THEATER & DANCE 25 : DRAMA AND SOCIETY
Fall 2003
LIBRARY CATALOGS AND GENERAL INFORMATION | ENCYCLOPEDIAS, DICTIONARIES, ETC. | BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND INDEXES | A FEW WORDS ABOUT JOURNAL ARTICLES | WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES
LIBRARY CATALOGS AND GENERAL INFORMATION
Use the
Five College Library Catalogs (one segment for the four colleges including
Amherst, another for UMass) to find books and journals owned by the Amherst
Library and other local institutions. Books are listed by their AUTHORS,
TITLES, and SUBJECTS, and you can also use the KEYWORD function to search.
Use AUTHOR searching to find books by your playwright (last
name first in library catalogs, remember!). Note that plays which were
published as parts of other works - in magazines, for instance, or anthologies
- are not listed separately in the online Library Catalogs; see 'Bibliographies
& Indexes', below, for tracking those down.
Use SUBJECT searching for biographical and autobiographical books (again,
type in an individual's last name first); memoirs by and about writers,
directors, and actors often contain unique, revealing information on particular
productions; sometimes, if a playwright has been written about enough,
there may be a special subject sub-division labelled "Dramatic Productions".
If your play's famous, you might also SUBJECT search for books about it,
using its title, and perhaps even finding a subject sub-division, "Stage
History"
For quick background information, try the
Britannica Online from any computer connecting to the Web via the
Amherst College computer system.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS, DICTIONARIES, HANDBOOKS
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama. 2nd Edition.
New York, McGraw-Hill, 1984; 5 volumes.
Now somewhat dated, nevertheless still the basic encyclopedia of individuals,
companies, topics, terms, etc. in international theater. Many articles
have good bibliographies appended, though these need updating. (Ref PN
1625 M3 1984)
The Drama Dictionary. New York, New Amsterdam Books,1988.
A dictionary of concise definitions in stagecraft and theater criticism.
(Ref PN 1625 H62 1988b)
Dictionary of the Theatre: Terms, Concepts, and Analysis.
Toronto, University of Toronto, 1998.
Another dictionary, more theoretical and academic than the above title.
(Ref PN 2035 P2913 1998)
Encyclopedia of American Social History. New York,
Scribner's, 1993; 3 volumes.
Reliable 10- to 15-page essays, with brief bibliographies, on periods,
and cultural processes in U.S. history. Good for background for American
plays. (Ref HN 57 E58 1993)
Encyclopedia of European Social History, from 1350 to
2000. New York, Scribner's, 2001; 5 volumes.
Similar to the above title, for Europe from the early modern period onward.
(Ref HN 373 E63 2001)
Biography
Resource Center
Collection of biography materials including the Contemporary Authors series,
the Complete Marquis Who's Who, and articles from magazines and journals.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND INDEXES
Subject bibliographies and indexes in the Reference Collection can lead you to source readings in your area of research; they are useful even when they are older and don't provide citations to current publications; computerized indexes enable you to update. Below are some sample titles.
Modern Drama Scholarship and Criticism. Toronto,
University of Toronto, 1986 & 1997.
Two volumes (the first covers criticism published from 1966 to 1980, the
second 1981-1990) of citations to books and journal articles, organized
by place and playwright. (Ref Z 5781 C37 & C372)
A Guide to Critical Reviews. Metuchen, NJ, Scarecrow
Press, 1984 & 1991.
Part 1 is sub-titled "American Drama, 1909-1982" and Part 2,
"The Musical, 1909-1989". Both include citations to reviews
as well as notes on when and where opening and other productions took
place. (Ref Z 5781 S16 1984)
The New York Times Directory of the Theater. New
York, Arno/Quadrangle, 1973.
Mostly, a handy title and personal name index to theater reviews in The
New York Times from 1920 to 1970 (Ref Z 6935 N48 1973). For complete,
year-by-year listings of Times articles back to 1851, see The
New York Times Index (Ref AI 21 N44); subject matter is alphabetically
arranged, with play reviews usually grouped under 'Theater-Reviews'; the
Frost Library's microfilm of the complete New York Times is in
cabinets in the Media Center on Level A. Now, we also have access to a
new, electronic, full-text backfile, The
New York Times Online (click here), although the product is still
"under construction" and there are gaps.
LEXIS-NEXIS
A full-text database including newspaper articles from major papers in
the U.S. and abroad, going back to the mid-1980s in most cases (though
coverage varies). Extremely useful and easy when looking for reviews of
relatively recent productions.
MLA International Bibliography 1963-
A computerized listing of literary-critical
articles from 1963 to the present, available on the Library website (click
on the link above). Follow on-screen instructions. In looking for critiques
of a particular playwright, type in the playwright's last name first as
a subject search.
Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic Index
Relatively newly-available electronic resources which index articles in
a wide range of subjects, including literature, many of which are linked
to full-text versions of articles (click on the links above).
Play Index. New York, HW Wilson, 1953--
An ongoing listing of plays published in anthologies since 1949, organized
by author, title, and topics. Issued in volumes covering five-year periods;
the most recent runs through 1997. (Ref Z 5781 P53)
A FEW WORDS ABOUT JOURNAL ARTICLES
Printed and computerized indexes and bibliographies
provide citations to articles which may or may not be owned by the Amherst
College Library. To find out if and where we have older issues of journals,
you must look up each journal title (not article titles or authors)
in the Four-College
Library Catalog. Be attentive to volume numbers and dates which show
up onscreen since sometimes we've started or stopped a subscription in
the middle of a run.
Note too, in many online indexes now you will find a
button, 
. Click
on the button and it will search for the electronic full-text of your
article and provide a link to the article. If we don't have an electronic
copy, AC Links will give you the option to search the Library catalog.
WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES
The Library's "Research" page provides reasonably direct, organized access to Internet resources like library catalogs in the U.S. and abroad, search engines for finding particular sites, and via the "Theater & Dance" page, to pre-selected, academically-oriented material.
Comments regarding this page should be directed to: Michael Kasper (mkasper)