Theater Arts and Drama
For additional assistance, contact Joseph Diaz
Finding Articles (drama criticism) in Indexes
See also Play Texts and Reviews for finding reviews of plays.
Academic Search Complete (Available only to UA Students, Faculty, & Staff)
Multidisciplinary database that includes some full-text articles.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index (Available only to UA Students, Faculty, & Staff)
Multidisciplinary database through cited authors.
Humanities International Complete
Indexes literature in many areas of the humanities including language and literature, folklore, linguistics, performing arts and classical studies. (1984 to present; in print as Humanities Index, 1974 to present)
International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA) (Available only to UA Students, Faculty, & Staff)
Indexes more than 200 international performing arts periodicals and also indexes performing arts related articles and obituaries appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Dance, film, drama/theater, stagecraft, broadcast arts, comedy, storytelling, pantomime, puppetry, magic. Contains some full-text articles, but mostly citations with abstracts.
Literature Online Contains over 800,000 records covering monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays and doctoral dissertations published anywhere in the world from 1920 onwards. All aspects and periods of English literature are covered. British, American and Commonwealth writing are all represented. Coverage is international, including material in languages other than English. Includes over 100 full-text journals.
MLA Bibliography 1956- (Internet access available only to UA Students, Faculty, & Staff) or - Z 7006 .M64 Main Ref. & Main Stacks
Look under nationality and time period for each playwright. The Firstsearch database covers from 1963-present. Indexes monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and articles from periodicals and books onliterary criticism, linguistics, and folklore.
Other sources for finding drama criticism
American Drama Criticism: interpretations, 1890-1977 PS 332 A43 Main Ref;
supplement I (1984); supplement II (1989); supplement III (1992)
Lists "interpretations of American play published since 1890 in books, periodicals, and
as monographs.
Best Plays of...and year book of the drama in America. PN 6112 .B45 Main Stacks
Sections include 1) Digests with critical comments on selected plays 2) Title list of plays
produced in New York giving number of performances, theater, cast and brief outline of
plot; 3) Plays produced outside of New York 4) Shakespeare festivals 5) Statistics of runs
6) List of actors with place and date of birth 7)Prizes and awards. Companion index is
Directory of the American theater, 1894-1971 PN6112 .B4524 Main Reference
which indexes the complete series of Best plays theater yearbooks.
Contemporary American Theater Critics PN 1707.9 C6 Main Stacks
An anthology of critical essays about theatre and theatre performances by leading
American critics, emphasizing the work of regional critics. Arranged by critic name with
a play/musical title index.
Critical Survey of Drama: English Language Series PR 623 .C75 1994 Main Ref
Includes critical essays with bibliographies on major dramatists from Marlowe on. Companion volume is Critical Survey of Drama: Foreign Language Series PN 1625 .C74 1986 Main Ref, which includes critical essays representing plays and identifying themes and characteristics employed by more than 170 dramatists ranging from Aeschylus in 400 B.C. to the contemporary Austrian Peter Handke..
Drama Criticism. PN 1601 .D59 Main Ref
A first stop for assembled critical commentary on the world's most renowned dramatists
who represent a range of nationalities and time periods. Each entry includes when possible
1)brief biographical data and portrait of the playwright 2) background information about debates surrounding the works 3) list of principle works 4) author commentary on own work or art of playwriting 4) overview essays 5) in-depth discussion of selected individual plays 6) bibliographical citations of sources used and further reading material. Only 12-15 entries per volume.
Drama Criticism: A Checklist to Interpretation since 1940 of English and American
Plays , 2 vol. / Arthur Coleman and Gary R. Tyler. Denver, A. Swallow [1966-71]
Z 5781 .C65 Main Reference
Volume 1 covers English and American plays since 1940 and vol. 2 covers classical and
continental plays since
1940. Lists criticism in books and periodicals under dramatist A-Z.
Dramatic criticism index; a bibliography of commentaries on playwrightsfrom Ibsen
to the avant-garde.Z 5781 .B8 Main
Compiled list of nearly 12,000 critical articles in English on over 300 playwrights taken from
books and periodicals. Largely confined to 20th century writers. Includes an index of play
titles and critics.
European Drama criticism, 1900-1975 Z 5781 .P2 1977 Main Reference
Excludes Shakespeare, arranged A-Z by playwright, then by play, then by critic.
Modern Drama: A Checklist of Critical Literature on Twentieth Century Plays Z 5781 .A35 Main Reference
This is an unannotated bibliography of over 9000 entries arranged A-Z under playwright.
General studies are followed by studies of individual plays.
Modern Drama Scholarship and Criticism, 1966-1980 & 1981-1990: An International Bibliography. Main Ref. PN1851 .C37 A classified bibliography containing over 27,000 entries. Emphasis on drama and dramatists rather than theater and performance. International in scope. Bibliography is arranged by nationality of the playwright. Within each national group, playwrights are listed alphabetically.