LibGuides: Film, TV, Theatre, & Animation Research: Theater Sites for Research

Theatre Websites for Research

Playbill Vault
"The largest Broadway database on the Internet."
Theatre History on the Web
Theatre Alberta
Theatre Alberta is a Provincial Arts Service Organization committed to encouraging the growth of theatre in Alberta.
WWW Virtual Library of Theatre and Drama
A gateway site to international theatre companies, schools, books, journals, and some online plays.
Theatre and performance collection
From the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

Backstage
Acting auditions, casting calls, advice, casting directors
Actors & Reps Lounge
Casting Society of America: tools, news, and links for Performers and their Talent Representatives

The History of Costume by Braun & Scheider
digitized 19th century prints
Elizabethan Costuming Page
The Costume Page
Costumer's Manifesto
Ad-supported Wiki site for theatrical costume; site design may require scrolling down to find useful content
Elizabethan Makeup 101
Traditional (toxic) cosmetics used on the Elizabethan stage and standards of beauty during Shakespeare's time

American English Dialect Recordings
118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects in the Center for Applied Linguistics Collection (American Memory from the Library of Congress)
Speech Accent Archive
Introduction to Acting with a Dialect
Utah Education Network acting curriculum Powerpoint presentation, lesson plans, and Quicktime videos
Accents and dialects
British Library - Sounds
Ren Faire: Elizabethan Accents
Elizabethan English pronunciation practice (designed for Renaissance Faire participants)

Applause Theatre & Cinema Books
New York publishers of performing arts books. Get ideas for plays!
Dramatists Play Service
Browse or use "The Playfinder" search engine to search for plays. Includes synopses and casting information.
Gilbert and Sullivan Archive
Includes G&S related items, including clip art, librettos, plot summaries, audio files, and newsletter articles.
Concord Theatricals: Play Publishers
Search/browse for plays by title, keyword, and genre; includes synopses and cast information.
TheatreBooks
Toronto bookstore specializing in plays and all aspects of theatre. Get ideas for plays!
The Internet Classics Archive
Database of ancient Greek writings, including plays
Federal Theatre Project
Over 13,000 images of items selected from the Federal Theatre Project Collection at the Library of Congress
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Featured here are stage and costume designs, still photographs, posters, and scripts for productions of Macbeth and The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus as staged by Orson Welles, and for Power, a topical drama of the period (over 3,000 images). Also included are 68 other playscripts (6,500 images) and 168 documents selected from the Federal Theatre Project Administrative Records (3,700 images).