How to choose a Season
From Lit Wiki
How to choose a Season?
Where to begin?
Web Resources for beginning your journey:
Theatre Season Planner from Artslynx
TCG - Theatre Communications Group
- Over the last 45 years, TCG’s constituency has grown from a tiny network of groundbreaking theatres to over 460 members across the country, as well as over 17,000 individuals nationwide.
- Good database to see what play was done where, when, etc.
Books on ALICE & OHIOLINK
You can read about Regional Theatre, it's history and development just by searching on ALICE.
Keyword: regional theat* (theatre or theater). Comb through these results. Top picks:
- Good source (print only) of the regional theatres in the US, their past couple of seasons, and pertinent info, such as audience size, location, budget. It might give you some ideas.
New Broadways: theatre across america
- Talks about broadway, off off broadway, alternatives. Nice feature of ALICE, she will give the Table of Contents.
Theatre Directory (from TCG)(Similar to Regional Theatre Directory)
- Personnel information (artistic directors, managing directors, board chairpersons)
- Theater addresses and fax, business, and box office phone numbers, along with E-mail and Web site addresses
- Performance seasons
- Regional index listings by state
- Theater index listing by budget size
- Actors' Equity Association contract information
- Special interests listings for all theaters
There is no ONE good place to find this kind of information. Go broad, branch out and try some other subjects
- Here is an OhioLINK search using the SUBJECT: Theater -- Production and direction
Databases to spark your thoughts
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full text
- Article database containing more than 60,000 journal articles, books, book articles and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries.
International Index to Performing Arts Full Text
- Article database covering more than 200 journals (with full text for about 50 of them) in the subject areas of dance, film, drama, opera, stagecraft, comedy, pantomime, puppetry, magic, radio, and television. Most coverage begins with the beginning of each journal run, going as far back as 1864.
Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre
- Contains entries on all aspects of theatre around the world and throughout history. Example topics include theatrical styles, dramatists, performers, and directors, as well as information on theatres, festivals, and such technical topics as lighting, sound, and method acting.
Performing Arts (Oxford Reference Online
- Full text access to some important reference works on the Performing Arts, published by the Oxford University Press.
Titles include: The Oxford Dictionary of Dance The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera Who's Who in Opera The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre
How to find the plays
- An index to more than 30,000 plays written from antiquity to the present and published from 1949 to the present, either written in or translated into English, including mysteries, pageants, plays in verse, puppet performances, radio and television plays, and classic drama.
- You can use the playfinder. Try searching ACTIVIST - gives a list of plays that involve activists or activism in the subject matter.
What about play reviews?
If you have chosen a play, perhaps a review might be a useful tool in order to help you decide. What was said, how was it received, how long did it run, etc.
There are lots more places to find reviews, just ask.
Can I watch videorecordings of plays?
- Alden Library has over 90 titles of filmed productions of major plays. Available for check out.
- OhioLINK and the DMC provide a Digital Video Collection. This collection is available right from your computer, on and off campus, and for use in the classroom. Search INFOTREE or ALICE or OHIOLINK for the Digital Video Collection. Search the SUBJECT for Literature & Language Arts, that will direct you to a list of all the films available.