Theater and Dance Research Guide 

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Scholarly articles -- critical analyses of particular plays, directors, actors, etc. -- can be found in journals and in books (such as collections and conference proceedings). Most databases will find articles in newspapers and magazines, others include books.

You can often retrieve articles from a database. However, the print version of the article may be the best one for your needs. If there are any photos, their quality will be much better than in the online version, and sometimes the online version doesn't include the photos at all. Also, in general it's easier to read print than screens.

• Key Databases for Articles on Theater and Dance
• Additional Journal Databases and Indexes
• Multi-Database Search

Another type of criticism are the performance and book reviews written in the popular literature. Reviews and criticism often overlap. For more information, see Reviews.

You may also be interested in Artslynx's list of Theatre Journals, Magazines and Publications.

Key Databases for Articles on Theater and Dance

International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance

IBTD comprises the most comprehensive index of publications on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries, from 1982 to the present. Many articles are available in full text online, as are several dozen complete books.

International Index to the Performing Arts

IIPA covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry, including drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, dance, film, television, broadcast arts, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic and more.

MLA Bibliography

The MLA Bibliography indexes critical materials on literature and language. Its orientation is literary but it does list some articles focusing on performance. Note that it covers only modern languages -- for resources on classical theater and drama, see the Classics subject guide.

Additional Journal Databases and Indexes

Arts & Humanities Citation Index (via Web of Science)

An international index to literature on the arts and humanities, indexing the contents of about 6,100 journals, covering about 1,000 fully and about 5,100 selectively.

The Dramatic Index. Boston: Boston Book, 1909-1949.

LSF AI3 M343 (LC)

Also known as Annual Magazine Subject-Index. Indexes articles and illustrations in American and English periodicals, and includes books, printed plays, government publications, and pamphlets.

Humanities Full Text (via WilsonWeb)

Humanities Abstracts indexes and abstracts articles from 400 English-language periodicals in all major scholarly fields. Coverage includes some of the best-known scholarly journals and numerous lesser-known but important periodicals.

How to Find More Journal Indexes

Additional periodical indexes can be located in Orbis by using the following subject headings:

theater--periodicals--indexes
theater--bibliography--periodicals
drama--bibliography--periodicals

NOTE: When you search subject headings, use the spelling THEATER, not THEATRE.

TIME SAVER: You can often save yourself work by looking at existing bibliographies, which often include both books and articles. You can then locate more recent research by using article indexes and Orbis.

Multi-Database Search

You can speed up your research process by searching several databases simultaneously. To do this, you can click on the link above. Or from the library's home page go to the Databases and Article Searching page. Then click on the link for Multi-Database Search (near the top of the page). Along the left there's a column with some options. Under Category, choose Arts. Then choose "Drama, Theater, Dance" from the list. If you need more articles on plays, you should also try the multi-database search for particular languages/literatures.

The Multi-Database Search feature covers the following databases: Arts & Humanities Citation Index, Humanities Full Text, International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance, International Index to the Performing Arts Full Text, MLA Bibliography, and Orbis. You can exclude databases if you like. However, there are several caveats:

1. There are additional theater-related databases which the Multi-Database Search system can not include, such as the full-text drama databases;
2. Multi-Database Search only does basic keyword searches and lacks the advanced features that you'll find if you use the database's own interface; and
3. Multi-Database Search has only a limited ability to remove duplicate records, so you will probably find yourself having to page through citations that you've already seen.

In short, this is a quick-and-dirty search tool.