Research Guides: Shakespeare: Plays: Scripts, Criticism, Productions

Full-Text (e-books)

Early English Books Online
Digitized facsimiles of all printed materials published in Great Britain between 1473 and 1700, and materials published elsewhere in the world in English during the same period. Includes searchable text from the Text Creation Project, Phase I.
Materials include books, tracts, pamphlets, advertisements, ballads, rhymes, and other ephemera. The database continues to develop, with over 100,000 records currently included and increasing capabilities for direct keyword searching of the texts.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
If searches in this database retrieve incorrect results, clear cache/cookies to resolve the problem.
18th century English-language publications in the humanities, arts, and sciences.
Digitized copies of significant English-language and foreign-language title printed in Great Britain during the eighteenth century, along with thousands of important works from the Americas. ECCO includes a variety of materials from books and directories, Bibles, sheet music, sermons, advertisements, and other works by both well-known and lesser-known men and women writers.

Project Gutenberg
Thousands of full-text plays in the public domain (published prior to 1923)
Open Source Shakespeare
Full text of Shakespeare works with sophisticated searching capabilities.

Internet Broadway Database (IBDB).
American Theatre Companies, 1749-1887. KNIGHT REF PN2237 .A43 1986
American Theatre Companies, 1888-1930. KNIGHT REF PN2256 .A44 1987
American Theatre Companies, 1931-1986. KNIGHT REF PN2266 .A54 1989 Provides history of the company and includes listing of productions for each season. Each entry has a bibliography for further research. Use the title index to determine which companies performed particular plays. British Playwrights, 1880-1956: A Research and Production Sourcebook. REF PR736 .B7 1996
British Playwrights, 1956-1995: A Research and Production Sourcebook. REF PR736 .B75 1996 Lists first production, runs of significant productions, and important revivals. Summarizes published criticism of the productions. Also includes biographical information, assessment of the playwright's career, archival sources, and bibliographies of primary and secondary sources.
The London stage, 1660-1800; a calendar of plays, entertainments & afterpieces, together with casts, box-receipts and contemporary comment. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1960-68. KNIGHT REF PN2592 L65. Basic reference for 18th century theater compiled from newspapers, playbills, and contemporary theatrical diaries.