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Using the library catalog
1. By author: Look up the name of the playwright and note the
call number of the particular play (Shakespeare has his own number: 822.33)
2. By title: Look up the title of the play and note the call
number
3. By subject: Look up the following subject headings or any
heading with the subdivision Drama. (The number following some subjects
is the call number for those kinds of plays)
| American drama [812]
Children's plays Choral speaking College and school drama Comedies Drama-Collections [808.82] English drama [822] Folk drama French drama [842] German drama [832] Greek drama [882] |
Historical drama
Horror plays Italian drama [852] Latin drama [872] Masks (Plays) Melodrama Monologues Morality plays Motion picture plays Musicals Mystery and detective plays |
One act plays
Pantomimes Pastoral drama Radio plays Religious drama Russian drama [891.7] Science fiction plays Spanish drama [862] Television plays Tragedies |
Look, as well, for subject headings with subdivision Drama, e.g. African Americans--Drama; Abraham Lincoln, 1809--1865-Drama; Gay men--Drama; Women--Drama; etc.
The library has the series Best Plays beginning with the 1920-1921 volume. These volumes have abridged versions of the ten "best" plays of each season on Broadway. They are all found at 812.08 BEST. In the most recent volume the library has (1981-1982) there is an index to all the previous volumes starting on page 458. This index tells you which volume to look in for the play.
Using the Play Index
The most extensive drama index is Play Index
(REF 808.82 PLA). The library has volumes which cover the years 1949 through
1992. This is a subject, author, title and cast analysis index to plays
published during those years, individually or in collections. The cast
analysis section is "designed to help the user locate plays by type of
cast (male, female, mixed, etc.) and number of players or readers." Short
synopses of each play are found under the author's name. The library does
not have every play or collection in these volumes but they do allow you
to begin to find out where you might find a particular play.
Here are sample entries from Play Index:
| Sample author entry | Sample title entry | Sample subject entry |
| Wilson, Lanford
Abstinence. Dramatists 1989 11 p Comedic look at Manhattan's "smart set." Chaos reigns at charity party for Liars Anonymous. 1 act 2m 3w 1 interior ---Same In The Best American short plays, 1990 |
Abstinence. Wilson, L. | Easter
Jones, K. The great Easter egg hunt Moore, B. The greatest power y Shore, S. Easter shoes c Shore, S. The third day c Wright, D.A. The Easter egg hunt |
| This entry shows that a play by Lanford Wilson entitled Abstinence was published by Dramatists in 1989 and contains eleven pages. For full information about the publisher see Part IV, Directory of Publishers and Distributors. The play has one act, and requires a cast of two men and three women plus one setting for production. This play also appears in the collection The Best American Short Plays, in the 1990 annual volume. For full information about the collection cited see Part III, List of Collections Indexed. | All plays are also listed under their titles followed by the name of the author. Fuller information about the play is obtained by consulting the author entry. | All plays dealing in whole or in part with a particular
subject are listed under that subject. Plays in distinctive form, such
as masques, mysteries and niracle plays, one-act plays, pageants, pantomimes,
puppet plays, plays in verse, radio plays, television plays, etc., are
entered under the appropriate form heading as well as under specific subjects.
Again, full information about the play will be found by consulting the
author entry.
The symbol c preceding the entry indicates the play is meant for children; the symbol y for young people grades 7 through 12. |
If our library does not have the play or collection, check the
- MARINet
catalog - http://marinet.lib.ca.us/.