Drama Research Guide: Plays and Monologues

Find plays, scenes and monologues in the library catalog and other sources, both online and in print.

Find a Play in Hunt Library

Find a Monologue in Hunt Library

These tips will help you find most monologues. If you can't find what you need, Ask a Librarian!

Find Plays by Subject or Number of Characters

Searching for plays by subject or number of characters directly in Cameo is hit or miss. If you don't know the title of a play or the name of a playwright,
ask for help or try the following:

1. Play Index Online
This is an online index that lists 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. It includes one-act plays, pageants, plays in verse, radio and television plays and classic drama. To see if a play in Play Index is accessible in the Carnegie Mellon Libraries check Cameo.
 If the Libraries do not have the play you want, contact the Art and Drama Librarian, Mo Dawley, about obtaining the play for the CMU Libraries collection or make an Interlibrary Loan request via Illiad.

2. 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.

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).If the Libraries do not have the play you want, contact the Art and Drama Librarian, Mo Dawley, about obtaining the play for the CMU Libraries collection or make an Interlibrary Loan request via Illiad.

Full-Text Play Databases

Plays in Alexander Street Press databases are also linked in Cameo

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.

North American Women's Drama
Over 1,500 full-text plays by women from colonial times to the present. Allows in-depth browsing and searching; includes detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies and and more. Plays were selected by the Alexander Street Press editorial board using recognized play bibliographies and in consultation with other scholars and playwrights.

Twentieth Century North American Drama
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.

Shakespeare Quartos Archive (Maryland Institute of Technology et. al.)
Digital collection of pre-1642 editions of William Shakespeare's plays as a result of a cross-Atlantic collaboration between the Maryland Institute of Technology and six institutions. Currently the archive contains early quarto editions of Hamlet.
Enables side-by-side text comparisons, full-text searches; enables users to annotate and tag content that can be stored for future reference and shared with other users.

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Critical Surveys and Play Synopses

Try the following Carnegie Mellon Libraries resources for a start:

  • Magill, Frank N. Critical Survey of Drama : English Language Series. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Salem Press, 1985.
    REF-1 PR623 .C75 1985 6 vols.
    Biographical summaries; critical essays examine representative plays and identify themes and characteristics employed by English language dramatists.
  • Magill, Frank N. Critical Survey of Drama : Foreign Language Series. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Salem Press, 1986.
    REF-1 PN1625 .C74 1986, 6 vols. with 1987 supplement
    Biographical summaries; critical essays examine representative plays and identify themes and characteristics employed by more than 170 non-English speaking dramatists.
  • Plays (Volume 1) 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
    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)

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.

Mo Dawley, Art and Drama Librarian
md2z@andrew.cmu.edu
August 2015

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