Library Guides: Theater and Performing Arts: Articles, Writings on Theater

Key Indexes

International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance with Full Text
The foundation of this tool is the 14 volumes of the International Bibliography of Theatre (1982-99). This database is now centered in the Theatre Research Data Center and contains more than 170 full-text journals and over 360 monographs and reference tools. Article authors supply abstracts and key words. Subjects include ballet, cinema, comedy, dance, drama, film, mime, opera, puppetry and theater. Mind the gaps in coverage and be careful of limiting by language.
Contains the full text of journals, monographs and reference books. Includes indexing of academic journals, magazines, newspapers, dissertations, and monographs from over 125 countries. (International Bibliography of Theatre)
Performing Arts Periodicals Database
Indexes over 250 popular and scholarly journals and other resources in the fields of dance, drama, film, theater, opera, puppetry, circus, and other forms of performance. Newer entries include an abstract. Has full-text for over 100 journals. Coverage begins in mid-19th Century.
Indexes and abstracts scholarly and popular performing arts periodicals, documents, biographical profiles, conference papers, obituaries, interviews, discographies, and reviews. Covers a broad spectrum of the arts and entertainment industry including dance, film, television, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, broadcast arts, circus performance, comedy, storytelling, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic and more.
Performance Design Archive Online
Theater production design (scenic and set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, and makeup) covered in primary and secondary resources, including sketches, photographs, technical drawings, monographs, articles, and dissertations.
Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive
An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to 2000. [1880 - 2000]
The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are all included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of all articles, covers, ads and reviews.
MLA International Bibliography
Largest index to scholarly articles on literature, theater, folklore, and linguistics. Until 1956, the emphasis was on scholarship from the U.S. Subject indexing improved in 1981. Spotty listing of books and collections of essays. Does not index book reviews unless very substantial. Published by the Modern Language Association.
Sponsored by the Modern Language Association.

For the full text of core journals in the field see:

JSTOR
Full-text access to over 1000 scholarly journals, including more than 2 million articles, from a wide range of disciplines. Current issues from journals (the most recent 3-5 years) are generally not available in JSTOR. [dates vary].
For more sophisticated search capabilities, go directly to JSTOR advanced search.
Project MUSE
Several hundred digitized scholarly journals and books in the humanities and social sciences. [1993 - present]
Topics include literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics and many others. Books are available in PDF format, searchable and retrievable to the chapter level, with no restrictions on downloading or printing.

Other Useful Indexes

Article indexes with broad subject content are listed below. For a complete list of article indexes available at the UC Berkeley Library see How to Find Articles.

Academic Search Complete
A multi-disciplinary database of scholarly and general interest journals, books, and reports. [1865 - present]
Articles from broad array of peer-reviewed journals, popular and trade magazines and news sources for nearly all areas of study; available in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian and Portuguese.
Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL)
Indexes monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays, and doctoral dissertations related to English language and literature. ABELL began in 1920, but some indexing is for older titles.
Indexes monographs, periodical articles, critical editions of literary works, book reviews, collections of essays, and doctoral dissertations related to English language and literature.
IBZ - Internationale Bibliographie der Zeitschriftenliteratur
The International Bibliography of Periodical Literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences indexes over 5600 journals worldwide, specializing in the humanities and the social sciences. [1993 - present]
Thanks to the Library's participation in a joint Germa0merican document delivery project called GBV, the Library can obtain copies of IBR articles from German partners in digital form quickly at no additional cost to users via Interlibrary Borrowing Services.
Humanities International Complete
Indexes thousands of journals, books and other published sources from around the world, with full text of many journals. (International Humanities Index - American Humanities Index) [1927 - present]
Includes all data from Humanities International Index. Subjects covered include archaeology, literature, religion, art, dance, theater, folklore, history, African-American studies, law, women's studies, and more.
Literature Criticism Online
Online access to nine multi-volume compilations of literary criticism including Shakespearean criticism,(1984- ) and Drama criticism (1991- ). LCO covers a range of modern and historical views on authors and their works across regions, eras and genres, offering tens of thousands of hard-to-find critical essays.
Contains thousands of essays from the Gale literary criticism books.
Periodicals Index Online (formerly PCI)
Index of thousands of scholarly periodicals in the arts, humanities and social sciences. (Periodicals Contents Index) [1802 - 1995]
Indexes millions of articles published in over 4,700 periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. A sister database, Periodicals Archive Online, provides a full-text archive of over 700 journals published between 1802 and 2005.
Periodicals Archive Online (formerly PCI Full Text)
Indexes over 6000 journals in the arts, humanities and social science with coverage extending back to 1665. Especially useful for early 20th Century journals. A sister database, Periodicals Archive Online, provides a full-text archive of some 475 journals published between 1802 and 1995
An online periodical archive that provides access to over 700 digitized journals in the humanities and social sciences. A sister database, Periodicals Index Online, provides additional indexing for articles in over 4,700 periodicals.
C19: The Nineteenth Century Index
Comprehensive coverage of nineteenth-century books, periodicals, official documents, newspapers and archives. (19th Century Index) [1800 - 1899]
C19 Index draws on the Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue, The Wellesley Index, Poole's Index and Periodicals Index Online to create integrated bibliographic coverage of over 1.4 million books and official publications, 64,891 archival collections and 15.6 million articles published in over 2,500 journals, magazines and newspapers.
Readers' Guide Retrospective
Indexes American magazines and journals published between 1890 to 1982.
EBSCOhost (formerly WilsonWeb) (EBSCO)
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online
Index of international publications and media related to Shakespeare and his works. [1972 - present]
Indexes books, scholarly journals, magazines, dissertations, audiovisual and electronic resources, and professional theatre and film productions worldwide offering research related to Shakespeare, his works, and productions of his work. International in scope with coverage extending to more than 92 languages and representing every country in North America, South America, and Europe, and nearly every country in Asia, Africa, and Australasia.

Secondary menu

Theater and Performing Arts: Articles, Writings on Theater

Where to Look

Key Indexes

Other Useful Indexes