Theatre, Entertainment Technology, and Acting Research Guide: THTR 101

Where to Look:

• Books - Search your playwright in the library catalog for print or e-books; reference sources, such as drama or theater encyclopedias or dictionaries
• Literature Resource Center - search and your playwright and click on the Biography tab
• Drama for Students - search your playwright's name or the title of one of his/her works - articles begin with a short biographical sketch
• Newspaper databases:  ProQuest Newspapers, ProQuest Historical New York Times, ProQuest Historical Baltimore Sun
• Periodical databases (magazines, journals, newspapers):  Academic Search Premier

The ENGL 102 Research Guide has a DRAMA Resources tab which has additional links that you might find helpful.

• This includes literary criticism, historical perspectives/context, personal perspective of the playwright, etc.
• NOTE: Some of these are the same as the Playwright Biography list but you use them differently:
  • Literature Resource Center - search the title of the play and click on the Literary Criticism, Overview or Primary Sources & Literary Works tabs
  • Drama for Students - search the title of the play - the article will include Historical Context, Critical Overview, Criticism
  • Library Catalog - search by the play title or playwright and add the word "criticism"
  • Reference works:  Literature and Its Times - REF PN50 L574 1997 - some articles are included in Literature Resource Center but not all, and the books have extra stuff like timelines that show literary works and what was going on around the world at the time.  The content is organized by literary work and time period, so even if your play isn't included, you can probably find out what was happening in the time period.
  • Salem Literature database - look under Literature heading on the left side of the landing page.  Unfortunately, not many of your playwrights are included in the larger works, but there is a source called Introduction to Literary Context: Plays that has a few of the plays you're researching.

• Literature Resource Center - Reviews & News  tab - read carefully as not all articles are reviews of a particular production (and of course, some are not reviews at all.)
• Newspaper databases: ProQuest Newspapers , ProQuest Historical New York Times, ProQuest Historical Baltimore Sun - You can set up a search to retrieve only reviews.  In Advanced Search, scroll down to Document Type and click on "Review."  You can also search for your play title, and then select "Review" under Document Type on the right side of the results screen.  NOTE:  Some of these will be reviews of other plays or books that mention your play.  You can add your playwright's name or the word "theater" to help narrow down the results. If you don't limit your search to reviews, you should get a larger set of results but not all articles will have your play as the main focus.