African American Theater

AFAM 369a • ENGL 364a • LITR 271a • THST 369a
David Krasner

Primary Sources

Plays: Black Drama Online
In addition to traditional print resources for plays, there is an online database with the full text of nearly 1200 plays by 215 playwrights. About a third of the plays were previously unpublished. Black Drama offers not only the text, but information about the author and performances, and the ability to search across the database to find scenes matching various criteria (e.g., subjects, character types, scene locations, theater where performed, etc.). The database has some unfortunate gaps due to the difficulty of securing permissions, but it should still prove highly valuable for drama research.

US Newspapers on Microform
Newspapers may have reviews or information about performances. Search this database to find newspapers that Yale has on microfilm. You can limit by city, state, and year. You can even limit to African American newspapers (enter "African American newspapers" in the Notes field). For example, you can find out if Yale has any African American newspapers that published in New York continuously from 1910 through 1920 (we have one title).


Comedy Singers and Dancers.
Yale Collection of American Literature,
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Newspaper Reviews
There are several sources for play reviews. Here are some of the major ones. For a fuller list, see the Theater Studies Research Guide page on Finding Theater Reviews.
Academic Universe
Academic Universe is a full-text news and information service that provides access to major newspapers, magazines, transcripts, business and legal information and much more. Under News, choose Arts & Sports to find theater reviews.

New York Theatre Critics' Reviews (later National Theatre Critics' Reviews)
SML Stacks, PN1707 A1 +N48 (LC)
Drama Periodicals, N
Theatre Reviews is a complete guide and record of the New York stage, reprinted from New York Sun, New York Times, New York Herald Tribune, New York Post, New York Daily News, New York World Telegram" (1940-); reprinted from the New York Daily News, Wall Street Journal, Time, New York Post, Women's Wear Daily, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek, NBC (1976-).

New York Times Theater Reviews
SML Reference, PN2266 +N48
Drama Reference, PN2266 +N48 (LC)
Indexed photographic reprints of theater reviews as they appeared in the the New York Times from 1870 to the present. There are cumulative indexes for the years 1870-1919 and 1920-1970. Subsequent indexes are in each annual volume. The New York Times is also available full-text online, but it can be harder to locate reviews that way.

Images and Photos: Digital Library Cross Collection Search
You may be able to find images of performers and playwrights in one of Yale's online image databases. It is now possible to perform simple keyword searches through all of them at once by using the Cross Collection search. For more sophisticated searches, go to the individual database's own search page. The Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online collection is particularly useful.

Videos
It can be hard to find videos of African American performances, partly because there aren't very many of them, and partly because the record doesn't always have a heading or even a note that refers to African Americans. A good example is the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of August Wilson's The Piano Lesson. It's easiest to find something that you already know exists, but if you need to go fishing for one, your best bet is to do a Keyword search that includes the phrase and videorecording. For instance, the Keyword search Shange and videorecording produces three hits, two of which are her "choreopoem" For Colored Girls.

Archives and Special Collections

Yale has archival resources in several libraries and collections, including the Beinecke Rare Book Library, the Manuscripts & Archives Dept in SML, and the Music Library. The description of an archive, including a list of materials (sometimes even specific items), is called a "finding aid." You can look through finding aids at Yale through the Finding Aid Database. This may help you find particular items such as photos or plays within a large archive.

Three major archives in New York City have resources which you may also find valuable:

Finally, Archival Resources is a database that searches through finding aids in many libraries, so you may be able to find a special collection elsewhere.

Related Research Guides: Theater Studies · African-American Studies · English Literature · American History

Yale University Library Research Guide for African American Theater
Last modified Fri, 03 Sep 2004 . © Yale University Library.
Comments to Tobin Nellhaus, Librarian for Drama, Film and Theater Studies