Finding Plays Library Owns

• List of 20th century plays | List of 21st century plays | List of plays published by Dramatists Play Service

• Search for specific plays using Advance Search

  • try by title (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or Oresteia)
    • NOTE: It helps to put the title in quotes (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”)
  • try by author/creator (Williams, Tennessee or Aeschylus)

• Search for specific plays using Keyword

  • try by publisher (“Oberon modern playwrights" or “Theatre Communications Group" or "Applause Theatre")
    • NOTE: Put the publisher’s name in quotes to search all the words in order
  • for one act plays search using the phrase “One Act Plays” in quotes and limit to Books Only
  • for monologues search using the word monologues and limit to Books Only
    • List of selected women's stage monologues in the library's collection
    • List of selected men's stage monologues in the library's collection

• Other search options

  • find plays by number of characters, sex of characters, and/or type (short or musical or monologue) go the Dramatists Play Service then search the library for your selected play
    • NOTE: It helps if you put the title in quotes (“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”)
    • If we don’t own the play you need email abdoneym@wlu.edu to request
  • search Play Index from American Theater and then search the library for the title
    • If we don’t own the play you need email abdoneym@wlu.edu to request
  • search Internet Broadway Database and then search the library for the title
    • If we don’t own the play you need email abdoneym@wlu.edu to request
  • search the Off-Broadway Database and then search the library for the title
    • If we don’t own the play you need email abdoneym@wlu.edu to request
  • list of Off off Broadway Festival plays the library owns | list of Humana Festival plays the library owns

Royalties Info: Samuel French, Inc. | Dramatist Play Service | Broadway Play Publishing

Call Numbers for Theater and Dance

• GT 500-GT 2289 -- Costumes (History/Description)
• GV1580-1799.4 -- Dancing
• ND 2885 -- Scene painting
• PN1530 -- The monologue
• PN1551 -- The dialogue
• PN1560-1590 --The performing arts
• PN 1600-PN 3307 -- Drama
• PN 2068 -- Make-up
• PN 2091 .E4 -- Stage lighting
• PN 2091 .S8 -- Stage scenery
• PN 2061-PN 2071 -- Art of acting
• PN 2085-PN 2091 -- The stage & accessories
• PN 2181-PN 2193 -- Modern theatre history
• PN 6110.5-PN6120 -- Play collections
• PR 621-PR 739 -- English literature-drama
• PR 641-PR739 -- History of drama literature
• PS 330-PS 352 -- American literature/drama

The University Library uses the Library of Congress Classification System.   Books will be grouped together by topic. 

Doctoral dissertations are not published books, but can be considered book-length scholarly studies.
W&L subscribes to a database which offers the complete texts of over 1 million dissertations and theses.