Faculty Research Interests
To learn more about the research interests of Theatre Studies Department
faculty, visit the department's
faculty web page.
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Niagara University Library
Guide to Theatre Studies Research
Finding Journal Articles
The Library does not own an index devoted solely to theatre journals, but the following databases can be helpful. Start with:
- Academic Search Complete via EBSCOhost
- This database helps you find articles from some theatre and drama journals and has some full text.
Research Library via ProQuest
This database contains some theatre titles and has some full text.
Then try:
- JSTOR: Selected Collections
- This database provides access to the full text of many core scholarly journals in the arts and sciences. Please note: Coverage dates vary from journal to journal.
- MLA Bibliography
- This database indexes drama and literature journals back to the 1960s. Search results include citations and abstracts, not full-text articles.
- Arts & Humanities Search via FirstSearch
- This database indexes articles back to 1980 and is only available by appointment. Search results include citations and abstracts, not full-text articles.
If you are doing historical theater research, you might also want to try:
- America: History and Life
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This database indexes the literature of American and Canadian history written since 1954. Search results include citations and abstracts, not full-text articles.
- Historical Abstracts
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This database indexes the literature of world history, excluding the United States and Canada, written since 1954. Search results include citations and abstracts, not full-text articles.
- New York Times Historical
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The database has full-text and full-image articles beginning with the newspaper's first issue in 1851. You may find articles and profiles on theatre figures as well as reviews.
Tip: Sometimes the word theatre is spelled theater. You can search for both variations by using a technique called truncation. In most databases, you can type in theat* to search for both words, but please ask a reference librarian if this doesn't work.
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If your topic deals with plays or playwrights, try:
- Literature Resource Center
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This database provides full-text access to biographies and critical analysis of authors from every age and literary discipline. It covers more than 90,000 writers with additional in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most studied authors.
- Twayne Authors Series
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This literary reference resource series provides literary criticism for nearly 600 authors.
If you are looking for play reviews since 1990 or so, try:
- Westlaw Campus Research
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This full-text database provides access to many North American and international newspapers.
Research Library and National Newspapers via ProQuest
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This database provides access to many full-text magazine and newspaper articles.
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Finding Books
Books are an important component of theatre studies research.
To locate books owned by Niagara University Library, use the Library Catalog.
If you want to search for books owned by other libraries, too, then try searching WorldCat, a catalog that contains references to more than 57 million items owned by 9,000 libraries worldwide.
Don't worry - if you need a book owned by another library, you can request it. To learn how, jump to the section
called Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own.
Tip: Many theatre studies books are shelved in the Oversize section of the Library, located on the basement level to the right at the end of the movable shelving.
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Finding Facts and Web Sites
Theatre is a broad discipline that includes topics such as acting, costumes, music, playwriting and stagecraft, just to name a few. A collection of theatre reference books can be found in the Library's Reference Collection. For example:
- Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts and Analysis (PN2035 .P2913x 1998)
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre & Performance (PN2035 .O94 2003)
- The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre (PN2189 .W67x 1994)
The Reference Collection is located on the first floor across from the Reference Desk.
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Tip: Reference books can also help you locate keywords to help you perform better searches.
For example, suppose you are doing a paper on the history of drama in the Middle Ages. If you take a few minutes to look in
a theatre encyclopedia, you will learn more about the topic and find keywords like medieval, early English drama, Elizabethan, liturgical drama, miracle-plays and mysteries. Knowing more background information and keywords will help you do better and more comprehensive research.
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If you are looking for specific information on the World Wide Web, visit a search engine like
Google and type your keywords in.
If you would like to browse a directory of theatre web sites, try this one:
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Obtaining Materials NU Library Does Not Own
If you need an article or a book that NU Library does not own, you can make use of
Interlibrary Loan to obtain it.
Tip: In a hurry? If the article or book you need is owned by another library in Western New York, you can visit that library and use their resources on site (view a list of Western New York library web sites).
Please note: If you wish to borrow a book from another Western New York library, you can get an Infopass Card at the Reference Desk.
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How to Cite Your Sources
Check with your professor first, but the most commonly used style manual
in the Theatre Studies Department is the following:
- MLA Handbook For Writers of Research Papers.
(Ref LB2369 .G53 2003b)
This manual is the definitive source, but you will find some online guides as well.
Try a Google search of "MLA Style" to see other guides.
Tip: Please talk to your professor if you have questions
about how to cite your sources.
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View Other Research Guides
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