This guide is designed for new researchers who need help to get started with research in topics related to theatre arts, including costumes, set design, and theatre history.
Getting Started
Start with:
- Art Full TextSearch for articles in fine, decorative and commercial art, as well as photography, film and architecture. Limited to 20 simultaneous users.
- Art Index RetrospectiveArt Index Retrospective covers 55 years (from 1929-1984) of art journalism and research from leading English-language sources, plus others published in French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Dutch. Besides periodicals, resources include data from yearbooks and select museum bulletins.
- International Bibliography of Theatre and DanceSearch dance and theater arts journals on topics such as performing arts, ballet, drama, opera, film, and more.
- Oxford Reference OnlineContains hundreds of subject dictionaries across disciplines including the Oxford Encyclopedia of Theater and Performance, the Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre, and the Oxford Companion to American Theatre..
- Library CatalogSearch with the Library Catalog to find books, journals, etc. owned by the library. Search by keyword, subject, title, or author for materials on your topic.
- WorldCatFind books, journals, articles, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, theses/dissertations, machine-readable data files, and any other materials available in libraries worldwide. All subject areas are covered. Request items through Interlibrary Loan using the ILLiad link on each item's record. A mobile version of this database is available. Limited to 65 simultaneous users.
Then try any of the following:
- Bloomsbury Applied Visual ArtsA resource for students and educators working across multiple fields of practice, including: Fashion and Textiles, Design and Illustration, Photography, Film and Media, Architecture and Interiors, and Marketing and Advertising.
- Design and Applied Arts IndexDAAI is an international index to design and craft journals. It contains annotated references from more than 450 design and craft journals, and data on nearly 50,000 designers, craftspeople, studios, workshops, firms etc. All areas of design and craft are covered, including industrial design, interior design, environmental design, computer aided design, furniture design, ceramics, glass, fashion design, textile design, graphic design, typography, multimedia design, book design, photography, advertising, theatre design, ergonomics, and design management.
- Performing Arts Periodicals DatabaseSearch journals on a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more. Formerly the International Index to Performing Arts.
- Project MuseSearch for full-text journals in literary theory, classics, history and cultural studies, philosophy, film, theater and performing arts, political science, and mathematics.
- Proquest Historical NewspapersSearch old editions major U.S. newspapers and the Times of India. Papers include the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Other titles include the Atlanta Daily World, Chicago Defender, Christian Science Monitor, Jewish Advocate, the Jewish Exponent, Los Angeles Sentinel, the New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, South China Morning Post, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.
- Theatre in ContextODells Annals of the New York Stage, the Oxford University Press Companion series, and Greenwoods American Theatre Companies series are just a few of the many in-copyright sources included in the Theatre in Context Collection. Placed alongside thousands of playbills, posters, photographs, and related theatrical ephemera, users will be able to paint a more comprehensive picture of the life and evolution of dramatic works.
Also check out:
- Broadway HDA selection of 19 Broadway HD productions including Indecent, Buried Child, On the Exhale, and others...
- Drama Online Core CollectionIncludes full texts of plays from across the history of the theatre, ranging from Aeschylus to the present day. Includes non-English-language works in translation, scholarly and critical editions, first night program texts, and critical analysis and contextual information. Critical interpretations, theatre history surveys and major reference works on authors, movements, practitioners, periods and genres are included alongside performance and practitioner texts, acting and backstage guides.
- Theatre in Video: Volume IWatch hundreds of online videos, including documentaries and definitive performances of the worlds most important plays. From Shakespeare to rare, in-depth footage of the work of Samuel Beckett including a range of 20th century theatre history. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances deliver an authentic, behind-the-scenes look at hundreds of productions.
- American TheatreAmericanTheatre.org is the online home of American Theatre magazine. It contains every article published in the magazine, with the exception of the complete play scripts. With content updated daily, AmericanTheatre.org delivers up-to-the minute news, in-depth features, stunning visuals, exclusive podcasts and videos, and artists’ commentary and opinions across technological platforms.
- ARTstorARTstor is a cross-disciplinary image database. It offers collections of approximately 300,000 art images and descriptive information covering art, architecture and archeology.
- Global Performing Arts Database (GloPAD)Includes authoritative, detailed, multilingual descriptions of digital images, texts, video clips, sound recordings, and complex media objects related to the performing arts around the world, plus information about related pieces, productions, performers, and creators.
- Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume DesignA rare collection of materials on costume and set designs, housed at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Rare Book and Manuscript Library, that contains over 5000 items including sketches, notes, photographs, storyboards, lists of props, and fabric swatches. It is almost entirely digitized, open access, and supported by a searchable index.
- Theatre LinksA collection of resources covering the history, staging, current events, and teaching of theatre arts.
- UMedia ArchiveUMedia searches digitized collections from the University of Minnesota Libraries, Archives and Special Collections.
Library information
- Wilson Library (West Bank)Wilson Library is the largest library on campus with books on Social Sciences (e.g. History, Business, Psychology, Education, Sociology, etc.) and Humanities (e.g. Art, Literature, etc.) including most of our books in languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French, and dozens more.
Prefer to browse the library stacks? Try the following call numbers:
- PA3050-4505: Greek Literature
- PN1530: The Monologue
- PN1551: The Dialogue
- PN1560-1590: The performing arts. Show business
- PN1600-1989: Drama-Theatrical
- PN2000-3307: Dramatic Representation. The Theatre
- PR621-739: History of English Literature. Drama
- PS330-352: History of American Literature. Drama
Last Updated: Jul 24, 2023 10:22 AM
URL: https://libguides.umn.edu/theatre-arts