Theatre Resources

GloPAD (Global Performing Arts Database) records include authoritative, detailed, multilingual descriptions of digital images, texts, video clips, sound recordings, and complex media objects related to the performing arts around the world, plus information about related pieces, productions, performers, and creators.

Theatrecrafts.com has been online since 1997 and is a developing resource for students, theatre technicians, designers and practitioners.

The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (the APGRD) is a research project based in the Classics Faculty at the University of Oxford. It investigates the performance of ancient texts from Greek tragedy to Roman epic, in any medium and any period, from stage to screen, from antiquity to the present day.

Chicago Public Library's Digital Collections document life in Chicago through archival images, documents and artifacts.

The Federal Theatre Project (FTP) was a division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which was established to provide work for unemployed citizens during the Great Depression (1929-39). The FTP began in August 1935 and flourished as the first and only federally-sponsored and subsidized theater program in the United States until its closing in 1939. In order to advertise FTP productions, the Federal Art Project (FAP), a section of the WPA, developed a poster division. Using then-new silk-screening techniques, the FAP Poster Division created the posters which graced theater lobbies from New York to San Francisco and hundreds of other towns and cities in between. The FTP also utilized professional set and costume designers, who, along with the FTP workers who sewed the costumes and constructed the sets, added some dramatic realism to the productions.

The Ransom Center's performing arts collections document a wide variety of performance genres, particularly from the United Kingdom and America. The collections feature holdings in theatre, dance, music, opera, and popular entertainments, such as the circus, vaudeville, pantomime, minstrel shows, puppetry, and magic. From drafts and promptbooks to designs and box office receipts, the materials in the collection emphasize the creative process from concept and staging to publication and revival.

We promote research in the performing arts, facilitate networking among our members and share resources about their specific collections and the performing arts in general.

The Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute acquires, preserves, and makes accessible materials documenting the performing arts for the purposes of scholarship, education, and enjoyment; provides an active teaching component; serves as a source for new works creation, development, and reconstruction; and enriches patrons' experiences of these materials which reveal our performing arts culture and history.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, one of the Library’s renowned research libraries, houses one of the world's most extensive research collections in the fields of theatre, film, dance, music, and recorded sound, as well as a wide array of circulating and reference materials.

Theatre Library Association guide to cultural institutions and resources.

Records of Early English Drama (REED) is an international scholarly project that is establishing for the first time the context from which the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries grew. For over forty years, REED has worked to locate, transcribe, and edit historical documents containing evidence of drama, secular music, and other communal entertainment and ceremony from the Middle Ages until 1642, when the London public theatres were closed because of civil unrest.

The Theatre Collection was founded in 1951 to support the establishment of Drama as an academic discipline in the UK, and has grown to become one of the world’s leading collections relating to the history of British theatre and live art. The Theatre Collection comprises over 140 named collections and archives, including actors and collectors Raymond Mander and Joe Mitchenson. It also holds artworks, audio visual material, costumes, designs, set models, playbills and programmes of this most ephemeral of art forms. The collections are particularly strong from the late 18th century onwards and document life both onstage and offstage, providing a unique insight into theatre and live art, their creative processes and broader cultural contexts. The Theatre Collection’s holistic approach to collecting across archives and objects, and the interconnectedness between the collections, make it an outstanding research resource.

The American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE), among the most recognized arts education organizations, works to ensure that every young person experiences quality theatre arts in their lives provided by proficient, talented artists and educators. AATE is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Through its membership of theatre artists, inservice and pre-service teachers, professors, directors, scholars and playwrights, AATE serves more than a million students in 48 U.S. states and 19 countries worldwide.

The American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) is a U.S.-based professional organization that fosters scholarship on worldwide theatre and performance, both historical and contemporary. Members of the American Society for Theatre Research say the Society is a space to share scholarship and a home for networking within the profession. ASTR also sponsors or coordinates several awards, grants, fellowships, and prizes to support and recognize outstanding scholarship in theatre and performance studies.

An advocate for the field of theatre and performance in higher education, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) serves as an intellectual and artistic center for producing new knowledge about theatre and performance-related disciplines, cultivating vital alliances with other scholarly and creative disciplines, linking with professional and community-based theatres, and promoting access and equity.

"Shaping lives through theatre education."

TYA/USA is the leading national organization for the professional field of theatre for children and families, representing over 1,000 member theatres, organizations, and individual artists across 47 states. Dedicated to ensuring that all young people have access to high-quality theatre experiences, TYA/USA offers a variety of programming and provides a network of exchange that connects professionals working across the industry.

USITT connects performing arts design and technology communities to ensure a vibrant dialogue among practitioners, educators, and students. USITT was founded in 1960 as an organization to promote dialogue, research, and learning among practitioners of theatre design and technology.

The Broadway League is the national trade association for the Broadway industry. Our 700-plus members include theatre owners and operators, producers, presenters, and general managers in North American cities, as well as suppliers of goods and services to the commercial theatre industry. Each year, League members bring Broadway to more than 30 million people in New York and more than 200 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

IBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive is the official database for Broadway theatre information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today.

Spectra.Theater is a network directly connecting every artist and community making theater around the country (and eventually the world) to each other. Spectra users can access detailed information about productions inclusive of cast, crew, companies, and media (when available).

In addition to being the world's largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is home to major collections of other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art. Located a block from the US Capitol, the Folger serves a wide audience of scholars, visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers.

Shakespeare in performance is now a core interest for all Shakespeareans: students, scholars, theatre professionals, and general audiences—anyone with a love of Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s Staging collects audio-visual materials related to the performance of Shakespeare’s plays from the time of Shakespeare to the present. Students writing about Shakespeare, teachers teaching Shakespeare, scholars researching Shakespeare, and performers staging new productions of Shakespeare’s work can all use the site to enrich their understanding of the performance aspects of these scripts.

A guide to print and electronic resources focused on William Shakespeare available from the collections of the ASU Library.