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Play Index, the electronic version of Play Index, Ref Z5781 P53. You can now search over 30,000 plays written from ancient times to the present that have been written in or translated into English. Included are mysteries, plays in verse, puppet performances, radio and television plays, pageants, and classic drama. Plays can be found by title; author; subject (divorce, Chinese Americans, brothers); style (symbolism, experimental theater); genre (comedy, melodrama, musical); cast type; and more. For those needing monologues for course assignments or auditions, there are over 600 to search from!

Play Index includes plays published as single volumes and also plays in anthologies and collections. For plays published separately, the publisher, date, pagination, ISBN, and LC number are given. Plays in collections link to full bibliographic information. Each record provides a description summarizing the plot and indicates any musical requirements: chorus, singing, dancing etc., along with the number of sets, noting whether scenery requirements are interior or exterior.

A sample record:

Play Title: The Carpenters Play Author: Tesich, Steve Play Abstract: A family, consisting of blue-collared breadwinner, his long suffering wife, two college dropouts (a radical son and misfit daughter) and a very wise mentally retarded younger boy, interact, but the communication is obtained by violence. Act(s): 2 Scene(s): 8 Cast: Men: 3 Women: 2 Play Subject(s): Dropouts; Family; Mentally handicapped children; Symbolism Update Code: 20050929 Accession Number: 190040417106000 Find this play in a book: Find this play in a book Related Web Resources: Related Web Resources

To find plays, users would click on "Find this play in a book", which takes you to this screen:

100% 1 Tesich, S. The Carpenters. In: Schotter, Richard.  The American Place Theatre: plays. Delta Bks., 1973. Now click on the  button to see if UCR has this book.

Play master records also contain links to Internet metasearches of related criticism, full text, and other useful information.

 

Access to this resource is possible from off campus. Click on Connect from Home for details.

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