LibGuides: Theatre Research Resources: Theatre History

Theatre History

This page collects recommended resources for researching theatre history. Depending on what you're looking for, check out the boxes below to find selected print and ebooks divided by region of focus, databases collecting historical theatre materials, and archival and rare book collections focusing on theatre history.

If you want to consult images or digital exhibits for your research, be sure to look at our next tab on finding historical images for theatre research!

Selected Books

The Methuen Drama Handbook of Theatre History and Historiography by Claire Cochrane (Editor); Jo Robinson (Editor)
Call Number: PN2101 .M48 2020
The Methuen Drama Handbook of Theatre History and Historiography is an authoritative guide to contemporary debates and practices in this field. The book covers the key themes and methods that are current in theatre history research, with a particular focus on expanding the object of study to include engagement with theatre and performance practices and the development of theatre histories around the world. These essays reveal where important work continues to be done in the field and, most valuably, draws on academic contexts beyond the Western academy to expand our knowledge of the exciting directions that such an approach opens up.
The Cambridge Companion to Theatre History by David Wiles (Editor); Christine Dymkowski (Editor)
Call Number: PN2101 .C363 2013
Scholars, amateur historians and actors have shaped theatre history in different ways at different times and in different places. This Companion offers students and general readers a series of accessible and engaging essays on the key aspects of studying and writing theatre history. The diverse international team of contributors investigates how theatre history has been constructed, showing how historical facts are tied to political and artistic agendas and explaining why history matters to us.
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance Historiography by Tracy C. Davis (Editor); Peter W. Marx (Editor)
Call Number: Online Resource
The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance Historiography sets the agenda for inclusive and wide-ranging approaches to writing history, embracing the diverse perspectives of the twenty-first century and Critical Media History. The study of theatre, in conjunction with the wider sphere of performance, involves an array of multi-faceted methods for collecting evidence, interpreting sources, and creating meaning.
The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre by John Russell Brown (Editor)
Call Number: 792.09 OX2
Reaching back in time and across the world, The Oxford Illustrated History of Theatre, an authoritative and lavishly illustrated new history, celebrates the stage's greatest achievements over 4,500 years, from festival performances in ancient Egypt to international, multicultural drama in the late twentieth century, and from Sophocles and Aristophanes to George Gershwin and Harold Pinter. Here are the playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famous playhouses, dramatic movements, and more, accessibly and attractively arranged so that everyone with a passion for the stage can follow the glorious procession of this triumphant art throughout history and across cultures.

American Theatre by Theresa Saxon
Call Number: Online Resource (also available in print at MPAL PN2266 .S29 2011)
Argues for the recognition of American theatre history as long, rich, diverse and critically compelling. Embracing all epochs of theatre history, from pre-colonial Native American performance rituals and the endeavours of early colonisers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, to the end of the twentieth century, Theresa Saxon situates American theatre as a lively, dynamic and diverse arena.
A History of African American Theatre by James V. Hatch; Errol G. Hill; Don B. Wilmeth (Contribution by)
Call Number: 792.08996073 H55h
This is the first definitive history of African-American theatre. The text embraces a wide geography investigating companies from coast to coast as well as the anglophone Caribbean and African-American companies touring Europe, Australia, and Africa. It covers nearly two and a half centuries of black performance and production with issues of gender, class, and race ever in attendance. The volume encompasses aspects of performance such as minstrel, vaudeville, cabaret acts, musicals and opera. Shows by white playwrights that used black casts, particularly in music and dance, are included, as are productions of western classics and a host of Shakespeare plays.
A History of Asian American Theatre by Esther Kim Lee
Call Number: 792.08995073 L511h
In 1965, the first Asian American theatre company, the East West players, was founded by a group of actors who wanted to find better opportunities in the acting industry. Forty years later, Asian American theatre is one of the fastest-growing theatre sectors. Based on over seventy interviews, this book surveys the history of Asian American theatre from 1965 to 2005 with focus on actors, playwrights, companies, audiences, and communities. Emphasizing historical contexts, Esther Kim Lee examines how issues of cultural nationalism, interculturalism, and identity politics affect a racially defined theatre.
The Cambridge History of American Theatre by Don B. Wilmeth (Contribution by, Editor); Christopher Bigsby (Contribution by, Editor); Marilyn Butler (Contribution by); James Chandler (Contribution by)
Call Number: 792.0973 C1442
The Cambridge History of American Theatre is an authoritative and wide-ranging history of American theatre in all its dimensions, from theatre building to play writing, directors, performers, and designers. Engaging the theatre as a performance art, a cultural institution, and a fact of American social and political life, the History recognizes changing styles of presentation and performance and addresses the economic context that conditions the drama presented.
American Theatre: a chronicle of comedy and drama, 1930-1969 by Gerald M. Bordman
Call Number: MPAL Reference PN2266 B671996
Publication Date: 1996
Moving season by season and show by show, Bordman offers a witty, engagingly detailed chronicle of every Broadway production and major off-Broadway show during years when American theater reached adulthood both dramatically and psychologically.

See also American theatre : a chronicle of comedy and drama, 1869-1914 (PN2266 B671994) and American theatre : a chronicle of comedy and drama, 1914-1930 (PN2266 B671995)
Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Beginnings by James Fisher
Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating PN2266 .F57H5 2015
Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Beginnings covers the history of theater as well as the literature of America from 1538 to 1880. The years covered by this volume features the rise of the popular stage in American during the colonial era and the first century of the United States of America, with an emphasis on its practitioners.
Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism by James L. Fisher; Felicia Hardison Londré
Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating PN2266.3 .F57 2008
The fifty-year period from 1880 to 1929 is the richest era for theater in American history, certainly in the great number of plays produced and artists who contributed significantly, but also in the centrality of theater in the lives of Americans. As the impact of European modernism began to gradually seep into American theater during the 1880s and quite importantly in the 1890s, more traditional forms of theater gave way to futurism, symbolism, surrealism, and expressionism.

Annals of the New York Stage by George C. Odell
Call Number: Main Library Reference 792 OD2A1970
Comprehensive, 15-volume history of New York theatre, covering 1700 to 1894. With index.
The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage 1920-1930, vol. 1: A-M.
Call Number: Online Resource
The most reliable source for data on productions of the New York stage, both Broadway and Off Broadway. Volume 1.
The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage 1920-1930, vol. 2: N-Z
Call Number: Online Resource
The most reliable source for data on productions of the New York stage, both Broadway and Off Broadway. Volume 2.
The Encyclopedia of the New York Stage, vol. 3: 1940-1950
Call Number: Online Resource
The most reliable source for data on productions of the New York stage, both Broadway and Off Broadway. Volume 3.

An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performance by Robert Leach
Call Number: MPAL Reference Non-circulating PN2581 .L43 2019
An Illustrated History of British Theatre and Performancechronicles the history and development of theatre from the Roman era to the present day. As the most public of arts, theatre constantly interacts with changing social, political and intellectual movements and ideas, and Robert Leach's masterful work restores to the foreground of this evolution the contributions of women, gay people and ethnic minorities, as well as the theatres of the English regions, and of Wales and Scotland.
Mapping Global Theatre Histories by Mark Pizzato
Call Number: PN2037 .P59 2019
This textbook provides a global, chronological mapping of significant areas of theatre, sketched from its deepest history in the evolution of our brain's 'inner theatre' to ancient, medieval, modern, and postmodern developments. It considers prehistoric cave art and built temples, African trance dances, ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern ritual dramas, Greek and Roman theatres, Asian dance-dramas and puppetry, medieval European performances, global indigenous rituals, early modern to postmodern Euro-American developments, worldwide postcolonial theatres, and the hyper
African Theatre 9 by James Gibbs Martin Banham (Editor)
Call Number: Online Resource
African performers, dramatists and directors have far out-paced chroniclers, critics and librarians, and as a result, those preparing accounts of theatre movements and performance on the continent have very limited resources to work on. 'African Theatre 9' addresses the topic of theatre history and, more specifically, looks at a selection of theatrical movements and events between 1850 and 1950.
A New History of Medieval Japanese Theatre by Noel John Pinnington
Call Number: PN2921 .P56 2019
This book traces the history of noh and kyogen, the first major Japanese theatrical arts. It covers the full period of noh's medieval development and includes a chapter dedicated to the comic art of kyogen, which has often been left in noh's shadow. It is based on contemporary research in Japan, Asia, Europe and America, and embraces current ideas of theatre history, providing a richly contextualized account which looks closely at theatrical forms and genres as they arose. It also contains the first detailed study in English of the kyogen repertoire of the sixteenth-century.

Digital Primary Source Collections

Below you'll find databases that include historical theatrical materials. If you are looking for scholarly articles on theatre history, check our our Finding Journal Articles for Theatre Research guide for additional database recommendations.

Eighteenth Century Drama: Censorship, Society and the Stage This link opens in a new window
This comprehensive collection makes available the Larpent collection of plays, as well as hundreds of documents that provide social context for the plays.
National Theatre Collection (Volumes I & II) This link opens in a new window
National Theatre Collection brings the stage to life through access to high-definition streaming video of world-class productions and unique archival material offering significant insight into theatre and performance studies. Through a collaboration with the U.K.'s National Theatre, the collections offer a range of digital performance resources never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive.
Royal Shakespeare Company Archives This link opens in a new window
Covers the years 1889-2013. provides a comprehensive record of the performance history of the Royal Shakespeare Company and its predecessor, the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. Browse and compare almost 1,400 prompt books to uncover how productions took shape, and explore the creative process behind the company's most important presentations in extensive additional documentation including production records, costume designs, music files and photographs.
Shakespeare's Globe Archive This link opens in a new window
An archive documenting the performance and construction history of the Globe Theatre reconstruction as well as the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
Shakespeare in Performance This link opens in a new window
Shakespeare in Performance showcases rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries.
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
An essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Consists of four components: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; and Moving pictures, optical entertainments & the advent of cinema. Includes full-text, full-color reproductions of books, ephemera, handbills, pamphlets, photos, posters, programs, scripts, and other types of materials. Coverage is most extensive for Great Britain; but there is also a fair range of materials for the U.S.A.

Rare & Archival Materials at Illinois

The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (RBML) has a few collections focusing on 19th and 20th century theatre. If you need to consult primary sources for your research or just want to check out some of the library's special materials, the two collections listed below are an excellent place to start!

Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design.
The Motley Collection of Theatre and Costume Design is a valuable source of documentation on the history of theatre and is housed in The Rare Book and Manuscript Library. It is a rare collection of original materials on the theatre comprising over 5000 items from more than 150 productions in England and the United States. These materials include costume and set designs, sketches, notes, photographs, prop lists, storyboards, and swatches of fabric.
Theatre Program collection, 1868-1989
Housed in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, this collection contains theatre programs dating from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century and some concert programs from the same time period. Bulk are from Chicago and New York, with many from other cities in the U.S. and a smaller number from other countries. Also included are souvenir programs; most are for theatrical productions; some are autographed; most are not dated; and most have no geographical information. There are also three scrapbooks, ca. 1900-1910, containing theatre programs and clippings, primarily from Washington, D.C., and New York.