- St. Olaf Libraries
- Research Guides
- First-Year Seminar 120S: Race and the Supernatural in Performance
- Recommended Resources: Drama
First-Year Seminar 120S: Race and the Supernatural in Performance
Research and Instruction Librarian for Music & Fine Arts
Karen Olson
she/her/hers
LibKey Nomad
Research and Instruction Librarian for Music & Fine Arts
Karen Olson
she/her/hers
Scripts
You can use the advanced search options in Catalyst, the library catalog, to find plays. Enter your main search term (I chose "Shakespeare") in the first search field. Then set the second field to "genre" and "drama" to tell Catalyst you want playscripts.
Other places to find plays include:
- Asian American Drama This link opens in a new windowAsian American Drama brings together more than 250 plays, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information, so providing a comprehensive overview of this growing field.
- Black Drama, Second Edition: African, African American, and Diaspora 1850 to Present This link opens in a new windowBlack Drama, Second Edition contains over 1,400 full-text plays from the 1800s to the present day. Included are plays of Langston Hughes, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Ira Aldridge, Shirley Graham, W.E.B. DuBois, and others.
- Latino Literature This link opens in a new windowThe most comprehensive collection of literature in its field, Latino Literature has over 100,000 pages of plays, fiction, and poetry, as well as a large collection of supplementary materials.
- North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new windowMore than half of the plays included in North American Indian Drama are previously unpublished, almost all are hard to find, and they represent a wealth of dramatic material that is often overlooked or inaccessible. Together, these plays demonstrate Native theater's diversity of tribal traditions and communities, approaches to drama, and individual experiences, but also reflect the commonality of the artistic drive of Native writers to give public voice to their own representations of themselves and their culture. The collection represents many Native American groups across the United States and Canada.
- North American Women's Drama This link opens in a new windowNorth American Women's Drama brings together more than 1,500 plays by more than 300 female playwrights, along with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Over 30% of the plays included here have never been published before. The database also includes selected playbills, photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.
- Twentieth Century North American Drama This link opens in a new windowContains over 1,500 plays from the 20th century, as well as playbills, photos, and other related information.
Productions to Watch
Use the advanced search options in Catalyst to find productions to watch, either online or in physical forms (DVDs, etc.) Enter your main search term in the first search field; I searched for the actor David Tennant. Then, on the right, set "Material Type" to "Video/Film" to tell Catalyst you want a video to watch.
Other places to find productions to watch include:
- Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new windowStreaming video and study guides for British plays and topics in theatre production.
- Met Opera on Demand This link opens in a new windowStreaming video of more than 450 Met Opera performances.
- Theatre in Video This link opens in a new windowStreaming video of plays (plus relevant documentaries), including the complete BBC Shakespeare Collection. Includes materials recorded 1930s-present.
Reference Works
Reference works, such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, can be a great place to learn background information on your topic.
- North American Theatre Online This link opens in a new windowNorth American Theatre Online is a comprehensive reference work covering all aspects of the Canadian and American Theatre. It includes some 40,000 pages of major reference materials. The collection also includes approximately 10,500 images, playbills, postcards, scrapbooks and other resources.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance by ISBN: 0198601743Publication Date: 2003-05-01provides unrivaled information across the broad sweep of theatrical activity; encompasses opera and film, dance and radio, and para-theatrical, non-dramatic performances including circuses and carnivals, and parades and public executions--providing truly extensive coverage from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments in London, Paris, New York, and around the globe.
Journal Articles
The following databases will help you find articles about theater and theatrical productions. Check the "scholarly" or "peer-reviewed" boxes to help limit your search to peer-reviewed articles -- but remember, reviews and letters to/from the editor are not peer-reviewed!
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowArticles on virtually every topic, drawn from scholarly journals, professional journals, trade magazines, news publications, and lifestyle magazines. Provides full-text access to over half of its 8000+ publications. Covers materials published 1975-present.
- International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance This link opens in a new windowInitiated by the American Society for Theatre Research, and since 1984, the Theatre Research Data Center (TRDC) at Brooklyn College, this is a prime research tool for students of theatre and the performing arts.
- Performing Arts Periodicals Database This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from scholarly and popular journals and magazines on the performing arts. Covers materials published 1864-present.
- Play Index This link opens in a new windowPublication information for plays written across historical periods. Users can search by title, author, subject, or genre, with the option of limiting results by cast size.