Research Guides: THTR 120: Introduction to Theatre: Theatre Resources

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Theatre Resources

A select list of databases. Search Tebo Library for more.

Academic Search Complete
Looking for Academic Search Premier? Academic Search Complete holds all the same resources plus many more. It is a comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1865, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format.
Art Full-Text
Abstracts of articles and some full-text articles from a wide variety of art journals. For best results, search multiple EBSCO databases simultaneously by clicking "Choose Databases" just above the search boxes, then checking the boxes for "Academic Search Premier" and "OmniFile".
Credo Reference E-Book Collection

Reference e-books on a wide range of topics. Sources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, key concepts, key thinkers, handbooks, atlases, and more. Search by keyword or browse titles by topic.
Literature Resource Center
Up-to-date biographical information, overviews, full-text literary criticism and reviews of nearly 130,000 writers in all disciplines, from all time periods from around the world.
Pop Culture Collection
Provides useful information for any researcher in a social science, history, art, or liberal arts courses. This collection is made up of over two million articles from 100 subject-appropriate periodicals, which are predominantly full-text and updated daily. Use Pop Culture Collection to quickly find articles from such titles as Advertising Age, Billboard, Daily Variety, Newsweek, and more!

More Music and Theatre Databases

A select list of reference books. Search Tebo Library for more.

The Complete Costume Dictionary by Elizabeth J. Lewandowski (Illustrator)
ISBN: 9780810877856

Publication Date: 2011-06-01
Arts and Humanities Through the Eras
ISBN: 9780787693848

Publication Date: 2004-12-01
Historical Dictionary of Contemporary American Theater, 1930-2010 by James Fisher
ISBN: 9780810879508

Publication Date: 2011-05-01
The Oxford Companion to American Theatre by Gerald Martin Bordman; Thomas S. Hischak
ISBN: 9780195169867

Publication Date: 2004-05-06

The standard one-volume source on our national theatre.
Oxford Companion to the American Musical by Thomas Hischak
Call Number: Oxford Reference E-Book (click to view)

Among the 2,000-plus entries are those for composers, performers, directors, choreographers, etc., and for individual musical works. The personal entries feature basic biographical information and chronicle the works the artists helped create in a readable narrative style.
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture by Gale Editor (Editor)
ISBN: 9781558628472

Publication Date: 2013-05-07

The entries cover topics and persons in major areas of popular culture: film; music; print culture; social life; sports; television and radio; and art and performance (which include theater, dance, stand-up comedy, and other live performance).

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre
Offers a wealth of information on the history and present practice of theatre in all parts of the world. Written by a team of international experts, it clearly depicts the dynamic interaction of performance traditions from all cultures in present-day theatre. While saluting the history and traditions of 'high' art in the theatre, the Guide also celebrates the importance of 'low' art: the energy and animation that has infused popular theatre and popular entertainment for thousands of years
The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting
Including a chronological list of actors that spans the past 2,000 years and many diverse countries and cultures, this Encyclopedia offers a fascinating and unique overview of acting onstage that will be of interest to anyone who attends or practises theatre.
More Reference Resources

A select list of e-books. Search Tebo Library for more.

The American Theatre Reader by American Theatre Magazine Staff (Editor)
ISBN: 9781559363464

Publication Date: 2009-05-01

In celebration of American Theatre's twenty-fifth anniversary, the editors of the nation's leading theater magazine have chosen their best essays and interviews to provide an intimate look at the people, plays, and events that have shaped the American theater over the past quarter-century.
Arthur Miller's Global Theater by Enoch Brater (Editor)
ISBN: 9780472025060

Publication Date: 2010-02-09

a fascinating collection of new essays by leading international critics and scholars--readers learn how and why audiences around the world have responded to the work of the late theatrical icon.
Ghost Light by Michael M. Chemers
ISBN: 9780809385713

Publication Date: 2010-03-01

Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy offers useful and entertaining answers to the confounding questions: "What, exactly, is dramaturgy, and what does a dramaturg do?"
No Safe Spaces by Angela C. Pao
ISBN: 9780472027972

Publication Date: 2011-02-16

No Safe Spaces looks at one of the most radical and enduring changes introduced during the Civil Rights era---multiracial and cross-racial casting practices in American theater.
Popular Theatre by Joel Schechter (Editor)
ISBN: 9781136412134

Publication Date: 2013-10-11

Introducing both Western and non-Western popular theatre practices, the sourcebook provides access to theatrical forms which have delighted audiences and attracted stage artists around the world.
Staging Philosophy by David Krasner (Editor); David Z. Saltz (Editor)
ISBN: 9780472025145

Publication Date: 2010-02-11

The fifteen original essays in Staging Philosophy make useful connections between the discipline of philosophy and the fields of theater and performance and use these insights to develop new theories about theater.
Strindberg on Drama and Theatre by August Strindberg; Egil Törnqvist; Birgitta Steene (Editor); Egil Törnqvist (Editor)
ISBN: 9789048510047

Publication Date: 2007-10-05

An essential resource for those interested in one of the most influential modern playwrights and for the dedicated theatre lover.

More E-Book Resources

Conducting Light
2 videos on lighting design
The Role of Theatre in Ancient Greece
This program looks at the theatres of Herodus Atticus, Epidauros, Corinth (where Arion is said to have taught the dithyramb), and many others to explain the design of the ancient theater, the synthesis of art forms that was ancient Greek drama, the origins of tragedy, the audience in classical times, the comparative roles of writer/director and actors, and the use of the surrounding landscape in many plays.
Shakespeare and His Theatre: The Globe
fifth of London’s population in the year 1600 were regular playgoers. Examination of the Globe Theatre shows where they stood, how the stage was constructed, and how the special effects so beloved by the audience were achieved, from thunder and lightning to fairies flying through the air and ghosts emerging from the earth. Rehearsals were minimal and there was no producer or director—just the play, the actors, and the audience of two to three thousand, which could be kept under control only by the interest of the play itself. The program points out that Shakespeare himself wrote the plays to be adaptable to different theaters when the company was on tour, and to different audiences.
Theatrical Devices in Classical Theatre
This program covers the purpose, design, and uses of the ekkyklema for showing the victims and perpetrators of off-stage violence; the deus ex machina, a crane mechanism to suspend gods above the stage; Charonian steps, for ghosts from the underworld; and other means of entrance and exit. It also explains the reasons for New Comedy, its audience, and its physical requirements.
Treading the Boards: Theater Fundamentals
3 videos covering The History of Theatre, a Guide to Student Productions, and Costume Design
Village Radicals, New Americans, Boom, and Crash
This program analyzes the cultural changes that occurred during the early 20th century, the golden age of American mainstream theater. Ellen Adler, owner of the Stella Adler Conservatory; playwright Michael Dinwiddie; Brooks McNamara, director of the Shubert Archive; and theater historian and author Mary Henderson address topics such as the impact of immigrants on the emerging voices in drama; the blossoming of ethnic theater; the role of the American Laboratory Theater; the influence of the Greenwich Village Theatre and the Provincetown Players; and the works of Eugene O’Neill, including Beyond the Horizon, Long Day’s Journey into Night, and The Iceman Cometh.
Painting Highlights
Featuring minimal dialog, this video visits several college-level painting classes to see the evolution of student projects for scenic painting, including bricks, dirty walls, wood-graining, and marble, as well as the progression of advanced final projects. The video helps to motivate students to use their imagination and build confidence as they explore the exciting world of theatre painting.

This is a select list of e-journals. Search Tebo Library for more.

American Theatre
Articles, commentary, review articles, theatre reviews on all aspects of national theatre.
Asian Theatre Journal
Official journal of the Association for Asian Performance within the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Peer reviewed articles covering the performing arts of Asia, focusing on both traditional and modern theatrical forms.
Studies in musical theatre
Considers areas of live performance that use vocal and instrumental music in conjunction with theatrical performance as a principal part of their expressive language.
Theatre history studies
Presents critical, analytical, and descriptive articles on all aspects of theatre history since 1981.
Theatre Journal
Drawing contributions from noted practitioners and scholars, Theatre Journal features social and historical studies, production reviews, and theoretical inquiries that analyze dramatic texts and production. Theatre Journal is an official publication of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE).
Theatre Notebook
British Drama & Theater Arts; Theater History
World Theatre
More E-Journals

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