Theatre Studies

Collection overview

The Library's holdings in theatre studies can be found across the collections, particular strengths include:

Historical coverage of UK theatre from the medieval period onwards
Critical and theoretical coverage of the theatre
Performance art and theory
Practical aspects of stagecraft
Works by and about English dramatists
Works by and about Romance language, US and Latin American dramatists

Collection location

Historical, theoretical and critical works about theatre are located in the FILM and MEDIA collection (5th floor South Block)
Works by and about English dramatists are located in the ENGLISH collection (5th floor South Block)
Material about theatre is also located within the area collections of LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES (including Latin American and Caribbean dramatists) and U.S. STUDIES (including US dramatists) (6th floor South Block)
The Library subscribes to major ebook databases such as Early English Books Online (EEBO) and increasingly purchases individual titles available via MyiLibrary which can be accessed via the online catalogue
Recent issues of periodicals/journals are located in the North Reading Room (Periodicals Room) on the 4th floor South Block. For more information, see our journals resources page
Back issues of periodicals are held in the closed access stacks. These will display the location Stack Service on the catalogue. These can be requested via the online catalogue and collected at the service desk, 4th floor South Block
To locate individual titles use the online catalogue
Also use the catalogue to search for specific electronic journal titles. Full text services such as JSTOR and Academic Search Complete offer additional titles for which the Library does not have print holdings.

Related collections

Dictionaries and other literary reference works are located in the Reference Collection, North Reading Room, 4th Floor South Block
Film, media and television studies
The Latin American Studies and United States Studies Area Collections
The DVD collection consists of over 1000 films and operas, these can be obtained from the Information Desk (4th floor South Block) and must be viewed within the library.
Special Collections - especially the Harry Price Library of Magical Literature which holds material on illusion and early moving images, and the Malcolm Morley Library of material on all aspects of nineteenth and early twentieth century theatre, particularly theatre history and stagecraft
Archives - Senate House Library holds a significant collection of archives on the theatre and drama

Classmarks for Theatre Studies

All the following classmarks have a numerical prefix of (3), eg FILM and MEDIA 5th floor (3) YX3ed MAN.

Resource: Classmark

Theatre Studies: YX-YXO

History of British theatre: YX3e

Comparative drama: YXC

Tragedy: YXE

Historical drama: YXF

Comedy: YXH

Stage management: YXK

Stage design: YXL

Acting: YXM

Film Studies: YXP-YXT

Television drama: YXUT

Oral expression (rhetoric, speech): YY

Media Studies (general): YZ

History of broadcasting: YZA

Radio broadcasting: YZB

Television studies: YZD

English literature (general): YB-YS

Medieval: YD

Shakespeare: YH

Nineteenth century: YM-O

Twentieth century: YP-Q

For a more detailed explanation of classmarks see the Library's leaflet 'A guide to the classification scheme'.

Other libraries

For more information about Theatre Studies holdings in other academic libraries in the London area, please consult the M25 Consortium of Higher Education Libraries website: www.m25lib.ac.uk. For elsewhere in the UK, consult the Consortium of University and Research Libraries catalogue: www.copac.ac.uk.