Play Database - Immediate Online Content
These databases allow access to thousands of plays digitally:
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Twentieth Century North American Drama: Second Edition This link opens in a new windowTwentieth Century North American Drama contains 1,905 plays by 419 playwrights, and more than 150 of the plays are published here for the first time, including a number by major authors. This collection offers a unique window into the economic, historical, social, and political psyche of two countries. Scholars and students who use the database will have a new way to study the signal events of the twentieth century—including the Depression, the role of women, the Cold War, and more—through the plays and performances of writers who lived through these decades.
Available through June 30, 2025
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Black Drama: Third Edition This link opens in a new window
Black Drama contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. More than 40 percent of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many works are rare, hard to find, or out of print.
Library Catalog for Play Scripts
There is no special section for plays in the library. Plays are mixed in the book stacks with traditional literature. So knowing the name of the play and author is important when searching for plays in OneSearch
HOW TO LOCATE A PLAY IN OUT LIBRARY COLLECTION:
1. Start with the OneSearch
2. Do an AUTHOR search to see everything we own by your playwright
Example: Williams, Tennessee (Last Name, First Name)
3. Do a TITLE Search by the name of the play.
Example: The Glass Menagerie
4. Do a GENERAL search entering the name of the play and the playwrights last name.
Remember: Collections of plays will sometimes include your play.
Sample collection of plays: Best plays of the seventies / edited by Stanley Richards
NEED INSPIRATION?
If you do not have a playwright or play title in mind browse some of these website to find a play that might interest you. Once you found something interesting search for the title, author, or ISBN in OneSearch
*** Do not purchase off of these website, check OneSearch to see if you can get these plays through the library first***
Monologue Books & Ebooks in the Library
Here is a selection of books containing monologues available through the library. This is not a comprehensive list. Search for "monologues" in Onsearch to discover more.
- The best men's stage monologues 2022
- The best women's stage monologues 2022
- Great monologues: and how to give winning auditions
- Hear me now: audition monologues for actors of colour
- Hear me now. Vol.2: audition monologues for actors of colour
- Heretic voices : three award-winning monologues
- The Kilroys list. Volume one: 97 monologues and scenes by female and trans playwrights
- The Kilroys list. Volume 2: 67 monologues and scenes by women and nonbinary playwrights
- Monologues and Scenes for Lesbian Actors
- Monologues for latino/a actors : a resource guide to contemporary latino/a playwrights for actors and teachers
- The Oberon book of monologues for Black actors. Volume 1 : classical and contemporary speeches from Black British plays : monologues for women
- Thirty monologues and duologues for South Asian actors : celebrating 30 years of Kali theatre's South Asian women playwrights ; extracts from plays produced by Kali 1991-2021