Research Guides: Databases: Theatre and Dance: Theatre and Dance Databases

Core Resources

International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive multicultural and interdisciplinary research tool for theater students, educators and professionals. Indexes over 60,000 journal articles, books, book articles and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries. Full text provided from over 100 of the journals indexed and for more than 100 of the books.

World Shakespeare Bibliography
Citations to books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare. Includes international and non-English-language materials.

Additional Resources

American Song (North America)
Database of 50,000 songs that can be listened to online. Encompasses American musical genres including country, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, and shape note singing. Music comes from Rounder Records, the Smithsonian Institution, Document Records, and other labels and sources.
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A history database of 50,000 songs that can be listened to online. American Song encompasses the great American musical genres including country, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, and shape note singing?combined with powerful recordings by artists such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Si Kahn, Lead Belly, Sleepy LaBeef, the New Lost City Ramblers, Otis Clay, Eddy ?The Chief? Clearwater, Nanci Griffith, The Lilly Brothers, Merle Travis, and many others. The music comes from Rounder Records, the Smithsonian Institution, Document Records, and other labels and sources.
Contemporary World Music
Allows searching and browsing of over 50,000 tracks by instrument, country, region, artist, genre, recording label, and other categories. Search, click, and listen to 50,000 tracks of reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, and other genres. There is also traditional music, Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, and more. The albums' original liner notes are included.

Berg Fashion Library This link opens in a new window
The Berg Fashion Library provides access to interdisciplinary text, image, and journal content on world dress and fashion throughout history. Includes Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion online, e-books, reference works, and more.
Dacheng pre-1949 journals full-text database (大成老旧刊全文数据库) This link opens in a new window
Consists of approximately 7,000 Chinese periodicals published from 1830 to 1949 in all fields of knowledge as well as popular journals. A unique and valuable source for the studies of Chinese politics, history, culture, society, philosophy, literature and arts in that period.
Digital Theatre+ This link opens in a new window
Digital Theatre+ provides unlimited access to full-length plays, productions, and educational resources. Please click the sign-in link and enter your @gwu.edu email address.
Shakespeare Globe on Screen 1 & 2 (Drama Online) This link opens in a new window
This portal provides access to Shakespeare Globe on Screen (2008 - 2015) and Shakespeare Globe on Screen 2 (2016 - 2018). The two collections altogether feature over 20 films recorded live on the Globe stage with leading actors. Plays include "Twelfth Night," "Merchant of Venice," "Macbeth," "Romeo and Juliet," "Othello," "Measure for Measure," and others.

EEBO Early English Books Online
EEBO contains over 100,000 books published in English since 1475. Based on Pollard & Redgrave's "Short Title Catalogue (1475-1640)" and Wing's "Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700)," plus revised editions and supplements. Subjects covered include English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, math, and science. Update: Texts continue to be added to the online version as they are scanned from the microfilm.
EEBO TCP (Text Creation Partnership)
Contains some searchable and readable editions of Early English Books (texts published in English since 1475). Based on Pollard & Redgrave's "Short Title Catalogue (1475-1640)" and Wing's "Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700)," plus revised editions and supplements. Subjects covered include English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, math, and science. For more non-searchable full text of Early English Books, see EEBO.
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online
The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music has more than 9,000 pages of material, combined with entries by more than 700 expert contributors from all over the world.
Jazz Music Library (United States)
Jazz Music Library is a collection of jazz recordings available online - covering thousands of artists, ensembles, albums, and genres, from all over the world, from the beginnings of jazz to today. It's an excellent resource for the study and teaching of jazz history, performance, theory, or appreciation.
Jewish Theater under Stalinism
Documents dating from 1916-1950 from the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI) in Moscow about the Moscow State Jewish Theater and the affiliated Moscow State Jewish Theater School (MGETU). Documents are in Russian, Yiddish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Ukrainian, Belarus, Georgian, and Latvian.
JSTOR
Back issues of core scholarly journals in subjects including African-American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, classics, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology, and statistics. Includes free Early-Journal Content, journals published before 1923 in the U.S. and before 1870 outside of the U.S.
MLA International Bibliography
Mobile version available.Covers journal articles, books and dissertations. Produced by the Modern Language Association. Coverage is international and subjects include literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Coverage of rhetoric and composition and the history, theory and practice of teaching language and literature. Simultaneous users: 7
Music Online
A combined music sound database including classical, world, jazz, and American music. Contains audio, video, scores, liner notes, biographies, images, and full-text reference materials from all Alexander Street Press music databases.

New Play Exchange (NPX) This link opens in a new window
The New Play Exchange (NPX) is the world's largest digital library of scripts by living writers.
OntheBoards.tv This link opens in a new window
A source for full-length performance films by contemporary artists in dance, theatre, and music. Playing on a laptop or desktop computer is recommended.

Oxford Music Online
Includes The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Grove Music Online, and The Oxford Companion to Music.
ProQuest Research Library Plus
Covers a wide range of subject matter in both popular and scholarly periodicals. Also includes Proquest's Computing, Education, Religion, Science, Social Science and Telecommunication Journal modules.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature
Mobile version available. Covers journal articles, books, dissertations, and reviews in a variety of scholarly fields related to music. International in scope. Simultaneous users: 1

Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism This link opens in a new window
Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism brings together a wealth of interdisciplinary content about the Modernist period, and is the ideal starting point for any research in modernism. With over 1,000 articles from experts in the field, supported by over 100 images, Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism is a vital tool for students and researchers. The content is fully cross-referenced, allowing for greater discoverability between fields, and covers eight key subject areas: Literature, Architecture, Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Theatre, Film, and Intellectual Currents. Researchers can browse by subject, movement, or place in order to discover connections between key topics and fields.
Royal Shakespeare Live Collection (Drama Online) This link opens in a new window
Drama Online: Royal Shakespeare Company Live Collection

Smithsonian Global Sound
A virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions, comprised of over 35,000 tracks of music, spoken word, and natural and human-made sounds. Includes the published recordings owned by the non-profit Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label and the archival audio collections of the legendary Folkways Records, Cook, Dyer-Bennet, Fast Folk, Monitor, Paredon and other labels, as well as recordings from Africa and South Asia, and more.

Theatre in Video: Volumes I & II This link opens in a new window
From celebrated productions of Shakespeare to rare, in-depth footage of the work of Samuel Beckett, the collection covers a wide range of 20th century theatre history. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances, deliver an authentic, behind-the-scenes look at hundreds of productions.

Databases: Theatre and Dance: Theatre and Dance Databases

Core Resources

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