Research Guide for Theatre 121
The Politics of Documentary Theatre

http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/theatr121.html

Model by Lee Simonson for Act II of Gluck's Iphigenia in Tauris from Theatre Arts Magazine, December 1917.

Encyclopedias and Dictionaries Using the Library Catalog Periodical Article Indexes Finding Theater Reviews Selected Web Sites Citing your Sources Research and Reference Help Finding Videos in the Library

World Theater

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992.
Olin Ref PN 2035 .C17 and online

Alphabetic listing of theatre culture and history, attempting to present "a comprehensive view of the history and present practice of theatre in all parts of the world, thus pointing to the dynamic interaction of performance traditions from all cultures in present day theatre."(Preface)

The Columbia Enyclopedia of Modern Drama. Gabrielle Cody and Evert Sprinchorn, eds. 2 vols. New York: Columbia UP, 2007.
Olin Ref PN 1861 .C65 2007+

Covers 1860 to the present. Entries emphasize the cultural context of dramatic works and their authors and their relationship to significant social, political, artistic, and philosophical movements. Includes articles on emerging authors and the conventional and experimental theater worldwide.

The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 2nd ed. Oxford UP, 1992.

"This concise version of the acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Theatre covers all aspects of theatre worldwide and throughout the ages. It contains entries on a vast range of theatrical styles, dramatists, performers, and directors, as well as information on theatres, festivals, and such technical topics as lighting, sound, and method acting. Entries on people and places include Athol Fugard, Anthony Hopkins, Glenda Jackson, Derek Jacobi, Harvey Fierstein, Helen Mirren, Trevor Nunn, Peter O'Toole, Willy Russell, and Stephen Sondheim, Barbican Theatre, The English Shakespeare Company, Michael Gambon, The Swan at Stratford, and the Shubert theatre in New York." (publisher)

International Dictionary of Theatre. 3 vols. Chicago: St. James Press, 1992-1996.
Uris Ref PN 2035 .I59 1995

In three volumes, Vol.1: Plays, Vol.2: Playwrights, and Vol.3: Actors, Directors and Designers. Entries for plays provide a synopsis of the play, date of first publication and prodution, and a selected list of critical material. Entries for playwrights provide a discussion of the playwright's work, a list of works, and a short list of general criticism. Entries for actors, directors and designers provide basic biographical information, a list of their roles, and a short list of other biographical sources.

Literature Online (LION). Chadwyck-Healey.

A full-text collection of poetry, drama, and prose with complementary references sources. To access the reference sources, use the Search Criticism and Reference link in LION to connect to eight literature reference titles (from the Columbia, Princeton, Oxford and Routledge presses) and to the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL). ABELL is an index that overlaps with the MLA, but includes some journals and articles the MLA does not. Some citations link to full-text articles in JSTOR.

Primary texts in LION include English poetry from 600 to the present; American and African-American poetry from 1603 to the present; English drama; English prose; full-text articles from literary journals; and biographical information on widely studied authors. Individual collections include American Drama (1714-1915); English Drama (1280-1915), and Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare.

Literature Resource Center (LRC). Gale.

A complete literature database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism). Draws from Gale Group's core literary databases including Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB), and Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC).

Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance. Dennis Kennedy, ed. 2 vols. Oxford UP, 2003.
Olin Ref PN 2035 .O92x 2003+ and online

Provides information about theatre and performance internationally, through history and in the present. The 4300 entries are complemented by over 100 illustrations. Coverage ranges from ancient Greek theatre to 21st century developments in London, Paris, New York, and around the globe. Pays special attention to non-Western styles through articles on theatre and performance throughout Asia and Africa, often written by practitioners or critics from those areas. Dance, opera, performance art, radio, film, and television are covered at length. Also embraces para-theatrical, non-drammatic, and popular performance, including ritual, carnivals, parades, the circus, and public executions. Biographical entries cover the lives and work of major figures from the past and present: actors, playwrights, directors, designers, and critics. Entries on cities and regions place performance in its local social and political context.

World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre. 6 vols (projected). Routledge, 1994-2000.

Beginning with 1945, surveys the "range of national theatrical activity on a country-by-country basis from a specifically national standpoint." (intro) Each article covers a nation's theatrical history, artistic trends, structure of its theatre community, artistic profile, dance theatre, youth theatre, puppet theatre, theatre space and architecture, theatrical training, theatre criticism, scholarship and publishing. Bibliographies included. The 5 available volumes are dispersed among several campus libraries:
v.1: Europe, v.2: Americas, v.4: The Arab world, v.6: Bibliography/Cumulative index
Olin Ref PN 1861 .W67w 1994+
v.3: Africa, Africana Ref PN 1861 .W67x 1994
v.5: Asia/Pacific, Kroch Asia Ref PN1 861 .W67x 1994

IBDB (Internet Broadway Database)

The official database for Broadway theatre information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today. Details include pertinent people involved as well as interesting facts and production statistics. Get a list of every production of Hamlet on Broadway or a list of your favorite actor's credits. Find out what played at a particular theatre or what shows opened in a specified Broadway season.

Oxford Companion to American Theatre. Thomas S. Hischak & Gerald Bordman. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.
Olin Ref PN 2220 .B72 2004 also online

A guide to the American stage from its beginnings to the present, the volume includes playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements, etc. The book covers classic works (such as Death of a Salesman) as well as many commercially successful plays (such as Getting Gertie's Garter), plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced dramatic development in the US (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. (Publisher's description, abridged)

USING THE LIBRARY CATALOG

Return to Top

FINDING JOURNAL AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA). Chadwyck-Healey.
(Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

IIPA Full Text covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry--including dance, film, television, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic and more. Full text from 1999 onward.

Keesing's Record of World Events.

Extensive coverage of the news back from 1931. More balanced worldwide coverage than other news summary sources. Articles pull together a chronology of events over a period of time, rather than focussing on one event. Formerly called Keesing's Contemporary Archives (Olin D 410 .K26+).

LexisNexis Academic.
(Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

Extensive coverage of the news back to around 1980. Includes international newspapers and newswires.

MLA Bibliography. Modern Language Association.
(Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

Indexes articles and books from 1926 to date. The largest and most comprehensive online database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics, literatures, folklore, theater, and film. Indexes approximately 4,000 journals and series as well as some books; entries appear both for collections of essays and for their contents. Updated ten times per year. Online access is restricted to the Cornell community.

FINDING THEATER REVIEWS

Academic Search Premier. EBSCO.
(Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

A general periodical database that provides citations and abstracts for articles from over 4,100 journals and includes full text from over 3,170 journals. You can limit your search to peer-reviewed articles (scholarly articles).

ProQuest Research Library. Ann Arbor: UMI, 1986- .
(Library Gateway/Find it!/Databases)

Indexes and abstracts over 2,000 general interest magazines, newspaper articles, and scholarly journals. It also includes citations and abstracts to selected television and radio programs. Many of the articles found by searching in this database are available in full text electronic formats.

The New York Times Theater Reviews. New York Times and Arno.
Uris Ref PN 2266 .N53 (oversize bookcase); Olin Ref PN 2189 .N53++ (1920-1970 only)

Covers 1870-2000. Facsimile reprints of the reviews of theater productions as they appeared in the New York Times. Arranged chronologically, the set also includes appendices of awards and prizes and of productions and runs by season as well as indexes by title, production company, and personal name.

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

Contemporary Dramatists. 6th ed. London: St. James, 1999.
Olin Ref PR 106 .C76 6th. ed 1999 (older editions in stacks)

Provides biographical and bibliographic information, as well as brief critical essays, on 433 English-language dramatists, all of whom were alive at the time of its publication. Most are from North America and the British Isles.

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. Detroit: Gale, 1984- .
Olin PN 2285 .C76+; latest volume in Reference

A biographical guide covering American and British performers, directors, writers, producers, designers, managers, choreographers, technicians, composers, executives, dancers, and critics. Each entry provides personal, career, and sidelight information. Appropriate writings and awards are listed. There are currently more than 25 volumes. The latest volume -- has a cumulative index.

Dictionary of Literary Biography.

Contains essays outlining the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres, and summarizes the critical response to their work. Text corresponds to printed version (Uris Library Reference PS129 .D55) but online version lacks the visual material (photos, mss. page facsimiles, etc.) that appear in print. Part of the Literature Resource Center.

SELECTED WEB SITES

Theatre History on the Web

McCoy's Guide to Theatre and Performance Studies

WWW Virtual Library: Theatre and Drama

CITATION TOOLS

Using MLA Style

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition. Copies in Olin and Uris Libraries at Ready Reference Z 253 .M68 2003.

MLA citation style (Library Gateway Help)

Managing Citations using RefWorks

RefWorks is a web-based program that allows you to easily collect, manage, and organize bibliographic references by interfacing with databases. RefWorks also interfaces directly with Word, making it easy to import references and incorporate them into your writing, properly formatted according to the style of your choice. For more information and to sign up for an account: http://www.refworks.cornell.edu .

RESEARCH AND REFERENCE HELP

Library Gateway Help

CU Library Catalog Help

Olin/Uris Reference e-mail: okuref@cornell.edu

Reference Desk Phone Directory

A research consultation with a reference librarian can be arranged when you need in-depth, personalized research help.