Library Class and Subject Guides: Theatre Arts: Access Recommended Reference Resources, Plays, & Videos

Primary Resources

Theatre and Dance at the University Archives
Browse digitized programs and promotional posters from Theatre and Dance productions at Minnesota State Mankato.

Reference Resources

Ad*Access
Presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Ad*Access concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II, providing a coherent view of a number of major campaigns and companies through images preserved in one particular advertising collection available at Duke University.
History of Costume
[3100 B.C.-1992] / Jeanne Button, Stephen Sbarge; GT513 .B87 2008; DVD-ROM
Permanent reserve in the Kiyo Suyematsu Music Library
Presents the history of clothing for women and men throughout Western civilization from ancient Egypt to 1992. Contains 1,500 color images, as well as supporting notes, sketches, and commentaries from previously released slide presentations. Features indexes of artists and costume terms and a close-up detail option.

Routledge Handbooks Online This link opens in a new window
Routledge Handbooks Online brings together the world’s leading scholars to provide a cutting-edge overview of classic and current research and future trends in the Social Sciences and Humanities, while providing an authoritative guide to theory and method, the key sub-disciplines, and the primary debates of today.

Choose from these subject areas:
The default search and subject area links will search all of the content on the Routledge Handbooks Online platform, not just what we pay for. If you are asked for a log-in, this means we have not paid for access to that particular ebook or article. If you would like to limit your search to ONLY our subscribed content, visit the main search page on the RHO platform and be sure the box for “Full Access Only” is checked on the left-hand side of the page.
SAGE Knowledge This link opens in a new window
Contains electronic reference titles from Sage. Users can search and browse the full-text equivalent handbooks, encyclopedias, and other titles.

LGBTQ+ Performing Arts Resources at the Library of Congress
The work of LGBTQ+ musicians, dancers, choreographers, writers, directors, designers, and other creators, is well-represented in the Library’s Music Division collections. This guide highlights these primary and secondary sources both online and in print.

Plays and Videos

Twentieth Century North American Drama This link opens in a new window
Contains 1,530 plays by 223 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. More than 150 of the plays are published here for the first time, including a number by major authors.
This resource works best using Chrome or Internet Explorer.
Theatre in Video This link opens in a new window
Theatre In Video contains more than 250 definitive performances of the world's leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries, online in streaming video - more than 500 hours in all, representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors.

Search also in MavScholar for "best plays" or the play title or the last name of the playwright and the word "play" to find many plays in print in our collection.

Don't forgot to look at our many productions of plays on DVD, which may also be found using MavScholar.

Finding Monologues

The best idea is to locate a play that interests you and then read through it to find a monologue that appeals to you. You can find many or our plays using this link to MavScholar that will search for plays. Click "General Collection" on the left menu under the heading "Collection" if you only want something in print.

You can also use this MavScholar search to see sources that contain monologues.