Theater and Dance Research Guide 

What's Here

Annuals and Directories encompass a wide variety of information sources. This section includes directories of theaters, theater programs, business aspects of theater, and lists of plays and performances in any given year (annuals).

For information about actors, agents and managers, see the Movie Industry and Personnel page in the Film Studies Research Guide.

Searching for Annuals and Directories in Orbis:

• Theaters--directories
• Theater--United States--Directories (can substitute location)

Selected Directories and Annuals

The African American Theatre Directory, 1816-1960. Bernard L. Peterson, Jr. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1997.

SML Reference, PN2270 A35 P48X 1997.

A comprehensive guide to early Black theatre organizations, companies, theatres, and performing groups.

Annuaire du spectacle: cinema, theatre, television et musique varietes. Paris: 1971.

SML Reference, PN2620 A18 25

Directory of French show business including cinema, radio, television, music halls and cabarets, playhouses, tradesmen, performers, mostly in French theater and film, with an index of names. A similar section summarizes some of the same information for the Common-Market nations and for French-speaking Switzerland. This publication began in 1942/43 but Yale has only the one volume.

The Best Plays. 1899/09-1947/47. New York. Annual.

SML Stacks, PN6112 B47

Arts Reference & Stacks, Ba M31b

Beinecke, Za Zb387

Beinecke, Ip B276x B464

The yearbook of theater in America. Also called the Burns Mantle Yearbook. Currently edited by Otis L. Guernsey. Summarizes the season in New York, the United States, and London. Includes professional regional theater and the Shakespeare festivals. Digests the year's ten best plays. Gives playbills of plays produced on and off Broadway. Section on facts and figures lists long runs, awards, recently published plays, original cast albums, the best plays since 1894, necrology. Index in each volume.

The Black theatre directory. Addell Austin Anderson. 3d. ed. Detroit, Mich.: Black Theatre Network, 1993.

SML Reference, PN2270 A35 +A52 1993

Contemporary theatre, film, and television. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co., c1984-current. Available online, as part of the Biography Resource Center

SML Stacks & Arts Reference, PN2012 W47+ Oversize

Biographical annual. Continues Who's who in the theatre.

Directory of the American Theater, 1894-1971; Indexed to the Complete Series of Best Plays Theater Yearbooks. Otis L. Guernsey, Jr. ed. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1971.

SML Reference & Stacks, Arts Reference PN6112 B47Bb

Indexes authors and titles of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway shows named in the Best Plays annuals, including the retrospective volumes dated 1894-1899, 1899-1909, and 1909-1919. Refers to the volume and page of the Best Plays series.

Handel's National Directory for the Performing Arts and Civic Centers. Dallas: NDPA, 1973-.

SML Reference, PN2289 +H35 (latest vol. only)

SML Stacks & Arts Reference PN2289 +H35 

Lists permanent performing arts organizations throughout the United States along with their staff, purpose, board of directors, source of income, season, facilities, etc. College and university organizations are included when they are the major performance house for an area. Arranged by state, then city. Indexed.

International Theatre Directory: A World Directory of the Theater and Performing Arts. Leo B. Pride, ed.ew York: Simon and Schuster, 1973.

SML Reference, PN2052 +P75

Directory of professional theaters, opera companies, leading ballet and dance troupes, major university theaters around the world. Arranged by country, then by city. Illustrated.

Opera Companies and Houses of Western Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, a comprehensive illustrated reference. Karyl Lynn Zietz. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1999.

SML Stacks, ML12 Z54X 1999 (LC).

Simon's Directory of Theatrical Materials, Services and Information. 4th ed. New York: 1955-.

SML Stacks, PN2289 S55

In addition to listing suppliers for all theater needs throughout the United States, this directory gives copyright information and lists in-print theater books; theater booksellers; libraries; periodicals; organizations for the non-professional theater; conventions and conferences; government foundations; training programs in drama, dance and film; play contests and awards; etc.

Theatre World. New York: 1945-. Annual.

SML Reference, PN2277 N5 A1 T44

Arts Reference, PN2000 T56

Beinecke, JWJ A D222

Also known as Daniel Blum's Theatre World. Reviews the theater season in the United States--Broadway, Off-Broadway, national touring companies, Shakespeare festivals, professional resident companies--with full casts and personnel. Lists award winners and gives brief biographies and obituaries for that year's performers.

Who's Who in Contemporary World Theatre. Daniel Meyer-Dinkgrafe, ed. London; New York: Routledge, 2000.

SML Reference, PN2035 W485 2000.