Research Guides: Theatre: Plays

Online Plays

Twentieth Century North American Drama
Full-text of 2,000 plays from the United States and Canada. Includes playbills, posters, and other ephemera.

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(20th century) VCU access only

Black Drama
Full text of thousands of plays written from the mid-1800s to the present. Includes published and previously unpublished works from Africa, as well as North America, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries.

Plays: Online & Archival Collections

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800
Virtually all books, pamphlets, broadsides and other imprints of 17th- and 18th-century America. Covers thousands of subjects in full-text.

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(1639-1800) VCU access only
Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819
Books, pamphlets, broadsides, and other imprints of early 19th-century America. Covers thousands of subjects in full-text.

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(1801-1819) VCU access only
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
With over 136,000 titles and 26 million pages, ECCO contains every published text of historical significance from Great Britain and Colonial America during the 18th Century.

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(1700 - 1800) VCU access only
English Verse Drama Database
Contains more than 1,500 works by 450 named authors, plus approximately 230 anonymous works.

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(1300 - 1900) VCU access only
Internet Classics Archive
Provides more than 400 texts of ancient Greek and Roman works, including plays by Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles.
Literature Online (LION)
Text-rich resource that includes ABELL, full-text humanities journals, full-text English and American literature, and reference resources.

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VCU access only
Oxford Text Archive
Includes a wide-ranging assortment of texts, with works from all periods and several languages. The database can be searched or browsed, and texts can be downloaded.
Twentieth Century North American Drama
Full-text of 2,000 plays from the United States and Canada. Includes playbills, posters, and other ephemera.

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(20th century) VCU access only

Search VCU Libraries

Digital Theatre +

Digital Theatre +
A platform for the performing arts providing students with access to full-length productions, interviews, texts, rehearsals, and other educational resources.

National Theatre Collection

National Theatre Collection
A collaboration with the U.K. National Theatre, this collection offers digital performance resources previously exclusive to the National Theatre's archive, including performances as well as digitized archival material.

Broadway HD

Broadway HD
Broadway HD is a streaming collection of live theatrical performances from Broadway. An exclusive collection of nineteen performances from the New York Theatre scene, the productions in this resource will change.

Theatre Performances: Online Audio & Video

Filmed or televised plays and musicals

Theatre in Video
Over 250 plays as well as over 100 documentaries about productions, authors, directors, and actors. Includes the Group Theater, Brecht's Berliner Ensemble, Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival, and BBC's Playing Shakespeare series.
Kanopy Streaming
Streaming documentaries, feature films, shorts, and more. Includes films from The Criterion Collection, California Newsreel, Media Education Foundation, First Run Features, Green Planet Films, Michael Blackwood, Kino Lorber and many more. Can be accessed on mobile and smart TV devices via the Kanopy app.
The BBC Shakespeare Plays - Streaming
Access to all 37 BBC Shakespeare Plays with closed captioning.

Find Performance DVDs @ VCU Libraries

Search in VCU Libraries Search on the library homepage
- by title, e.g. Much Ado About Nothing
- by subject e.g. Filmed Plays, Musical Films or Televised Operas
Refine results by Material Type=DVDs
Click on the title of the DVD desired then
- Click on the 'Request' button to reserve it, then pick it up at the Information Service Desk, 1st floor, Cabell Library when notified OR
- Write down the call number and ask for the DVD at the Information Service Desk
VCU Faculty can also book or schedule DVDs, videos, and films for future dates using the Film Booking Form.

Indexes to Find Theatre Plays

Research Tips

Use the indexes and catalogs below to find plays within anthologies, collections and periodicals.
Try the following search terms in VCU LIbraries Search to find additional resources.

Drama - bibliography, Drama - indexes, English drama, American drama

Play Index
Call Number: Internet Resource or Cabell Library Reference Z5781.P53
Covers 1949 - present; cites over 31,000 plays
Chicorel Theater Index to Plays in Periodicals
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference Z5781.C487/C486/C487
Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections
Call Number: Access Online
Covers 1900 - 2000, includes plays from 103 countries
Index to Plays in Periodicals
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference PN1721.K43
See also the 1987 supplement
Covers 1977 - 1987
Inter-Play
Online index to over 16,000plays in collections, anthologies, and periodicals; variety of languages. Covers late 19th Century to present. Portland State University Library.

Please Note: VCU Libraries does not have access to the subscription content of the following sites. They are listed for the freely available "play finder" features. Once a play is found, search for it by title in VCU Libraries or in the Twentieth Century North American Drama database

Playscripts.com
Browse plays by genre, keyword or cast on this publishers website.
Dramatists.com
Browse plays by genre, keyword, length and cast on this publishers website.
Samuelfrench.com
Browse plays by keyword, type, genre or cast on this publishers website.

Theatre Play Analysis

Blood on the Stage, 1975-2000
Call Number: Online Access
Publication Date: 2012

Theatre Monologues, Scenes, and Audition Pieces

Research Tips
Search in VCU LIbraries Search using the following terms: Monologues, Monologues with music, Acting - Auditions
Browse by call number PN2080 located on Cabell Library 4th floor.

The Ultimate Scene and Monologue Sourcebook: an actor's guide to over 1,000 monologues and scenes from more than 300 contemporary plays
Call Number: Z5784.A27 H66
See also Cabell Library Z5784.A27 H66 1994
Guide to monologues, women : an index of over 800 monologues from classical and modern plays Subjects
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference (1st floor) PN2080 .G85 1988
Guide to Monologues, Men: an index of over 800 monologues from classical and modern plays
Call Number: Cabell Library Reference (1st floor) PN2080.G84 1988
Shakespeare for One: Women
Call Number: Cabell Library PR2771.N49 2002
Shakespeare for One - Men
Call Number: PR2771 .N48 2002
This volume collects virtually all of the monologues for men from Shakespeare's 37 plays arranged alphabetically by play title.
Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors - Women
Call Number: PN2080 .A935 2016
Featuring the work of international contemporary playwrights who have written powerful and diverse roles for a range of actors, categorized by age-range, the monologues are collected in groups of characters playable by actresses in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties+, and include work from over 25 top-class dramatists.
Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors - Men
Call Number: PN2080 .A93 2016
Featuring the work of international contemporary playwrights who have written powerful and diverse roles for a range of actors, categorized by age-range, the monologues are collected in groups of characters playable by actors in their teens, twenties, thirties and forties+, and include work from over 25 top-class dramatists.