Remember that there are two acceptable English spellings, theatre and theater and that you may need to keep an eye out for both terms in your research. In many of the research databases, you can use the asterisk * as a truncation symbol, for example, theat* in LUCIA, and find all possible spellings.

The sources listed in this guide were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.

Evaluating the resources you find is an essential part of the research process. See this guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles and this guide to evaluating Internet resources.

Historical Context

Credo Reference.
Includes hundreds of reference titles covering a wide range of subjects. Includes full text, images, sound files, maps and more. The Hutchinson Chronology of World History may be particularly helpful.

Browsing the reference collection in the D call number ranges is a good way to find information on historical context. Among the reference titles you will find:

Dictionary of the Middle Ages. 13 vols.
Ref. [q.] D114 .D5 1982

Brill's New Pauly: Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. Multiple volumes.
Ref. [q.] DE5 .N4813 2002

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. 3 vols.
Ref. DF521 .O93 1991

A Dictionary of the Roman Empire.
Ref. DG 270 .B86 1995

You might also want to browse the reference collections by subject area. You will find historical encyclopedias in the following call number ranges:

• DA    Great Britain
• DC    France
• DD    Germany
• DE    Classical World
• DK    Russia and the former Soviet Union
• DP    Spain and Portugal
• E and F    United States and the Americas

Some general historical guidebooks that might be useful include:

Chronology of World History. H.E.L. Mellersh. 4 vols.
Ref. D11 .M39 1999

The People's Chronology: a Year-by-Year Record of Human Events from Prehistory to the Present. James Trager.
Ref. D11 .T83 1994

The Timetables of History : A Historical Linkage of People and Events. Bernard Grun.
Ref. D11 .G78 2005

Who Was When? : A Dictionary of Contemporaries. Miriam Allen de Ford and Joan S. Jackson.
Ref. CT103 .D4 1976

Books from the library's catalog will be very helpful for understanding the play in history. To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. A Subject begins with for some of these phrases may be useful; these are just a few selected subject searches. A librarian can help you find more.

Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia. Bruce Murphy, ed.
Ref. PN41 .B4 1996

Literature Resource Center
Use the Author search or the Advanced search. The title search doesn't always find everything you might want to see. In addition to biographical information, includes material from Contemporary Authors, the Dictionary of Literary Biography series, Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, and more.

The Harper Handbook to Literature. Northrop Frye, Sheridan Baker, George Perkins ; with a chronology of literature and world events by Barbara M. Perkins.
Ref. PN41 .F75 1985

Masterplots. Frank N. Magill, ed.
Ref. PN44 .M33 1976   12 vols.
Ref. PN44 .M33 1996   Expanded and updated version of the 1976 rev. ed. 12 vols.

The Book of 1000 Plays. Compiled and edited by Steve Fletcher and Norman Jopling with contributions from David Hallam ... [et al.].
Ancient Greece to modern. Organized by title of play. Plots summaries, date of premieres. Includes index to authors.
Ref. PN2054 .F54 1989

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Martin Banham, ed.
Encyclopedia arrangement; no indexes. Illustrated. Good explanations of time periods. Entries on countries are quite lengthy. Good for historical background.
Ref. PN2035 .C27 1995

The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Colin Chambers, ed.
Arranged alphabetically. Includes biographical information, theatrical terms, companies and theatres, national theatres.
Ref. PN2035 .C65 2002

Critical Survey of Drama. Frank N. Magill, ed. 8 vols.
Arranged by author. Extensive biographical information. Analyses of selected major plays plus a listing of other major works. Includes bibliographies.
Ref. [q.] PN1625 .C68 2003 v. 1-8

The Crown Guide to the World's Great Plays, from Ancient Greece to Modern Times. Joseph T. Shipley.
Organized by author. Gives historical background and critiques. Some entries have synopses and descriptions of productions.
Ref. PN2054 .S45 1984

Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis.
Lengthy definitions of theater terms. Includes suggested further readings contained in the extensive bibliography.
Ref. PN 2035 .P2913 1998

The Ivan R. Dee Guide to Plays and Playwrights. Trevor R. Griffiths.
Focuses on playwrights from all time periods whose work is likely to be in performance today. Includes cross-references to other playwrights with related themes or interests.
Ref. PN2035 .G73 2003

Masterplots II. Drama Series. 4 vols.
Arranged by play title. Plot summaries and critical essay reviews.
Ref. PN44 .M33 1990

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama. 5 vols.
Entries for authors, styles, countries. "Extensive information about the surrounding context of performance." Criticisms listed in bibliographies. MANY illustrations.
Ref. PN1625 .M3 1984

Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Phyllis Hartnoll, ed. 4th ed.
Concise to lengthy entries on people, terms, theaters, countries, etc.
Ref. PN2035 .H3 1983

Theatre Language; A Dictionary of Terms in English of the Drama and Stage from Medieval to Modern Times. Walter Parker Bowman and Robert Hamilton Ball.
Short definitions of theater terminology.
Ref. PN2035 .B6

The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre. 6 vols.
Each volume covers a differeent region of the world; within volumes entries are arranged alphabetically by country and provide an overview of the contemporary theatre. Use the table of contents and the index.
Ref. PN1861 .W67 2001 v. 1-6

In addition to the sources listed here, be sure to look at the section of this guide on Articles. National newspapers such as the New York Times are excellent sources for reviews, as are the popular periodicals listed in Poole's Index to Periodical Literature and Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. Also, be sure to search the library's online catalog for the author's name (last name first) as a Subject; you will find criticism and interpretation of the author's works.

A Guide to Critical Reviews. James M. Salem.
Ref. Z5782 .S34 vol. 3-4
Ref. Z5782 .S342 vol. 2-3
Ref. Z5782 .S342 1984 vol.1-2
Ref. Z5782 .S34 v.4 Suppl. 1963-80

LexisNexis Academic
Various dates; the Christian Science Monitor and the New York Times have indexing back to 1980, with full text added at later dates. Other papers are added dating mostly from the mid 1990's.

New York Theatre Critics Reviews. Microfilm, 1940-1957
New York Theatre Critics Reviews. Bound, 1970-1994
National Theatre Critics Reviews. Bound, 1995-1996
The library owns scattered issues of these publications, in print and on microfilm. Publication ceased in 1996.
Microform Area
Periodicals Level A

New York Times. 1851-current.
Considered to be the American paper of record. The New York Times is on microfilm and on the web.
New York Times Index--Reference Indexes/Microform Area
New York Times (1851-2006)
Current issues available from many sources: see FindIt

Theatre : Stage to Screen to Television. William Torbert Leonard.
More Theatre : Stage to Screen to Television. Alvin H. Marill.
Theatre--Ref. PN2189 .L44
More Theatre--Ref. PN2189 .L44 1993

Times (London, England).
The leading British paper. The Times itself is available online and on microfilm.
Times Digital Archive (1785-1985)
Current issues available from many sources: see FindIt
Times index--Reference Indexes/Microform Area

Newspaper Source Plus
Provides indexing and selected full text for newspapers. Dates for backfiles vary by title. In addition, the database features more than 601,300 television and radio news transcripts, videos & podcasts.

The World Wide Web is another good source of reviews, especially for smaller companies whose productions might not be reviewed in the larger newspapers. See the information below on Web Resources for more help.

To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try Title begins with, Author, Subject begins with or Keyword Anywhere searching.

Title begins with
These searches will let you see if we own an item whose title you already know.

Author
You can search the name of a playwright as an author to find works by the person named. Be sure to enter the last name first.

Subject begins with
Search the name of a writer as a subject to find works about the person's life and plays. Be sure to enter the last name first. You can also look for terms like drama. You will be referred to more subject headings. Be specific; there's a lot out there on drama. You can also use the Library of Congress Subject Headings for ideas on subject search terms; the five volume LCSH in print is located behind the Reference Desk on the library's first floor.

You should be aware that the Library of Congress Subject Headings use the spelling theater for general information: theatre is used when it is part of the proper name of a particular theatre. Look at subdivisions under the subject theater for specific countries, and even cities, as in these examples:

• theater -- greece
• theater -- england
• theater -- london

• -- dramatic production
• -- stage history

Keyword Anywhere
In this search, LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. Try a search for the phrase "stage history" using the quotation marks. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH, or target your keyword search by using the Subject Keyword option. This tells LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records only. Compare a Keyword Anywhere search with a Subject Keyword search for (theater or theatre) and history.

Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.

Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.

The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options. Some of the indexes that will help with your research are spotlighted below.

Essential: this should be among your starting points for finding advanced secondary materials.

MLA International Bibliography. 1963-
The leading source for the field of literary studies. Wide ranging index to just about anything of a scholarly nature related to literature and language.

General and Multidisciplinary Indexes: include citations and some full text of materials from a broad variety of fields including literature and history. Some include current news articles and reviews of productions.

Academic OneFile
A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. Includes full-text articles, many with images. 1980 - present; updated daily.

Academic Search Premier
Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals. One of many resources available from EBSCOhost, single Web source for multiple databases.

Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, try using the button or Citation Linker to see if that particular article is available. If you don't find it, you can submit a request for interlibrary loan (ILL) of a copy of the article: ILL takes about 7-10 days, so plan ahead. See the library's Interlibrary Loan page for more information.

Digital Image Collections
This web page from the library provides a link to ARTstor, an amazing collection of digital images, as well as links to image collections created at Lawrence for art history and studio art courses, for the Theatre Arts department, for anthropology, and for the University Archives.

Downloading an Image from ARTstor and Printng ARTstor Images
Useful instructions for the ARTstor database.

You might want to look at the links listed below for Web Resources or the library's guide to Finding Images Online.

Top

The Age of King Charles V (1338-1380): 1,000 Illuminations from the Department of Manuscripts.
From The Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Architecture Slide Library S.P.I.R.O.
"SPIRO contains surrogate images of photographs and drawings from approximately 2,000 books, 200 periodical titles, and 100 postcards, posters, and calendars." Includes the period "Rome-500 BCE to 350 CE." From the University of California, Berkeley Architecture Visual Resources Library.

Artslynx International Arts Resources: Theatre Resources
Maintained by Richard Finkelstein, a college professor, stage designer, and arts advocate, this compendium of internet sites includes material from unusual topics, like Drama Therapy, Fight Direction, Performance Art, Stage Management, Storytelling, Theatre Architecture, and Theatre of Social Responsibility.

CurtainUp
"The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings."

Elizabethan Costume Page
Lots of detailed information provided here; the author has a personal interest in 16th century costume. Some sections work best with Internet Explorer.

Europe Medieval Drama (Sidney Higgins)
A personal but useful collection of links to Medieval Drama sites.

Illustrated Shakespeare, 1826-1919.
"Includes heavily illustrated versions of Shakespeare published in twelve works between 1826 and 1919. Some text, such as picture captions, title pages, dialogue, and synopses of plays, but concentration is on images produced by an array of technologies available in the 19th and early 20th century. Fully searchable provided by University of Wisconsin - Madison Libraries."

Internet Resources for Theatre and Drama
Links selected by the librarians of Mudd.

Lawrence University: Theatre Arts Department
The official site.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater Photographic History Mark Avery collection, 1977-1994
"The Milwaukee Repertory Theater Photographic History presents selected images of the plays performed from 1977 to 1994. The digital collection includes 1,800 images documenting 195 performances."

Picture Collection Online
Select group of images from The New York Public Library covering over 12,000 subjects including Costume and Design.

Playbill
"The national magazine of the theatre." Current issues and information. Also includes some reference information, like a list of long runs on Broadway and theatre seating charts.

TheatreHistory.com
Commercial site, but seems to have a wealth of information. Searchable and organized by categories, primarily by country. Be prepared for flashing ads.

Voice of the Shuttle.
One of the most widely used sources for information on the humanities and literatures.

World Wide Web Virtual Library: Theatre and Drama
Provides links to lots of resources, including online journals, image collections, and electronic texts.

Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:

• Scout Report and the Scout Report Archives
• Infomine
• Librarian's Internet Index

It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources. The library's Web Wise Guide to Searching give some helpful inside tips. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.

Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.

Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
The guide for any academic papers written in the literatures and languages.
RRef. LB2369 .G53 2003

Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready Reference, shelves behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and scores; at end of classes in other collections