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Theatre Resources

Getting Started with Reference Resources

Background information and reference resources


Background information can help you prepare for further research by explaining concepts related to your topic, especially if you are researching an unfamiliar topic or discipline. Entries in reference resources tend to be short and can help you get started with research on a new topic, identify trends in a subject area, and define unfamiliar terms or people from your readings. Reference resources include encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases and handbooks. 

General Reference Databases

Subject-Specific Online Reference Resources

Reference Books

Chronologies

American Theatre, 1969-2000
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN2277 .N5 H57 2000

Dictionaries

Historical dictionary of American Theater: Modernism
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN2266.3 .F57 2008

Oxford Dictionary of Plays
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN1625 .P38 2005

Encyclopedias

American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia
CALL NUMBER: Ref. ML102.M88 H59 1995

The Billboard illustrated encyclopedia of opera
CALL NUMBER: Ref. ML102.O6 B55 2004

Cambridge guide to American theatre
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN2220 .C35 2007

Cambridge Guide to Theatre
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN2035 .C27 1995

Columbia encyclopedia of modern drama
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN1861 .C65 2007

Encyclopedia of Latin American theater
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PQ7082.D7 E63 2003

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through American History: 1900 to Present
CALL NUMBER: Ref. GT615 .G74 2008

Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History
CALL NUMBER: Ref. GT507 .G74 2008

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN1625 .M3

Oxford companion to American Theatre
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN2220 .B6 2004

Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN2035 .O94 2003

She also wrote plays : an international guide to women playwrights from the 10th to the 21st century
CALL NUMBER:Ref. PN6119.8 .C76 2001

Stage it with music : an encyclopedic guide to the American musical theatre
CALL NUMBER: Ref. ML102.M88 H6 1993

Twentieth-century American dramatists
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PS221 .D5 v.249

World encyclopedia of contemporary theatre
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN1861 .W67 1994

Indices

Best American Plays
CALL NUMBER: PS634 .B4

Index to twentieth-century Spanish plays
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PQ6115 .H17 2000

Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN1655 .O8 2011

Play Index
CALL NUMBER: Ref. PN1655 .P53