Collection Development Policy: Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Ned Quist (Orwig Music Library)
    Rosemary Cullen (Special Collections)

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Spencer Golub

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page
    The Department of Theatre Arts and Performance Studies offers courses in playwriting, technical aspects of theatrical design and production, acting, dance, public communications, and theatre history. It offers an undergraduate concentration in Theatre Arts, offer s an undergraduate concentration in Theatre Arts "which combines the study of dramatic literature, theatre history, and dramatic and theatrical theory with the opportunity to take practicum courses in various theatre arts, including playwriting, acting an d directing, design, dance, and film and video making." The Department also offers a Master of Arts program that "stresses research and scholarship in theatrical history, theory and criticism"

    Faculty research interests include theatre history, popular entertainment, West African dance, Asian dance and performance, Russian theatre, and dance history. The Department also presents an extensive schedule of play productions, dance performances, and lectures throughout the calendar year.



  • Overview of the Collection
    Print Resources. The distinct areas of the Library's collections devoted to theatre and the other performing arts (LC Class PN and GT and GV) consist of over 38,000 titles, and include 75 active serial subscriptions. The direct support provided by these segments of the collections is augmented by holdings in numerous other classifications for the dramatic literature produced in many different languages and countries. Library holdings of the national literatures, as well as for areas such as Afro-American Studies, American Civilization, Anthropology, Art (and the Art Slide Library), Classics, Comparative Literature, Hispanic Studies, Modern Culture and Media (and the Media Services library), Music (and the Orwig Music Library), Religious Studies, and Renaissance Studies contribute to teaching, study, and research in Theatre, Speech and Dance.

    Electronic Resources. In addition to access to the enormous resources of the Internet, the Library provides onsite access to a wide variety of relevant databases, featuring full-texts and indexing of popular and scholarly literature, including English Drama, Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare, the MLA Bibliography, Drama Criticism and Shakespeare Criticism (both part of the Literature Resource Center), the International Index to the Performing Arts, the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the International Index to Music Periodicals, the RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, and the Annual Bibliography of Language and Literature. See the full list of the Library's holdings of databases of interest to Theatre, Speech, and Dance. In addition, there are currently 32 electronic journal subscriptions in the classifications devoted to theatre and the performing arts.

    Acquisitions strategies. Approval plan arrangements bring in the scholarly output of most U.S. and many British university presses, as well as numerous trade and commercial publishers' titles. The plan also provides second copies of new American playscripts, and collections and anthologies of drama for the circulating collection, thereby supplementing the holdings of the Harris Collection and providing users (particularly undergraduates in search of audition material) with copies that can be checked out. Similarly, efforts are made to support the wide variety of studio-based work taking place in the department, in such areas as dance, playwriting, acting, directing, production and design, and costume, with both popular and scholarly publications.



  • General Collecting Guidelines
    Materials are collected to support undergraduate and graduate instruction and research to the Ph.D level, as well as faculty research. Specific collecting interests include: materials to support studio work in theatre arts, including dance and speech; the study of dramatic literature, including playscripts or acting editions; theatrical history, including historical development; biography; design; costume; theatrical theory and criticism; acting techniques and analysis of performance techniques , both Western and non-Western; all aspects of technical production; the history and techniques of popular entertainments.

    In keeping with the Department's dedication to the practical, historical, and theoretical aspects of theatre and drama, the Library acquires monographic scholarly material related to the performing arts. This includes volumes of literary criticism, hi stories, biographies and memoirs, literary theory, performance criticism, as well as material on speech and communication, stage productions, acting, and popular entertainments and amusements. Emphasis is on works by and about the authors and practitioner s from the 18th to the 21st centuries, with some coverage of earlier periods. In addition, playscripts, usually in English, of major playwrights from the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa are acquired. Appropriate reference works are extensively collected.

  • Detailed Subject Breakdown

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: English, original or in translation. Some material in major European languages and Slavic.
    • Chronological Span: Emphasis on the 18th to 21st centuries.
    • Imprint Date: Current imprints. Occasional acquisition of out of print material, in original form, microform or electronic form. Retrospective materials are acquired routinely in Special Collections to support the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays.
    • Geographical Range: Primarily United States, Europe, Asia, and India. Selectively from the Middle East.
    • Types of Material Included: Books, including playscripts, and periodicals. Textbook-like works on the technical aspects, and techniques, of theatre, acting, and production. Selectively, antiquarian books and periodicals, dissertations, microforms, and electronic and web-based products. Excluded: Textbooks.


  • Areas of Distinction
    The scholarly material, and circulating copies of playscripts, acquired to support, supplement, and augment the Harris Collection are a notable part of the Library's holdings. The breadth of the collections can be seen in its holdings of Eastern as well as Western theatrical forms, and in the strength of the collections on popular genres, entertainments, and amusements, as well as the works of canonical authors and traditional dramatic forms. Particularly distinctive are the collections acquired to support studio-based work is such areas as dance, playwriting, acting, play directing, design, and production. Overall, the Library collections are wide-ranging, both in content and chronological span.

  • Special Collections
    • Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays. Includes over 32,000 play titles of American and Canadian imprint, 1609-present and over11,000 vocal scores, primarily popular music. There are extensive holdings of acting texts, songsters, and librettos, vocal scores and selections from musical plays.
    • Sheet Music Collection. 500,000 items. Includes approximately 45,000 titles, primarily piano-vocal music, dating 1826-1950, related to the American popular musical stage. Other notable sections include African-American related music; silent film music; early American and Confederate imprints; World War I and World War II music. Most uncataloged, filed by title.
    • Sidney P. Albert - George Bernard Shaw Collection. The collection includes over 2,000 books by and about Shaw and his circle, and an extensive collection of ephemera. The collection is complemented by the Dodd-Mead - G. B. Shaw Correspondance, illuminating the business relationship between Shaw and his American publisher.
    • Brown-Ives Shakespeare. Concentrated on 18th and 19th century editions and translations of Shakespeare, and including much material on 18th century textual controversies and the Ireland forgeries.
    • Asa Cushman Collection. Plays in manuscript parts and prompt copies, the working library of a mid-19th century actor-manager.
    • H. Adrian Smith Collection of Conjuring and Magicana. Long considered one of the finest private libraries on conjuring and magic, the Collection includes 16th century titles on natural magic, alchemy, astrology, religious rites, and witchcraft. Later holdings include sections on conjuring, card tricks and games, magicians as performers, magic periodicals and other works intended for practicing magicians, posters, ephemera, and realia.
    • Miller Collection of Wit and Humor. Materials of theatrical interest in the collection include memoirs and biographies of theatrical personalities, vaudeville routines and joke books, playscripts, minstrel skits, and works on comedy. Uncataloged.
    • General Book Collections. Notable holdings include copies of Shakespeare first (1623), second (1632), and fourth (1685) folios. There are also playbills and programs in the Broadsides Collection, and plays and other theatre materials in the McLellan Lincoln Collection.
    • Brown University Archives. Includes a wealth of material on theatrical performances at Brown University over the past two centuries.
    • Manuscript Collections.
      • Screenplays, 1938-1980. 90 dialogue and post-production scripts from a variety of major American studios. List available.
      • American Television Scripts. Over 1000 items representing 730 different programs. List available.
      • William Chauncey Langdon Collection of Pageants. Collection of pageants directed and organized by Langdon, founder and President of the American Pageant Association, and including scripts and memorabilia related to other pageants of the early 20th century. Inventory available.
      • The Robert J. Tierney Jr. Entertainment Memorabilia Collection. Radio and television scripts, posters, photographs, tickets, and other memorabilia related to theatrical performances in the Rhode Island area, ca. 1945-1995. Typescript list available for the radio and television scripts.
      • Edwin Honig Papers, 1950-1988. Includes typescripts and page proofs with manuscript notes and corrections of Honig's plays.
      • Joaquin Miller. Manuscript plays, with corrections in the author's hand; part of the John Hay Collection.
      • S. J. Perelman Collection. Published and unpublished works by the noted humorist, Class of 1925 and his brother-in-law Nathaniel West, Class of1924. Among the papers are two unpublished plays by Perelman, All Good Americans, written in collaboration with his wife and Even Stephen, written in collaboration with West.
      • Frances Herriot Sargent Papers. Includes material relating to the original production of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Inventory available.
      • Francis Wilson. Prompt copies and scripts of operettas and plays used by the Francis Wilson company, 1877-1898.


  • Related Collections


    Image: Cut No. 391 - Pantomime. From: Specimens of theatrical cuts. Philadelphia: Ledger Job Printing Office, 1876. Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, John Hay Library

  • Selected List of Key Internet Resources

Image: Cut No. 391 - Pantomime. From: Specimens of theatrical cuts. Philadelphia: Ledger Job Printing Office, 1876. Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays, John Hay Library