Theatre Arts 327: Playscript Analysis
Background Information
A Guide to Reference and Bibliography for Theatre Research. Claudia Jean Bailey.
Ref. Z5781 .L87
Research Guide to Biography and Criticism : World Drama. Walton Beacham, ed.
Ref. PR85 .R47 1985 v.3
Chronology of World History : A Calendar of Principal Events from 3000 BC to AD 1973. G. S. P. Freeman-Grenville.
Ref. D11 .F75 1975
An Encyclopedia of World History : Ancient, Medieval and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. William L. Langer, compiler and ed.
Ref. D21 .L27 1980
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 Horizontal Linkage of People and Events. Bernard Grun.
Ref. D11 .G78 1991
Who Was When? : A Dictionary of Contemporaries. Miriam Allen de Ford and Joan S. Jackson.
Ref. CT103 .D4 1976
What historians call primary source material will provide you with even more information on context. It's not always easy to say what is a primary source; be sure to check with your professor and discuss just what might be considered primary source material for the purpose of your research. Generally, primary source materials are considered to be those things--speeches, articles, diaries, news reports--produced at the time of the events you are investigating. The material produced after the fact to explain or explore an event is generally referred to as secondary source material.
In addition to the strategies listed below, consider looking at biographical material; see the library guide for Biographical Information for more details.
Primary material from books:
One way to locate historical source materials is to use the Guided Search and include any of the following terms using the Subject Keywords option. Try some of these:
-
sources
diaries
documents
memoirs
Primary material from articles:
Essay and General Literature Index.
Indexes essays and articles in collections, anthologies, etc.
Reference Indexes 1900-1994
International Index. 1907-1965.
Indexes articles from scholarly journals. Title changed to Social
Sciences and Humanities Index.
Reference Indexes
Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature.
Indexes articles from popular magazines.
Reference Indexes 1900-1994
Social Sciences and Humanities Index. 1966-1974.
The later title of the International Index. Lives on today as
the separate titles Humanities Index and Social Sciences Index.
(see below under Articles.)
Reference Indexes
Newspapers: see also the section of this guide on Reviews of Productions.
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 (1851-2001)
Current issues available from many sources: see BESS
Times (London, England). 1941-current.
The leading British paper. The Times itself is held
on microfilm in the reference area.
Times index--Reference Indexes
Benét's Reader's Encyclopedia. Bruce Murphy, ed.
Ref. PN41 .B4 1996
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Ivor H. Evans.
Ref. PN43 .B65 1981
Contemporary Authors
A major source on over 110,000 authors. Searchable by Author Name , Title of Work, Birth or Death Year, Nationality, and Subject/Genre....
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.
Theater Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
The Book of 1000 Plays. Compiled and edited by Steve Fletcher and Norman Jopling with contributions from David Hallam ... [et al.].
Ref. PN2054 .F54 1989
The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Martin Banham, ed.
Ref. PN2035 .C27 1995
The Continuum Companion to Twentieth Century Theatre. Colin Chambers, ed.
Ref. PN2035 .C65 2002
Critical Survey of Drama : English Language Series. Frank N. Magill, ed. 8 vols.
Ref. PR1625 q.C68 2003 v. 1-8
The Crown Guide to the World's Great Plays, from Ancient Greece to Modern Times. Joseph T. Shipley.
Ref. PN2054 .S45 1984
Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis.
Ref. PN 2035 .P2913 1998
Drama A to Z. Jack A. Vaughn.
Ref. PN1625 .V3
Drama Dictionary. Terry Hodgson.
Ref. PN1625 .H62 1988
The Facts on File Dictionary of the Theatre. William Packard, David Pickering, Charlotte Savidge, eds.
Ref. PN2035 .F27 1988
Masterplots II. Drama Series. 4 vols.
Ref. PN44 .M33 1990
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama. 5 vols.
Ref. PN1625 .M3 1984
Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Phyllis Hartnoll, ed. 4th ed.
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.
Ref. PN2035 .B6
The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre. 6 vols.
Ref. PN1861 .W67 2001 v. 1-6
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Reviews of Productions
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
Lexis/Nexis Academic: Guided News Search
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 (1851-2001)
Current issues available from many sources: see BESS
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). 1941-current.
The leading British paper. The Times itself is held
on microfilm.
Times--Microforms
Times index--Reference Indexes
UMI ProQuest
Indexing and some full text for international English-language, national, and regional newspapers.
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 and the library's page on Searching the Internet for more help.
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Finding Books
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, for example, Federal Theatre Project. Also important are these subheadings:
- --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 a phrase, like "stage history" using quotation marks. You can search for individual terms connected by logical operators like AND or OR. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH. You can also search for multiple forms of words by using an asterisk; try a search like this one for theat* and history. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to
search for all words starting with theat; theatre, theater, theatrical, and so on. You can target your search even more effectively by telling LUCIA to look for the terms in the
subject area of the records; compare the Keyword Anywhere search with the Subject Keyword search.
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 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.
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Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text. Some of our indexes include:
EBSCOhost.
Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. EBSCOhost provides a single Web source for multiple databases; you might want to select the Academic Search Elite. Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals. Use the Go or Back button on your browser after exiting EBSCOhost to leave the system.
Expanded Academic ASAP.
Broad coverage of academic periodicals. Includes full text of some articles.
Humanities Index.
General index to the humanities literature. More likely to cover interdisciplinary aspects aspects. Before 1974, see International Index to Periodicals.
Reference Indexes 1974-1994
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.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, look in LUCIA for the title of the journal to see if the library owns it. You should also search BESS, an automated search of the library's fulltext databases, for electronic copies of articles.
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Web Resources
CurtainUp
"The Internet Theater Magazine of Reviews, Features, Annotated Listings."
Doollee.com
"...information on over 30,000 Plays produced or published in English since 1956..."
Internet Resources for Theatre and Drama
Links selected by the librarians of Mudd.
Lawrence University: Theatre Arts Department
The official site.
Voice of the Shuttle.
One of the most widely used sources for information on the humanities and literatures.
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:
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, or this bibliography on Evaluation of Information Sources. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
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Style Manuals
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
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About Research in Playscript AnalysisRemember 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. Material related to the topic of this course will be drawn from many fields: be prepared to look at materials from fields like history, gender studies, literature, just to name a few. In addition to consulting catalogs and indexes, be sure to look at bibliographies supplied at the end of relevant articles, chapters, and books, and to search library catalogs for book-length bibliographies.
Your sources must be fully documented in any written work you produce. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the required documentation at hand when you need it. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
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.
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
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Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
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
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