The Oxford Companion to American Theatre

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance

Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis (Ref. PN2035 .P313 1998)

Contemporary dramatists. 5th ed. (Ref. PR737 .C57 1993)

Major modern dramatists. (Ref. PN1861 .M27 1984)

Dictionary of Literary Biography
Provides nearly 10,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres; includes volumes on dramatists of different countries and time periods, literary critics and scholars, and cultural theorists, and ancient writers.

Contemporary Literary Criticism--Select
Provides an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary authors. Each entry contains a biographical/critical introduction, listing of principal works, and sources for further study.

• Tufts Library Catalog [http://library.tufts.edu/]
• WorldCat [Tisch Library Website, http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/; select Databases and Articles]

Tip in using the Library Catalog
A Subject Browse is a very effective way to gain an overview of sources available on a playwright:

There are 132 books, videos and other types of materials under 35 sub-topics on Ibsen:

Theater Reviews (in Newpapers, Trade and Popular Magazines)

Online Sources

Print Indexes (current and historical)
New York Theatre Critics' Reviews (Ref. PN1601 .N4)
Complete reviews from popular media sources from 1944 to 1994. Continued by National Theatre Critics Reviews (Ref. PN 2000 .N3).
Tip: Use the Year End Index, either in the front or in the back page in the binder.

Theatre Record 1985- (Bound Periodicals PN2596 .L6 L66)
Presents cast and production details for London’s West End and fringe shows, and reviews from many British daily and weekly drama critics.

American Literary And Drama Reviews: An Index To Late Nineteenth Century Periodicals (Ref. PN2256 .M37)

Lexis-Nexis    Search examples

Expanded Academic ASAP  

International Index to the Performing Arts   

New York Times Historical Archive, 1851-2005
For lastest three years use Lexis-Nexis above.

London Times Digital Archive 1785-1985.

Nation Digital Archive July 6th, 1865 - present.

Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive

See the Search above in the Library Catalog

• See the above Search in the Library Catalog for books

Key Databases
MLA International Bibliography  1923 -    Search examples
An international index to books and journals on the modern languages and literatures, including linguistics and folklore.

Project Muse and JSTOR      Search examples
These are two digital collections of core journals in many disciplines. While Project Muse offers more recent issues, JSTOR has more earlier issues.

In Print:
Modern drama scholarship and criticism, 1981-1990: an international bibliography. (Ref. PN1851.Z99 C37 1997)

International bibliography of theatre, 1982-1999. (Ref.PN1561 .I53)

More Databases:

International Index to the Performing Arts      Search examples
Indexes more than 200 scholarly and popular periodicals in dance, theater, film, and television, from 1998 to the present, with expanding retrospective coverage of some titles.

Expanded Academic ASAP,1980-        
This multidisciplinary database includes articles from scholarly journals as well as general-interest magazines, and some newspapers.

Google Scholar  Search examples

Tip: Use more than one source/database (each with its own particular academic discipline/subject focus and extensiveness of coverage) for a comprehensive and in-depth research on your topic.

Example, your topics are of an interdisciplinary nature--drama/theater studies and cultural studies, to say the least. Or, you will be applying a special critic method or theory, such as feminist and women’s studies, in looking at your plays or playwright.

Example, journals may be included in one relevant database, but not another. Or different database covers different years of a shared journal. For instance, Asian Theatre Journal is covered in JStor from 1984 to 2003, while Expanded Academic ASAP offers indexing from 2000 to the current year.

Cultural and Area Studies
Bibliography of Asian Studies
An index of Western-language articles, monographs, and book chapters published since 1971.

Index Islamicus
The Index Islamicus covers Islam, the Middle East and the Muslim world. It is produced by the Islamic Bibliography Unit of the Cambridge University Library and indexes articles back to 1906.

PRISMA publicaciones y revistas sociales y humanísticas
full-text scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities for the interdisciplinary academic study of Hispanic and Latin America, and the Caribbean Basin.

Finding Full Texts