Theatre Reference Sources Available Online
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowThis reference collection includes The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting, The Cambridge Guide to Theatre, The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance, and A to Z of Women: American Women in the Performing Arts, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English, among many others
- Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new windowThis collection has access to over 1,000 reference and scholarly books about literature, including drama.
- Literary Reference Source This link opens in a new window
Information on authors and their works, plot summaries, book reviews, poems, short stories and more.
- Literature Resource Center (Gale) This link opens in a new windowGreat source of biographical and critical information about playwrights.
- Literature Criticism (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Online version of the reference series Contemporary Literary Criticism.
Theatre Reference Sources Available in Campbell Library and Online
Here is a sample of reference sources found in the either the reference book collection on the 2nd floor of Campbell Library or in the circulating collection in the 4th floor stacks. Click on the title to see the complete catalog data including location.
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre by
First published in 1984, Gerald Bordman's Oxford Companion to American Theatre is the standard one-volume source on our national theatre. Critics have hailed its "wealth of authoritative information" (Back Stage), its "fascinating picture of the volatile American stage" (The Guardian), and its "well-chosen, illuminating facts" (Newsday). Now thoroughly revised, this distinguished volume once again provides an up-to-date guide to the American stage from its beginnings to the present. Completely updated by theater professor Thomas Hischak, the volume includes playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements, and much more. The book covers not only classic works (such as Death of a Salesman) but also many commercially successful plays (such as Getting Gertie's Garter), plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced our dramatic development (from Shakespeare to Beckett and Pinter). New entries include recent plays such as Angels in America and Six Degrees of Separation, performers such as Eric Bogosian and Bill Irwin, playwrights like David Henry Hwang and Wendy Wasserstein, and relevant developments and issues including AIDS in American theatre, theatrical producing by Disney, and the rise in solo performance. Accessible and authoritative, this valuable A-Z reference is ideal not only for students and scholars of theater, but everyone with a passion for the stage.
Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 0195169867Publication Date: 2004-05-06
Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater, 1930-2010 by
From legends like Eugene O'Neill, Tennessee Williams, and Arthur Miller to successful present-day playwrights like Neil LaBute, Tony Kushner, and David Mamet, some of the most important names in the history of theater are from the past 80 years. Contemporary American theater has produced some of the most memorable, beloved, and important plays in history, including Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Barefoot in the Park, Our Town, The Crucible, A Raisin in the Sun, and The Odd Couple. Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater presents the plays and personages, movements and institutions, and cultural developments of the American stage from 1930 to 2010, a period of vast and almost continuous change. It covers the ever-changing history of the American theater with emphasis on major movements, persons, plays, and events. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, an extensive bibliography, and over 1,500 cross-referenced dictionary entries. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the history of American theater.
Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 9780810855328Publication Date: 2011-06-01
Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism by
This book covers the history of theater as well as the literature of America from 1880-1930. The years covered by this volume features the rise of the popular stage in America from the years following the end of the Civil War to the Golden Age of Broadway, with an emphasis on its practitioners, including such diverse figures as William Gillette, Mrs. Fiske, George M. Cohan, Maude Adams, David Belasco, George Abbott, Clyde Fitch, Eugene O'Neill, Texas Guinan, Robert Edmond Jones, Jeanne Eagels, Susan Glaspell, The Adlers and the Barrymores, Tallulah Bankhead, Philip Barry, Maxwell Anderson, Mae West, Elmer Rice, Laurette Taylor, Eva Le Gallienne, and a score of others. Entries abound on plays of all kinds, from melodrama to the newly-embraced realistic style, ethnic works (Irish, Yiddish, etc.), and such diverse forms as vaudeville, circus, minstrel shows, temperance plays, etc. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism covers the history of modernist American Theatre through a chronology, an introductory essay, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 2,000 cross-referenced entries on actors and actresses, directors, playwrights, producers, genres, notable plays and theatres. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the American Theater in its greatest era.
Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 1538107856Publication Date: 2017-11-22
The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance by
Ranging from ancient Greek tragedies to the latest developments around the globe, The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance provides an all-embracing approach that encompasses drama and musical, opera, dance, radio, and non-dramatic performances including circuses and parades. Based on the celebrated two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, this compact, affordable Companion features more than 2,000 up-to-date entries, covering styles and movements, buildings, organizations, and traditions--with a particularly strong focus on biographies of actors, playwrights, directors, and designers. Editor Dennis Kennedy has significantly updated the timeline of historical and cultural events in the world of theatre and performance, and he has added an appendix of useful weblinks, which are supported and accessible through a companion website. Finally, the book includes many new entries that cover the people and companies who have come into prominence since the publication of the Encyclopedia.
Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 0199574197Publication Date: 2010-09-17
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting by
Acting is widely acknowledged to be the central art of the theatre and has a long and vibrant history. With over one thousand entries, this is the first encyclopedia of stage actors and acting around the world. More than one hundred renowned international contributors provide biographical, historical and technical information about actors both familiar and obscure whose work has been crucial in the development of acting methods and traditions from classical theatre to the present day. Entries on key directors, theorists and teachers, and on the elements and genres of acting provide insights into the history of acting as an art and its current practice. Including a chronological list of actors that spans the past two thousand years and many diverse countries and cultures, this Encyclopedia offers a fascinating and unique overview of acting onstage that will be of interest to anyone who attends or practises theatre.
Call Number: Available OnlineISBN: 1316190420Publication Date: 2015-02-04
The Cambridge Guide to Theatre by
Widely acclaimed for its breadth and scope, The Cambridge Guide to Theatre Second Edition remains the most comprehensive single-volume guide to the history and current practice of worldwide theater available today. The Guide contains a wealth of information on all aspects of theater past and present: major playwrights, works, important traditions, theories, companies, practitioners, venues and events; the origins of popular theater tradition, including folk drama, street theater and mummers plays; the work of actors, directors and designers, including lighting and sound, technical theater, theater architecture and theater design. In this revision, all entries have been reviewed and updated to incorporate political changes and reflect the rise and fall of individual reputations. There are newly commissioned articles on Canada, Spain, New Zealand, Germany, the Caribbean and French-speaking Africa. Special attention has been paid to costumery and gay, lesbian, and feminist theater. A particularly strong feature of the new edition is the weight given to Asian theater and Asian influences on Western drama. By providing information and entertainment, the Guide will prove an indispensable reference tool both for scholars of theater and general theater lovers alike.
Call Number: PAC PN2035 .C27 1995ISBN: 9780521434379Publication Date: 1995-09-21
Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre by
International in scope, this book is designed to be the pre-eminent reference work on the English-speaking theatre in the twentieth century. Arranged alphabetically, it consists of some 2500 entries written by 280 contributors from 20 countries which include not only top-level experts, but, uniquely, leading professionals from the world of theatre. A fascinating resource for anyone interested in theatre, it includes: - Overviews of major concepts, topics and issues; - Surveys of theatre institutions, countries, and genres; - Biographical entries on key performers, playwrights, directors, designers, choreographers and composers; - Articles by leading professionals on crafts, skills and disciplines including acting, design, directing, lighting, sound and voice.
Call Number: PAC PN 2035 .C65 2002ISBN: 9781847140012Publication Date: 2006-07-01
Encyclopedia of Acting Techniques by
This complete reference is filled with professional tips and techniques for strengthening acting skills and is packed with practical, step-by-step reference pictures in full color.
Call Number: PAC PN 2065 P47 1997ISBN: 9781558704565Publication Date: 1997-03-15
Theatrical Costume, Masks, Make-Up and Wigs by
This is the first bibliography in its field, based on first-hand collations of the actual articles. International in scope, it includes publications found in public theatre libraries and archives of Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Florence, London, Milan, New York and Paris amongst others. Over 3500 detailed entries on separately published sources such as books, sales and exhibition catalogues and pamphlets provide an indispensible guide for theatre students, practitioners and historians. Indices cover designers, productions, actors and performers. The iconography provides an indexed record of over 6000 printed plates of performers in role, illustrating performance costume from the 18th to 20th century.
Call Number: PAC PN 2067 J68 2000ISBN: 9781138884045Publication Date: 2015-02-05
The Show Makers: Great Directors of the American Musical Theatre by
First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
Call Number: PAC PN 2285 .T48 2000ISBN: 0415923476Publication Date: 2002-06-07
