Theater and Dance Research Guide 

What's Here

It's not always easy to find plays, which are often collected in anthologies.  Sometimes one also wants to find out what plays were written (or were popular) during some historical period.  Play catalogs and collection indexes may provide just the ticket.

Example Searches for Lists of Plays in Orbis

• Drama--Bibliography (useful for locating plays in collections and anthologies)
• Drama--Indexes (useful for locating plays in collections and anthologies)
• English drama--Bibliography
• American drama--Bibliography

Key Resources

Doollee

An extensive (virtually comprehensive) database of modern playwrights and plays written in or translated into English since the production of Look Back in Anger in 1956.  It lists around 30,000 playwrights and about 100,000 plays, and can be searched by author, title, and number of male & female roles.  It also offers lists of literary agents, publishers, theaters, and plays with significant gay/lesbian elements.

Inter-Play

Inter-Play is an online index to plays in collections, anthologies, and periodicals and in a variety of languages. The sources indexed range from the late 19th century through the current year.

Play Index

The Play Index includes works either written in or translated into English, providing citations to over 30,000 plays and links to the results of an Internet metasearch of specially selected Web sites to link to full text, criticism, and other useful information.  You can also use this database to discover plays with (say) three female and two male roles, or on a particular topic (or possibly even both).

Other Selected Play Catalogs and Collection Indexes

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.

Arts & SML Reference PN6112 B47Bb (LC)

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.

Dramatic Compositions Copyrighted in the United States 1870 to 1916. 2 vol. Library of Congress. Copyright Office. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1918.

SML Z5781 U55 (LC)

Includes over 60,000 titles of dramatic works registered from 1870 to the end of 1916. Cross references from alternate and translated titles. Arranged by title of play. Index to authors, translators, composers, editors, at end of vol. 2.

Dramatic Play Lists, 1591-1963. Carl J. Stratman. New York: New York Public Library, 1966.

SML Reference, Z2014 D7 S86 (LC)

A master-list of printed play lists, issued separately or as part of larger works. Arranged chronologically by date of the list, with author/title index. Extremely useful.

Index to Characters in the Performing Arts: An Alphabetical Listing of 30,000 Characters. Harold S. Sharp and Marjorie Z. Sharp. 4 vol. New York: 1966-1973.

SML Reference, PN1579 S52

Music Reference, PN1579 S531

Part I, Non-Musical Plays. Part II, Operas and Musical Productions. Part III, Ballets. Part IV, Radio and Television. Identifies characters, with brief description of their roles. Cross references from first names and titles (King, Governor, Mayor, etc.) to last name. Family relationships between characters are generally indicated in one main entry; for example, the entry for Blanche DuBois refers to Stanley Kowalski. Major and minor characters included.

Index to twentieth-century Spanish plays : in collections, anthologies, and periodicals. Tony A. Harvell. Lanham, MD; London: Scarecrow Press, 2000.

SML Reference, Z2694 D7 H17X 2000

A manual for the collector and amateur of old English plays. Edited from the material formed by Kirkman, Langbaine, Downes, Oldys, and Halliwell-Phillipps, with extensive additions and corrections. W. Carew Hazlitt.  (London, Pickering & Chatto, 1892.)

SML Reference, Z2014 D7 H39 (LC)

Lists of English plays, indexed by author and title. It includes plays in collections.

Ottemiller's index to plays in collections: an author and title index to plays appearing in collections published between 1900 and 1985. 7th ed. Revised and enlarged by Billie M. Connor and Helene G. Mochedlover. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1988.

Arts & SML Reference Z5781 O88 1988

The Player's Library: The Catalogue of the Library of the British Drama League. London: Faber and Faber, 1925-.

SML Stacks, Z2014 D7 B75 (LC)

Two main sections: catalog of plays arranged by author, with title index, and subject catalog of books on the theater, with index of names.

"The Stage" Cyclopaedia: A Bibliography of Plays. H. J. Eldredge. London: 1909.

SML Reference, Z2014 D7 E43 (LC)

On title page: "An alphabetical list of plays and other stage pieces of which any record can be found since the commencement of the English stage, together with descriptions, authors' names, dates and places of production, and other useful information...." Lists about 50,000 titles. Useful finding list.

Three Centuries of English and American Plays: A Checklist. England: 1500-1800. United States: 1714- 1830. G. William Bergquist, ed. New York: 1963.

SML Stacks & Reference, Z2014 D7 +B47 1963 (LC)

Compiled to serve as an index to the contents of Microprint edition of Three Centuries of English and American Plays. British Drama League. Library.