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Plays

This guide will help you begin to find plays, scenes and monologues in the library catalog and other sources, both online and in print.
Ask a librarian for additional help!

• Find a Play in Hunt Library
• Find Plays by Subject or Number of Characters
• Play Index Online Database (1949-present)
• Full-Text Play Databases
• Play Synopses
• Indexes to Plays Published in Magazines (pre-1980)

Find a Play in Hunt Library

• For a specific play or playwright
  use Cameo (library catalog) by doing a title, author to get the call number and location

• To browse plays in the book stacks begin looking in these call numbers and locations:

  4th Floor (STACKS-4 and OVERSZQ-4)
  PN1997-1997.2 Screenplays
  782.14026 or M1500-1527.8 Dramatic Music and Musical Theatre

  2nd Floor (STACKS-2)
  PA3544.93-3551 Classical Latin
  PA6000-7999 Classical Roman
  PA8135-8140 Medieval and Modern Latin
  PM171 Indian
  PM3087 Mexico and Central American
  PQ1211-1241 French
  PQ4227-4245 Italian
  PQ6217-6239 Spanish
  PR1241-1273 English
  PS623-635 American
  PT1251-1299 Germanic

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Find Plays by Subject or Number of Characters

• To find monologues in Cameo (library catalog)
  Use the word 'monologues' as one of your search terms to find book call numbers and locations. Ask a librarian to show you some useful ways to search for monologues by theme, gender, etc.

• Play Index Online lets you search for plays in various ways including subject or number of characters.

• Try the following reference books (indexes of plays or scenes) shelved in the reference section (FA-REF) on the 4th floor of Hunt Library for lists of plays published before 1980.

  Plays

  Firkins, Ina Ten Eyck (compiler). Index to Plays, 1800-1926. New York: H.W. Wilson, 1927.
  FA-REF-4 Z5781 .A1 F5 (4th floor Hunt Library>
  11,000 plays by 3,500 playwrights are listed. The playwright index is seperate from the title and subject index. Periodicals and books are covered. English and American plays and English translations of foreign language plays are included.

Firkins, Ina Ten Eyck (compiler). Play Index. New York: H.W. Wilson.
FA-REF-4 Z5781 .P53 10 Vols: 1949-1997.(4th floor Hunt Library)
An augmentation of Firkins (see above) covering scripts in the English language published in the United States, Britain, or Canada. Playwrights, titles, and subjects are arranged in one list.

Ireland, Norma (Olin). Index to Full Length Plays 1944 to 1964 . Boston: F.W. Faxon, Co., 1965.
FA-REF-4 Z5781 .T52 (4th Floor Hunt Library)
A list of plays that have been successfully produced and published in either England or the United States. Arrangement by title with entries describing cast, set, and costuming requirements. Indexed by subjects. This is a companion volume to the indexes by Thomson (see below).

Logasa, Hannah. An Index to One-Act Plays . Supplement. Boston: F.W. Faxon, Co., 1965.
FA-REF-4 Z5781 .L83 5 Vols:1924-1964. (4th floor Hunt Library)
Playwright, title, and subject indexes to one-act plays written or translated into English. Includes plays appearing in periodicals and collections as well as those seperately published. Some radio and television dramas appear in the later volumes.

Thomson, Ruth Gibbons. Index to Full Length Plays, 1895 to 1925. Boston: F.W. Faxon, Co., 1956.
FA-REF-4 Z5781 .T49, 1895-1925 (4th floor Hunt Library)
Predecessor to Ireland (see above) and arranged in the same manner.

Scenes

Bell, Richard O. and Kuder Bell, Joan Auditions and Scenes from Shakespeare. Boulder: Armando & Moth, 1979.
HUNT REF-1 PN2080 .B4 (1st floor Hunt Library)
A very extensive listing of potential scenes and speeches from all of Shakespeare's plays.

Grumbach, Jane and Emersonan, Robert. Actors Guide to Scenes: An Index of 600 Scenes from Classical and Modern Plays. New York: Drama Book Specialists, 1973.
HUNT FA-REF-4 Z5781 .G78 (4th floor Hunt Library)
A listing of two-character scenes classified by the gender of the characters and the style of the play (comic, serious, etc.). Running time and beginning line are indicated.

Grumbach, Jane and Emersonan, Robert . More Actors Guide to Monologues: An Index of 600 Monologues for Auditions and Class Work. New York: Drama Book Specialists, 1974.
HUNT FA-REF-4 PN4321 .G87
Very similar to the Actor's Guide described above, but lists monologues rather than two-character scenes.

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Play Index Online (Carnegie Mellon users)

This database indexes plays in published sources (1949-present) by subject, author, title, style, genre, cast type, by number of people and more with plot summaries and musical, cast and scenery requirements. Includes one-act plays, pageants, plays in verse, radio and television plays and classic drama. Links to selected full-text plays on the web.

To see if a play in Play Index is accessible via Carnegie Mellon Libraries check Cameo (library catalog). Other plays may be requested online on Interlibrary Loan via Illiad.

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Full-Text Play Databases

• Asian American Drama
  Contains the full-text of 250 plays by Asian American playwrights. It is searchable by author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theatres, and companies. The database also contains playwright biographies, details on productions, theatres and theatrical companies, as well as production photographs, selected playbills and other information related to the plays.

• Black Drama
  Contains the full-text of 1200 plays by black playwrights. It is searchable by author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theatres, and companies, including related resource and biographical information.

• Twentieth Century North American Drama is a growing full-text database, currently containing 850 plays including the complete works of major playwrights as well as plays by emerging playwrights. Searchable by keyword, author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theaters, and companies. Additional information on playwrights, theaters, companies, productions and performances is included along with a selection of playbills, posters and other ephemera.

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Play Synopses

Try the following Carnegie Mellon Libraries resources for a start:

• International Dictionary of Theatre. Chicago: St. James Press, 1992, 1994, 1996.
  Hawkins-Dady ; picture editor, Leanda Shrimpton. For history on plays and playwrights
  FA-REF-4 PN2035 .I49 1992 (3 Volumes)
  Plays (Vol. 1)
  Includes first production information, criticism and other publications; synopsis of the play.

• Play Index Online (Carnegie Mellon users)
  Includes one or two-sentence plot summaries of plays in published sources (1949-present)
  

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Lists of Plays Published in Magazines (pre-1980)

Chicorel Theater Index to Plays in Anthologies, Periodicals, Discs, and Tapes . New York: Chicorel Library Publishing Co., 1970-.
HUNT FA-REF-4 PN1655 .C43X, VOL.1-3 (4th floor Hunt Library)
Contains over 30,000 entries. Broad coverage of years and languages with playwright, play title, and anthology title in one alphabetical list in each volume.

The Drama Scholars' Index to Plays and Film Scripts: A Guide to Plays and Film Scripts in Selected Anthologies, Series, and Periodicals . Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1974.
HUNT REF-1 Z5781 .S17, 3 Vols. (1st. floor Hunt Library)
Indexes foreign langauge scripts, translations, and many 18th- and 19th- century anthologies and collections as well as modern film scripts. Arranged by playwright or title.

Keller, Dean H. Index to Plays in Periodicals. Rev. and expanded ed. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1979.
HUNT FA-REF-4 Z5781 .K43 1979 (4th Floor Hunt Library)
Indexes thousands of plays in hundreds of periodicals, by playwright or title.

Patterson, Charlotte A. Plays in Periodicals: An Index to English Language Scripts in Twentieth Century Journals. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1970.
HUNT BSMT Z5781 .P3 (Basement, Hunt Library)
Lists some 4,000 plays in 97 English language journals published between 1900 and 1968. Arranged by playwright or title.