All Guides: Theater and Dance: Researching Productions

Researching a Particular Theme?

Browse any of our Theater and Dance databases for literary criticism and thematic analysis. We picked a few favorites to get you started.

America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Scholarly journals, books, and dissertations covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from before European contact to the present.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index This link opens in a new window
Provides article references for journals across the arts and humanities disciplines, including art and art history, archeology, architecture, dance, music, film and theater, history, humanities, literature, and religion. Offers cited reference searching.
BASE This link opens in a new window A search engine for academic web resources - includes journals, institutional repositories, digital collections etc. Many open access resources.
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Digital Library of the Caribbean This link opens in a new window dLOC is a cooperative of partners within the Caribbean region that provides access to Caribbean cultural, historical and research materials held in archives, libraries, and private collections. Types of materials include; newspapers, official documents, documentation and numeric data for ecosystems, scientific scholarship, historic and contemporary maps, oral histories, travel accounts, literature, poetry, musical expressions, and artifacts. Contains entries with information about specific performances in the Caribbean
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Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window DPLA materials come from America’s libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions. All of these are freely available and include; photographs, books, maps, news footage, oral histories, personal letters, museum objects, artwork, government documents, etc.
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Directory of Open Access Journals This link opens in a new window Access to quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals covering a range of topics and languages.
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Dissertations and Thesis - Open Access (Proquest) This link opens in a new window Provides the full text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge. Check out theses and dissertations in the field of performance studies.
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HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window A digital preservation repository that provides access to millions of digitized materials from libraries around the world. For enhanced access to materials, log into HathiTrust using your Macalester email credentials.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Large archival collection of core scholarly journals in the major academic areas, providing full text back to their date of first publication to within the current 2-5 years.
Knowledge Unlatched This link opens in a new window Open access to scholarly ebooks primarily in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Check out their "Music, Art, and Performing Arts" section
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Literary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new window
In concert with the MLA International Bibliography databases, another good source for researching plays and playwrights as literature and literary figures.
MLA International Bibliography (Ebsco) This link opens in a new window
A major source for researching plays as literature and for engaging in thematic discussions.
Open Book Publishers This link opens in a new window Find peer-reviewed open access books in a variety of subjects. Check out their section on Theater.
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Open Library of Humanities This link opens in a new window The Open Library of Humanities is a non-profit open access publisher for the humanities and social sciences.
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Project MUSE This link opens in a new window
Access to journals in the humanities and social sciences, covering literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and economics.

StarTribune Stage & Arts
What's going on in the Twin Cities? Check out the StarTribune Stage & Arts news to find exhibit openings and more.
How Was The Show
Reviews and interviews posted regularly.
Twin Cities Theater Bloggers
A weekly round-up post lists reviews from various Twin Cities theater aficionados.

CurtainUp.com
U.S.-focused online magazine of reviews, going back to 1996.
Off Off Online
Focuses on Off- and Off-Off-Broadway shows in New York, going back to 2004.
New York Theatre Wire
Reviews for theatre and dance performances in New York. Since 1996.
LexisNexis Play Reviews
Set up to search through LexisNexis Academic's collection specifically for play reviews.

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
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Choose Advanced Search and select "Entertainment Review" under Document Type. Search for title, performer, venue, playwright, etc.
Literary Sources (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Gale Literary Sources allows users to search across several literature databases (Literature Resource Center, Literature Criticism Online, and others) to find full text of literary works, journal articles, literature criticism, reviews, biographical information and overviews.
US Newsstream (ProQuest) This link opens in a new window
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Refine your search by selecting Document Type: Review. Search by title of the play, performer, venue, playwright, etc. Includes the Star Tribune, New York Times, and The Times of London. Also see our New York Times Archive, which goes back to 1851 and the Times (London) Digital Archive which goes back to 1785.
New York Times Archive This link opens in a new window
Searchable full text of the New York Times from the first issue in 1851 to 4 years ago. Includes full page and article images. Most recent years of the Times can be searched in US Newsstream or New York Times - Digital Microfilm.
The Times Historical Archive, 1785–2014 (Gale Primary Sources) This link opens in a new window
Full-text and full-image archive to the Times of London for the years 1785-2014.

Topic Overviews

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance

eBook
This encyclopedia provides authoritative and up-to-date information about theatre and performance from ancient Greek theatre to the latest developments in London, Paris, New York, and around the globe.

Encyclopedia of Musical Theater

MAC Reference ML102.M88 G3 2001
Musical theater around the world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, covering performers, composers, writers, shows, producers, directors, choreographers, and designers.

International Encyclopedia of Dance

eBook and MAC Reference GV1585 .I586 1998
A core reference work including signed entries and bibliographies, this covers the full spectrum of dance—theatrical, ritual, dance-drama, folk, traditional, ethnic, and social dance.

The SAGE Handbook of Performance Studies

MAC Stacks PN1590.S6 S24 2006
Brings together discussions of the major research in performance studies and identifies directions for further investigation.

Acting

MAC Stacks PN2035 .O84 2001
A cross-cultural reference work exploring the diversity of expression found in rituals, festivals, and performances, uncovering acting techniques and practices from around the world.

Magazines @ Mac

American Theatre
Print & Online
DANCE Magazine
Print & Online
Contact Quarterly (CQ): A Journal of Dance & Improvisation
Print
Public Art Review
Print & Online

Open Source Dance Resources

Jacob's Pillow Dance Interactive
A growing, diverse, digital library of videos and essays. Includes video playlists such as Male-Female Duets, Directing from Offstage, and Black History Month and essays around themes such as Dance in the African Diaspora and Women in Dance.
America's Dance Treasures
A curated online exhibit of people, places, and groups that have had an impact on the dance cultural heritage of the United States. Profiles include biographies, videos, essays, and ‘suggested reading’ lists for further research.
Curating the Memoirs of Blacks in Ballet
A growing, annotated timeline of Black people in ballet from 1919 to today.
British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database
Documents Black and Asian contributions to the UK’s theatre scene. Search by person, role, play, and company.
Japanese Performing Arts Resource Center
Digital collection of resources for research about Japan’s performing arts.