Theatre & Dance: Finding Plays

To find plays in the Knowledge Center, try using the following search techniques in Library Search.

• Search by Title or Author.
• Library Search will return a list of individual copies of plays and plays in collections.
• Most plays will be located on the 5th floor of the Knowledge Center in the P section (literature). Some older plays will be stored in MARS (click Request to get the item).

• Search by Keyword or LC Subject.
• Most monologue books begin with the call number PN 2080 on the 5th floor. You can browse this area of the shelves to find ones that look interesting.
• If you want to find a certain type of monologue or scene, try one of these keyword combinations:
  • Monologues and women
  • Scenes and Shakespeare
  • Monologues and contemporary
  • Auditions and monologues

Many plays are located in play collections. For more recent collections, you can search in the Library Catalog by a play title to find specific works. However, for older play collections, you may not be able to search for them in the catalog. If you can't find the title of a play that you want, try using an index to locate the play of interest.

To use an index, look up the play by title and/or author. An abbreviation for a play collection will usually be listed next to the title. Use the abbreviation to look up the full title of the play collection, and then look up that collection in the Library Catalog. Some play indexes are listed below.

• Inter-Play: An Online Index to Plays in Collections
• Ottemiller's Index to Plays in Collections (Online and in print in the Reference section on the 2nd floor of the Knowledge Center)
• Play Index (Located in the Reference section on the 2nd floor of the Knowledge Center)