater companies. If you're looking for the plays of Shakespeare. search for Shakespeare as the "author" but if you're looking for books ABOUT Shakespeare (or his works), you'll want to search Shakespeare as the "subject."
Finding theatre videos
- Theatre in Video This link opens in a new window Covers a wide range of 20th century theatre history with online streaming video. Includes live television broadcasts of New York productions from the 50s, revivals of classic works and experimental performances from the 60s and 70s, as well as important contemporary performances. Also includes new, international, and contemporary performances, ground-breaking documentaries, and critical instructional series for theatre and drama programs across the globe, including many new performances from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre collection (Opus Arte), Theatre Arts Films, the BBC, and TMW Media Group. Unlike Hollywood adaptations, these are the actual original productions, captured and recorded while performed for a live theatre audience. Plays range from classical Greek to the 20th century. Alexander Street Press
- Dance in video This link opens in a new window Dance in Video provides online access to hundreds of hours of dance productions, as well as dozens of documentaries, interviews, and instructional videos. The collection features some of the most influential companies and artists of the twentieth century, and includes a diversity of styles: ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisational. Search criteria can include role, genre, ensemble, time period, venue, date of recording, and more. Available features include custom playlists and clips, permanent URLs, and viewing on mobile devices. Alexander Street Press
- Digital theatre plus This link opens in a new window Provides high-definition recordings of top British theatre, music, and dance productions. A collection of interviews offers insights on acting, directing, design, and tech theatre.
- Theatre and drama premium This link opens in a new window Provides searchable and browsable access to a variety of theatre arts related materials including all aspects of theatre and performance. Includes access to full-text plays, audio plays, filmed stage performances, documentaries, and other video content, contextualizing materials (designs, reference, and ephemera) including recent broadway productions and previously unpublished plays. Covers key writers, creators, and performers. Includes full content of the following collections: Drama Texts Collection Contemporary World Drama Black Drama: Third Edition Twentieth Century Drama: Second Edition Theatre in Performance Collection The BroadwayHD Collection The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection Theatre in Context Collection Performance Design Archive Online. Uses Alexander Street /ProQuest interface).
- National Theatre Collection 1 & 2 - Alexander Street Press This link opens in a new window A multimedia database developed in collaboration with the U.K.'s National Theatre that offers a range of digital performance resources from the National Theatre's archive. Digitized archival materials are presented alongside videos to present a holistic view of the stagecraft involved in supporting world-class productions.
- Music online. Opera in video This link opens in a new window Provides access to digital video of 250 opera performances, interviews, and documentaries. Includes works from the Baroque period through the 20th century. Supports mobile access. Alexander Street Press.
- Silent film online This link opens in a new window Brings together films which together represent the basis of modern cinematic technique and film theory. Covers silent features, serials, and shorts from the 1890s to the 1930s. High quality versions of films have been selected for the collection from leading distributors such as Kino Lorber, Lobster Films, Flicker Alley, and Image Entertainment. Alexander Street Press.
- Shakespeare's Globe Archive This link opens in a new window Provides access to material from the Shakespeares Globe Performance and Architectural Archives, which shows how productions at the reconstructed Globe and Sam Wanamaker Playhouse were conceived, rehearsed, dressed, marketed, sound tracked, how props were used, how the audiences behaved, and the theatre history and performance lessons that were observed and learned, along with information on about 170 different plays, concerts or events and over 400 different productions of these plays. The architectural archive includes material on how the reconstruction of the theatre was designed and planned and some of the conversations and debates that informed construction decisions, as well as material on the theatres annual reports, communications to its supporters, and oral histories detailing some of the early history of the reconstructed theatre. Keyword and advanced search options with filters for date, play, document type, season, theater, author and director. Limits for Image Gallery. Allows for proximity searching. Adam Matthew Digital.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowBrowse "Music, Theatre & Dance" or search for terms such as "performing arts", "theatre", "ballet", etc.
Finding images
- ARTstor This link opens in a new window Provides access to more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences.
- Vogue archive This link opens in a new window A complete searchable archive of Vogue (U.S. edition), from the first issue in 1892 to the current month.
- Vandamm Theatrical Photograph Archive, 1900-1957 (NYPL digital collections) Documents almost comprehensively three decades of theatrical history in New York.
Finding monologues (in print in the Baylor Libraries)
- browse monologues in the librariesMost of the printed monologues will be found in on Moody 1st floor in the PN call number section, but not all of them, so be sure to check the call number, which is sort of like the house number and and street address for where the monologue lives!
Finding monologues (online)
- Shakespeare's Monologues browsable/searchable complete list of Shakespeare's monologues organized by play and categorized by type. You can browse and/or search. Each monologue entry includes the character's name, the first line of the speech, whether it is verse or prose, and shows the act, scene & line number. Each entry provides a link to the full text of the scene. You can download each monologue for printing, already double-spaced for scansion and transcription.
- MonologueDB The monologue database serves the singular purpose of organizing monologues on the web and allowing the internet community to engage and discuss them amongst each other. It is a continually growing collection and we encourage users to rate and comment on monologues to facilitate the discovery of the best monologues on the web.
- Ace Your Acting Auditions, Singing Auditions, Open Casting Calls, and Free Monologues Some links to free monologues and a lot of other information about auditioning
Finding play scripts
- New Play Exchange This link opens in a new window Digital library of over 25,000 scripts of more than 6,000 living playwrights.Downloadable (PDF) scripts of contemporary drama, searchable by plays, people, and organizations. Includes filters by cast size and type, age level, genre, subject matter, production history, actor and narrative attributes, and playwright location.
- American drama 1714-1915 This link opens in a new window Contains the full text of more than 1 500, American dramatic works from the colonial period to the beginning of the twentieth century. Numerous other genres are represented in the collection.
- American film scripts online This link opens in a new window Contains 1 009 scripts by 1 062 writers. It also contains facsimile images for more than 500 of these screenplays. Many of the scripts have never been published. The database is full-text searchable and includes detailed indexing on scenes, characters, and people. Supplemental information includes short biographies on the writers and awards given to individual films have been noted.
- Twentieth-century drama This link opens in a new window Provides a digital collection of scripts and author information. Features plays from noted playwrights as well as lesser known dramatists, the collection includes works by over 300 writers. The full range of dramatic styles, genres, and traditions is represented, from widely studied and frequently performed plays to important examples of radical theatre, regional theatre, postcolonial theatre, women's theatre, and popular forms such as farce and thriller that are often under-represented in surveys of the period. Searches may be done for playwright, title, and keyword in the play. Proquest/Chadwyck-Healey.
- The Script Archive full-length, one act, 10-minute plays, and monologues
Finding all the theatre databases
A-Z list of theatre databases at Baylor
browse all the different theatre related databases in one place!
Finding information about theatre
- The Internet Broadway Database
IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive is the official database for Broadway theatre information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today.
- Variety archives : 1906-present
Includes almost every issue Variety has ever published, including articles, ads, front pages and back covers. Contents include the history of the entertainment business, information on film and television companies and their key players, and box office returns.
