Theater History  

About this Guide
This subject guide is designed to introduce you to some of the resources available for the study of theater history. Click on the tabs above for links to pages with tips on finding books, articles, and videos  

A few basic resources
Here are a few online resources to get you started:

American Variety Stage is a multimedia anthology selected from various Library of Congress holdings. This collection illustrates the vibrant and diverse forms of popular entertainment, especially vaudeville, that thrived from 1870-1920. Included are 334 English- and Yiddish-language playscripts, 146 theater playbills and programs, 61 motion pictures, 10 sound recordings and 143 photographs and 29 memorabilia items documenting the life and career of Harry Houdini. Groups of theater posters and additional sound recordings will be added to this anthology in the future.

Internet Broadway Database (IBDB) is the official database for Broadway theatre information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today. You can access IBDB by clicking on 'Databases' on the Libraries' home page and then clicking on 'I' in the alphabetical listings.

Shakespeare Collection is an interdisciplinary, multimedia collection of resources supporting literary, textual, historical, and performance studies. Resources include the most recent Arden Shakespeare editions of the complete works, as well as editions and adaptations of Shakespeare’s works published during Shakespeare’s time, prompt books, the Gordon Crosses Theatrical Diaries, criticism, reviews, images, and reference works.