New resource! Stream full performances from Drama Online
UK Libraries has purchased five packages through Drama Online thanks to requests from the CFA Department of Theatre & Dance and the Lucille Caudill Little endowment funds at the Little Fine Arts Library. We are thrilled to offer these to the UK community.
Our five packages include the National Theatre Collection, two Royal Shakespeare Company packages, and two Shakespeare's Globe packages:
Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts and high-quality archive recordings, the National Theatre Collection contains 30 filmed performances including Greek classics, Shakespeare, literary adaptations, and modern classics performed at the National Theatre in London.
- National Theatre CollectionFrom Shakespeare and Greek tragedy to contemporary literary adaptations, NTC features productions from the National Theatre, as well as the Young Vic, Donmar Warehouse, and Bridge Theatre. Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts, alongside high-quality recordings never previously seen outside of the NTs Archive, this collection currently contains 30 productions.
25 films of live productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2013 to 2019, including the 2016-17 production of The Tempest starring Simon Russell Beale and the recent Twelfth Night starring Adrian Edmondson.
- RSC Live 1 (2013-2017) [Royal Shakespeare Company]Seventeen films of live productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2013 to the 2016-17 production of The Tempest starring Simon Russell Beale.
- RSC Live 2 (2018-2019) [Royal Shakespeare Company]Eight films of live productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2018 and 2019, including Twelfth Night starring Adrian Edmondson.
30 films recorded live on the Globe stage with actors including Mark Rylance, Stephen Fry, and Roger Allam’s Olivier Award-winning Falstaff in Henry IV, and productions including the first production from the indoor Jacobean theatre, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, in 2014.
- Shakespeare's Globe on Screen 1 (2008-2015)Twenty-one films recorded live on the Globe stage from leading actors including Mark Rylance, Stephen Fry, and Roger Allam’s Olivier Award-winning Falstaff in Henry IV. Founded by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, Shakespeare's Globe is dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare's work and the theatre for which he wrote.
- Shakespeare's Globe on Screen 2 (2016-2018)Includes nine productions from the Globe Theatre, including two productions from Emma Rice’s tenure as Artistic Director and the first production from the indoor Jacobean theatre, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Freely available video online - Non western theatre
In addition to lots and lots of ephemeral YouTube videos you can search for by keywords, here are some more curated, freely-available-online resources for non-western theatre:
- Blak Stage
Australian First Nations playwritghting - Theatre Museum Canada YouTube channelIncludes a growing section of indigenous artists' work.
- MIT's Global Shakespeares Video & Performance Archive
Provides online access to international performances of Shakespeare, in addition to contextual essays. Shakespeare of course could not be more "western", but there are long productions here from many non-western countries, especially in Asia. - Noh Theatre Research Institute
Hosei University Nogami Memorial Noh Theatre Research Institute (in Japanese) - Digital Archive of Performing Arts
In Korean. Includes videos, images, and sound files for Korean theatre, dance, music, exhibitions, and other resources for performing arts.
Library subscription video sites to search for performances
- Academic Video OnlineAVON is a huge academic streaming collection with feature-length films and documentaries, and PBS-type clips and productions and lots of interviews with arts practitioners (directors, visual artists, etc.), among many other videos
- Theatre in Video--> Use the "Filter your results" tool (red circle with a picture of a funnel) to limit your content type to "Performances" -- there are about 100, mainly late 20th-C. performances on the site.
- National Theatre CollectionFrom Shakespeare and Greek tragedy to contemporary literary adaptations, NTC features productions from the National Theatre, as well as the Young Vic, Donmar Warehouse, and Bridge Theatre. Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts, alongside high-quality recordings never previously seen outside of the NTs Archive, this collection currently contains 30 productions.
- RSC Live 1 (2013-2017) [Royal Shakespeare Company]Seventeen films of live productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2013 to the 2016-17 production of The Tempest starring Simon Russell Beale.
- RSC Live 2 (2018-2019) [Royal Shakespeare Company]Eight films of live productions from the Royal Shakespeare Company from 2018 and 2019, including Twelfth Night starring Adrian Edmondson.
- Shakespeare's Globe on Screen 1 (2008-2015)Twenty-one films recorded live on the Globe stage from leading actors including Mark Rylance, Stephen Fry, and Roger Allam’s Olivier Award-winning Falstaff in Henry IV. Founded by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, Shakespeare's Globe is dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare's work and the theatre for which he wrote.
- Shakespeare's Globe on Screen 2 (2016-2018)Includes nine productions from the Globe Theatre, including two productions from Emma Rice’s tenure as Artistic Director and the first production from the indoor Jacobean theatre, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
performance documentation
- The Playbill VaultInformation about plays on Broadway.
- Internet Broadway DatabaseIBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive is the official database for Broadway theater information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theater until today.
- Global Performing Arts DatabaseContains images, video and sound recordings from theatre performances around the world.
reviews
Search for playwrights and titles in these databases.
- Nexis UniNexis Uni provides full-text access to over 15,000 news, business, and legal sources. The outstanding news coverage includes deep archives and up-to-the-minute stories in national and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, international news, and non-English language news services.
- London Times Digital Archive 1785-1985Over two centuries on-line for full-text searching of the London publication, more than 7 million articles, from 1785-1985. Widely recognized as the source for authoritative reports on politics, law, business and society. Extensive coverage of parliamentary debates, royal doings, obituaries, official appointments. Does not include the Sunday Times, the Times Literary Supplement, the Times Educational Supplement, the Times Higher Education Supplement. Also available in the Gale NewsVault, a searchable collection of historical newspapers.
- New York Times Historical EditionSearchable full-text from ProQuest, with keyword searching and date limiting. This title is part of Proquest Historical Newspapers.