New theater databases Asian American Drama, North American Women’s Drama, and Black Drama-Second Edition highlight collections of narratives from America’s minority groups; read full texts of plays, find information about playwrights and productions, and browse playbills and other related ephemera. Theatre in Video, containing more than 250 performances of the world’s leading plays, delivers the true drama experience as plays are created to be performed. North American Theatre Online, gives access to comprehensive reference materials covering all aspects of the Canadian and American theater. See detailed descriptions below.

Use North American Theatre Online to research upcoming FAU Department of Theatre and Dance productions.

This edition of Asian American Drama contains 252 plays by 42 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies and more.  The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the play.

The plays have relevance well beyond the study of literature, drama, and Asian American studies. They present views of important historical events, such as the construction of the railroads in the nineteenth century, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and the Vietnam conflict. The plays also address sociological issues, such as assimilation, integration, and cultural identity in a Western context. The effect of Western religion is also examined. For example, David Henry Hwang’s Family Devotions deals with evangelism and religious identity as experienced by Chinese Americans. By reenacting experiences familiar to audiences, these plays provide opportunities for viewers to examine their own reactions to racism and other experiences of their ethnicity.

Black Drama, Second Edition contains the full text of 1,379 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 220 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. Many of the works are rare, hard-to-find, or out of print. James Vernon Hatch, the playwright, historian, and curator of the landmark Hatch-Billops Collection of black drama, is the project’s editorial advisor. More than a quarter of the collection will consists of previously unpublished plays by writers such as Langston Hughes, Ed Bullins, Willis Richardson, Alice Childress, Amiri Baraka, Randolph Edmonds, Zora Neale Hurston, and many others.

A comprehensive reference work covering all aspects of the Canadian and American Theatre, North American Theatre Online includes some 40,000 pages of major reference materials, together with records to approximately 30,000 plays, 57,000 people, 5,400 theatres, 22,000 productions, and 2,500 production companies.

North American Women’s Drama contains 1,517 plays by 330 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more.  More than 30% of the plays in the collection have never been published before. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the play.

North American Women’s Drama begins with the works of Mercy Otis Warren, Judith Sargent Murray, and Susanna Haswell Rowson in colonial times. It includes a rich collection of nineteenth-century melodramas exploring topics from domestic entrapment to life on the frontier to the Underground Railroad. The database covers the campaign for voting rights, including propaganda plays, as well as the growing crusade for women’s access to higher education and inclusion in various professions. The collection covers contemporary drama, including the works of performance artists.

Theatre in Video contains more than 250 definitive performances of the world’s leading plays, together with more than 100 film documentaries, online in streaming video. With live television broadcasts of New York productions from the 50s, revivals of classic works and experimental performances from the 60s and 70s, as well as important contemporary performances, Theatre in Video covers a wide range of 20th century theatre history.  Unlike Hollywood adaptations, these are the actual original productions, captured and recorded while performed for a live theatre audience.

Included are landmark performances such as The Iceman Cometh, King Lear, Awake and Sing, Dom Juan, Bérénice, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Playboy of the Western World, Krapp’s Last Tape and Othello, among many others. Notable actors include Claire Bloom, Laurence Olivier, Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Dreyfuss, Walter Matthau, Meryl Streep, Eli Wallach, Zoe Caldwell, Sam Waterston and more.