Research Guides: Theater: A Guide to Research and Resources: Theater Encyclopedias & Resources

Online Encyclopedias

All books cited below and elsewhere in this guide are located in the Mendel Music Library or are available as e-books. To find the books in the library stacks, click on the title links and then on "Where to find it" beneath "Location" in the catalog records.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance by Dennis Kennedy
Publication Date: 2003
Reliable resource for basic information on all aspects of theater.

Online Reference Resources

Drama Online
A digital library of playscripts, filmed live performances, audio plays, and scholarly works on theory, criticism, and practice from Bloomsbury, Methuen, Faber & Faber, and other partners. Includes sections on playwrights and practitioners, genres, periods, context & criticism, and theater craft.

Oxford Reference: Performing Arts This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to several key encyclopedias, dictionaries, and companions on dance, theater, classical and popular music, opera, and musical theater published by the Oxford University Press.

Online Biographical Resources

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television This link opens in a new window
Biographical and career information on professionals currently working in the entertainment industry, including performers, choreographers, directors, technicians, writers, composers, producers, executives, designers, and critics.

Research Companions

The Oxford Companion to American Theatre (Online) by Gerald Bordman & Thomas S. Hischak
Call Number: (FST) PN2220 .B6 2004
Publication Date: 2004
Volume includes playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements, and much more. The book covers not only classic works, but also many commercially successful plays, plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced our dramatic development.
The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre by Colin Chambers.
Publication Date: 2002
Includes over 2500 entries that range widely over theatre in the last century. Latest online content dated 2010.
The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Theater (Online) by Nadine George-Graves (editor)
Call Number: GV1594 .O94 2015 (print version)
Publication Date: 2015
Essays on the intersections of dance and theatre, focusing on the politics and poetics of the moving body in performance.

Literary Criticism of Drama & Theater

MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Provides citations to articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations on all aspects of modern literature, literary criticism, language, and linguistics. A key source for researching the literary aspects of drama and theater.