Theatre Arts

Hundreds of important dramatic works in streaming audio from the curated archive of the nation’s premiere radio theatre company. The plays—which include some of the most significant dramatic literature of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries—are performed by leading actors from around the world and recorded specifically for online listening.

Searchable access to peer-reviewed reference works and cutting-edge academic research in the broad field of design and craft studies. Explore the history and context of influential design schools, people, periods, places, and disciplines.

Drawing on 10 years of National Theatre Live broadcasts as well as recordings never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive, the video content includes 50 video performances. As a supplement to the filmed productions, exclusive digitized archival materials such as prompt scripts, costume designs, and more are available to provide behind-the-scenes background and contextual information.

NPX offers the world's largest digital library of scripts by living writers. It is designed and built with the needs of the new play sector in mind. Search the plays by title or author name with filters for play info (length, subject, genre), actors/cast characteristics, narrative attributes, identity of characters (race, ethnicity, gender), and playwright demographics. Also provides information on theatre companies and organizations in the United States and Canada.

Covers all aspects of theater production design, from the 17th century through to the present day, including scenic and set design, lighting design, sound design, costume design, and makeup. Bringing together essential books and periodicals, archival material, and specially commissioned instructional videos, the collection will cover design concepts for a broad range of performance types, including dance, theatre, opera, and music.

High-definition, surround-sound recordings of William Shakespeare’s plays. The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection brings The Tempest, King Lear, Hamlet and other famous performances filmed at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Stratford-upon-Avon theater to classrooms around the world.

40,000 pages of monumental reference works, encyclopedias, images, flyers, playbills, postcards, scrapbooks, and other resources that offer a glimpse into the productions of the past.

Brings together hundreds of the world’s most important plays, documentaries, interviews, and instructional materials. Interviews with directors, designers, writers, and actors, along with excerpts of live performances, deliver an authentic, behind-the-scenes look at hundreds of productions. Users can view the works of widely studied playwrights and theatre artists from around the globe, including many new performances from Shakespeare's Globe Theatre collection (Opus Arte), Theatre Arts Films, the BBC, and TMW Media Group

This database combines important video content types used in theatre education (filmed stage performances, master classes, documentaries, and training material) with previously unpublished production designs, reference texts, and top-of-the-line teaching tools. This database contains 7 collections: Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection, BBC Literary Adaptations, National Theatre Collection, Performance Design Archive Online, The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection, Theatre in Context Collection, and Theatre in Video: Volumes I & II