LibGuides: Theatre: Reference Sources

Reference Books/E-Books

Below are a selected few reference books about Theatre. Be sure to browse the reference shelves in the MT's for Musical Theatre and PN2000 to PN 3307 for Theatre to find more materials.

Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians
Call Number: [electronic resource]
Broadway plays and musicals : descriptions and essential facts of more than 14,000 shows through 2007
Call Number: [REF] PN2277.N5 H573 2009
ISBN: 0786434481
Crowell's handbook of classical drama
Call Number: [REF] PA3024 .H35
Crowell's handbook of contemporary drama
Call Number: [REF] PN1861 .C7
Drama A to Z : a handbook
Call Number: [REF] PN1625 .V3
McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama
Call Number: [REF] PN1625 .M3
ISBN: 0070795673
Music in Shakespeare : a dictionary
Call Number: [electronic resource]
The Columbia encyclopedia of modern drama
Call Number: [REF] PN1861 .C65 2007
ISBN: 0231140320
The Encyclopedia of world theater : with 420 illustrations and an index of play titles
Call Number: [REF] PN2035 .E52 1977
ISBN: 068414834X
The Hutchinson concise dictionary of music
Call Number: [electronic resource]
The Oxford encyclopedia of theatre & performance
Call Number: [REF] PN2035 .O94 2003
ISBN: 0198601743
The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance by Dassia N. Posner (Editor); Claudia Orenstein (Editor); John Bell (Editor)
Call Number: ebrary Ebook
Publication Date: 2014
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance, 2nd Ed. by Paul Allain; Jen Harvie
Call Number: ebrary Ebook
Publication Date: 2014
The World encyclopedia of contemporary theatre
Call Number: [REF]PN1861 .W67 1994
ISBN: 0415059283
Twentieth-century literary movements dictionary
Call Number: [REF] PN597 .T94 2000
ISBN: 1558884262

Online Reference Shelf

Academic OneFile - Gale This link opens in a new window
Search 8,000 academic journals in all disciplines plus the New York Times and podcasts and transcripts from NPR, CNN and others. Courtesy MBLC & MLS.
Biography - Gale in Context This link opens in a new window
Find biographies of people, searching by occupation, nationality, ethnicity, birth and death date, and of course by name. Courtesy Massachusetts Library System.
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Search hundreds of reference sources - dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopedias, quotations and atlases - for topic overviews and links to our other online resources. Includes mind map/concept map search feature.
Gale Ebooks, formerly GVRL Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Find introductory articles in all disciplines, business plans, directories and more. Name and interface change on Sept. 13, 2019.
Grove Art - Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new window
Start here for all art topics. Find articles, images, art terms, timelines and lesson plans for all aspects of the visual arts worldwide, with links to ARTstor and Art Resource. See Oxford Reference for other Art reference works. Three users can access at one time.
Grove Music - Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Find articles on all aspects of music. Oxford Music Online includes Grove Online plus Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music. See also Oxford Reference for relate works. Three users can access at one time.
Literary Reference Center - EBSCOhost This link opens in a new window
Find plot summaries, synopses, overviews, literary criticism, author biographies, book reviews, poetry, short stories and more. An alternate graphical interface is also available.
Literature Resource Center - Gale This link opens in a new window
Find author biographies and critical analyses from every age and literary discipline, from many Gale sources including Contemporary Literary Criticism. A new mobile-friendly interface will be launched September 25, 2015. Courtesy MBLC & MLS.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The OED is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium tracing their meaning, history, and pronunciation, both present and past.