Theatre Arts: Find Plays & Criticism
Guide to research and library resources for students in theatre classes
Selected Plays Available at the Library
PCC Student Playwrights
Slaying the 10-minute play : 14 original works by Portland Community College students by Call Number: 812.1 SLAYING 2018Publication Date: 2018Introduction / Gail Jeidy -- Oh baby / John McDonald -- Welcome Home / Justin Trautmann -- In training / Kit Kehle -- Hiking isn't for everyone / Kenny Arellano -- Proof / Katie Gagnon -- The railing / Abraham Escudero -- The wife / Micah Fishman -- Seen and unseen / Michael Cannarella -- The best place / Matthew Billmeyer -- 5K / JJ Lostica -- Monster me monster you / Ché -- Patience / Jessica Standifird -- Vampire's first day out / Dareyion Franklin -- The dirtbag applicant / Spencer Whitehead -- Writer Bios.
Find Plays
What Plays are in the Library?
If you already know of a title and/or a playwright that you're interested in, do a search in the catalog. If we don't have it, we can probably get it for you within a few days through our Summit borrowing system (see below).
Click on the links below to see all of the plays we have from each area. If you're browsing the shelves, you can find plays under the following call numbers:
Online Play Discovery Tools
Note: these plays are usually not free, however we may have them in our collection or be able to borrow them through Summit or ILL (Interlibrary Loan). Don't hesitate to contact a librarian for help!
- Playscripts.comVery useful tool for discovering plays and can read the full scripts online.
- DoolleeInformation on over 100,000 modern plays and 30,000 playwrights. Find plays by title, number of male and female characters. While the plays are for purchase, it can be a useful tool for identifying a play.
- Play DatabaseA "free service to help theatre lovers find plays to produce and monologues to memorize". Searchable by cast size, length, and keywords in the synopsis.
- Dramatists Play ServicePlayFinder, allows searching by author, title, keyword, or gender, and number of cast members.
- InterplayAn on-line index to plays in collections, anthologies, and periodicals. This online database, created by the Portland State University humanities librarians, contains more than 18,000 entries for plays. It is easily searchable by author and/or title. Search our library catalog to see if we (or one of the libraries in our network) own the play.
Digital Theatre+
- Digital Theatre + This link opens in a new windowThis database features musical and drama productions for Theatre and the Performing Arts. It also includes interviews, production design videos, script writing, acting workshops and more.
Getting a book we don't have through Summit
If we don't have a book, chances are we can get it for you!
When you find an item with a "Request from another library" message that means the book is not in our collection or is checked out. You may be able to request the book from a library in our region. If you don't see the "Request from another Summit library (about 5 days)" link button, you will need to log in with your MyPCC username and password after you click the blue "Sign in" button.
Items requested through Summit can be delivered to any PCC Library at no cost for pick-up in 2-5 days. An email to your MyPCC account will notify you when your item is ready for pick up. PCC students and staff can visit any Summit library and borrow items directly with your PCC photo ID. Return your borrowed items to any PCC library.
Find Monologues
- Books of Monologues Available Through the LibraryBooks of monologues by genre, gender, and more.
- ActoramaHere you can search monologues or scenes from movies, plays, television and books according to gender, source material, type (dramatic, comic, serio-comic), main action/emotions explored, period, genre or specific keywords (e.g. title or author).
- Monologue ArchiveFree monologues organized by genre, gender, and age.
- Horton's MonologuesFree monologues for students and actors to use in auditions and classroom exercises.
- Play DatabaseA "free service to help theatre lovers find plays to produce and monologues to memorize". Searchable by cast size, length, and keywords in the synopsis.
Musicals
A Strange Loop by Publication Date: 2021-01-19Usher is a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical: a piece about a black, queer writer, working a day job he hates while writing his original musical. Michael R. Jackson's blistering, momentous new musical follows a young artist at war with a host of demons - not least of which, the punishing thoughts in his own head - in an attempt to capture and understand his own strange loop
Spring Awakening by Call Number: EbookPublication Date: 2007-01-01In their dynamic re-imagining of Spring Awakening, Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik have created a groundbreaking rock musical about adolescent love, the trials of puberty and the friendships that young people build in the face of an uncomprehending world. Inspired by Frank Wedekind's once-banned and still provocative German play from 1891, this Spring Awakening holds up a mirror to our own time, and has become the must-see musical of a new generation
Once by Call Number: 812 WALSH 2012Publication Date: 2013-01-15A nameless busker, singing his heart out on the streets of Dublin meets a nameless young woman who speaks English with an accent, a street vendor. His girlfriend has left him, so he works in his father's vacuum repair shop and writes songs for her. She cleans houses, and plays the demo piano in a shop at lunchtime. The singer comes to hear her, and is so impressed that he immediately asks if she wants to collaborate -- right then -- on one of his tunes. They slowly piece the song together, and magic begins. This is a love story about a creative partnership, and the deeper longing for communication that underlies any worthwhile artistic effort.
In the Heights by Publication Date: 2013-04-01In the Heights is an exciting musical about life in Washington Heights, a tight-knit community where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open, and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. During its acclaimed Off-Broadway and Broadway runs, In the Heights became an audience phenomenon and a critical success.
Urinetown by Publication Date: 2003-02-19The story of a Gotham-like city in which a catastrophic drought has led to draconian water-conservation measures, including a government-enforced ban on private toilets. The "privilege to pee" is regulated by a single malevolent corporation that profits by charging admission to the public toilets--and anyone who commits a desperate act like ducking behind a bush is dragged off by the police, never to be seen again.
Dear Evan Hansen by Publication Date: 2017-05-30An original musical that explores the poignant desire for human connection in the tumultuous life of one young man. Evan is shy, lonely, and bullied for it -- teeming with the irrepressible emotions all too familiar with anyone who's ever been a teenager. After a tragedy strikes, Evan's life suddenly gets turned around, but is it ultimately for the better?
Memphis by Publication Date: 2011-04-01et in the turbulent American South of the 1950s, 'Memphis' is the story of Huey Calhoun, a white radio DJ whose love of good music transcends race lines and airwaves. But when he falls in love with a beautiful black singer he has set on the path to stardom.
The Producers by Publication Date: 2001-11-28rooks's raucous musical comedy, with the impossibly charismatic duo Max Bialystock (Nathan Lane) and Leo Bloom (Matthew Broderick) as the wily producers who cook the books and conspire to produce the worst musical ever ..
Finding Criticism of Your Play
These three databases contain literary and drama criticism, and you may find criticism of your play in one of the following three databases and the eBook.
You can also try to do a search for the title of your play as a subject in the advanced catalog search to see what books exist about your play.
- Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new windowSearches Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (authors who lived during the 19th century) and Poetry Criticism (includes poets and their poems). Includes scholarly and popular commentary from broadsheets, pamphlets, encyclopedias, books and periodicals.
- Drama for StudentsThis 16 volume online book collection provides context and criticism of commonly-studied dramas. You can click on the Item Details tab for each one to see which plays are covered.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull text of over 1000 scholarly journals in the arts and sciences, from their earliest issues up to 3-5 years ago. Does not include current issues of the journals. Video tutorials are available.