Check out the Course Reserves.

Dictionary of Literary Biography

The Oxford Dictionary of Plays. PN1625 .P38 2005

The Cambridge Guide to Theatre

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance

A. Use Library Catalogs to find books

1. Tufts Libraries Catalog

2. WorldCat (beyond Tufts)

B. Searches & Results

(note the search pattern; modify to your own needs)

In general, we can search the Catalog from these three perspectives:

1. Subject browse on a playwright:

Marlowe Christopher

2. Focusing a play with a keyword search:

s: marlowe and s:Faustus  

 

s: shakespeare and s: cleopatra

 

s: Aeschylus and s: agamemnon

 

Seneca and Medea

 

Euripides and Medea and (drama or theater)

 

Aristophanes and frogs

(s: limits to subject words for focused results)

Or, searching, in particular, for the production history of the play,

Faustus and (product* or stag* or theat*)

Note: produc* searches for produced, production, etc.

 

3. Looking at the larger context

Follow the path in the Catalog
—Pay attention to relevant subject headings in your search results. Follow that link to more contents.

Author	Shepherd, Simon.
Title	English Drama: a Cultural History
Publisher	Oxford, Eng.; Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.
Subject	English drama -- History and criticism.
	National characteristics, English, in literature.
	Literature and history -- England -- History.
	Theater and society -- England

 

Another good example here would be starting with “Lazzi”  as a keyword search to the link to Commedia dell'arte, the genre.

Author	Gordon, Mel.
Title	Lazzi: the Comic Routines of the Commedia dell'arte / Mel Gordon.
Publisher	New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, c1983.
Genre	Commedia dell'arte.

Variations of these basic searches

1. Search on the playwright and/or the play in the context of comedy:

(Machiavelli or Mandragola) and comedy

2. Both “everyman” and “mankind” are such common words, so specify the search with the keywords, “play” and “drama”

everyman and play

Mankind and play and drama

"second shepherds play"

Larger contexts:

Christian drama

Mysteries and miracle-plays, English -- History and criticism.

English drama (Tragedy)

English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600.

 

Sample titles:
The Wakefield Mystery Plays
Elizabethan and Jacobean Tragedy: an Anthology
The Cambridge companion to Medieval English Theatre
Four Middle English Mystery Cycles: Textual, Contextual, and Critical Interpretations

3. (Chushingura or Matsukaze) and (play or drama)

the larger contexts:

Kabuki

Kabuki plays
Nō

Theater japan
Japanese Drama

Zeami

 

4. More examples of searches on playwrights and plays

Jonson, Ben, 1573?-1637. (subject browse)

"Ben Jonson" and  Masques (focus on the play)

Masques, English -- History and criticism. (the larger context)

"The Brothers Menaechmus"

Greek drama (Comedy) (the larger context)

Plautus Titus Maccius

Hrotsvitha

Ford, John, 1586-ca. 1640.

'Tis pity she's a Whore: a Critical Guide

A. Use Subject Databases for Journal Articles:

1 & 2. JSTOR and Project Muse

JSTOR is a favorite with its full texts in core journals of all disciplines. Project Muse does not include exactly the same JSTOR journals, but it has more recent and current articles on many topics.

 

Expand your search into more databases and from various perspectives

3. Academic OneFile
All subjects; a convenient Quick Start.

 

4. Drama (MLA)

For drama criticism and theatre history

5. Performing Arts (IIPA)

For theater reviews

6. When use GoogleScholar, set your Library Links to access Tufts full texts.

B. Finding Full Texts

1. Click on the button in your search results screen to a window of three sequential options:

a. link to the digital full text when available;

b. link to a Library Catalog search for the print journal;

c. link to ILliad for requesting the article when the above two options are negative.

2. Search for a journal directly here:

a. Tufts Library Catalog (including e-journals)

b. Electronic journals list

c. Use ILliad to request your article, if Tufts does not have your journal.

C. Request Articles/Books

Set up for your ILliad account

Use ILLiad, our Interlibrary Loan Service, to request articles, books and other materials that are not available at Tufts.

A. Current:

Book, Movie, Music, Play, And Video Reviews (in LexisNexis)

Factiva (more international coverage)

Alt-PressWatch (1970 -present)

Ethnic NewsWatch (1959-present)

 

B. Historical

Times Digital Archive  (1785 - 1985)

New York Times Online Archive
(1851 - 3 years before current date)

Essays and Popular Magazines
    Search across: Essay and General Literature (1900 -84), Art Retrospective (1929 - 84), Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature (1890 – 1982).

African American Newspapers - 19th Century

American Newspapers (1690 - 1922)

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (1860-1922)

American Periodicals (1740 - 1940)

British Humanities Index (1962- )
British Periodicals(1680s - 1930s)

 

OpinionArchives

     Some of the oldest continuously published magazines in America, including American Spectator, Commentary, Commonweal, Dissent, Harpers Magazine, NACLA, The Nation, The National Review, The New Republic, New York Review, and The New Yorker.

 

In print:

New York Theatre Critics' Reviews. (1944 to 1994)
Ref. PN1601 .N4
(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.

Stream Videos

Dance in Video

Opera in video

blinkx

Hulu

Digital Images

ARTstor

Image Quest (rights-cleared images)

Library of Congress Performing Arts Encyclopedia

New York Public Library Picture Collection

New York Public Library Web Gallery of Images

MLA Style (for citing sources)

RefWorks