Skip to main content

Theater Research and Resources Guide: Theater Encyclopedias & Resources

This guide serves as a basic starting point to find key resources for studying and researching theater and drama at Princeton.

Literary Criticism of Drama & Theater

MLA International Bibliography
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.

Online Theater Resource Collections

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
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 Encyclopedias

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance by Dennis Kennedy
Publication Date: 2003

Reliable resource for basic information on all aspects of theater. Latest online content dated 2007 (11/17).

Online Biographical Resources

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

Online Research Companions

The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre by Colin Chambers.
Publication Date: 2002

Latest online content dated 2002 (11/17).
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, 3rd ed. by Gerald Bordman & Thomas S. Hischak.
Publication Date: 2004

Latest online content dated 2012 (11/17).