Showing posts with label plays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plays. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2013

Finding theatrical production histories


(Adapted by LM from the Harvard Production Histories Guide)

What is a production history?

A production history (also called performance history or stage history) is an account of significant productions of a theatrical work (play, opera, dance, etc.).
There are two levels of research on production history:
  • Dates, places, interpreters: When, where, and by whom has the play been performed?
  • What was each production like? What made it significant or unique in terms of style, approach, or reception?
Why study a play’s production history?
  • A play can serve as a case study of changing cultural norms and theatrical styles over time.
  • Seeing how different interpreters have approached a play can deepen our understanding of it.
How do you find production histories? Unless someone else has compiled one for you, there’s no single, simple place to find them. You have to piece the history together from several kinds of sources, both primary and secondary.

Production History: Primary Sources

Performances and productions can be documented with various types of primary sources:

  • Newspaper Clippings
  • Theatre Reviews (also see E-Resources)
  • Playbills (organized by title of production, date, and theatre)
  • Promptbooks
  • Prints & Photographs
  • Posters
  • Scene and costume design / artwork
Some of these resources are cataloged Cruzcat.  The more information you can supply about a particular production -- production dates, place, theater, persons involved -- the more likely it is that you will be able to find material. This information can often be found in secondary sources (see below) and reviews.

Production History: Secondary Sources

To find out when and where a particular play has been performed, consult secondary sources such as these. Books can be found using Cruzcat (see suggested subject headings below); journal articles can be found in the databases listed here. To find the full text of a journal article in print or online, use the Citation Linker.

Production History Subject Headings

Library of Congress subject headings can be useful for finding production histories in Cruzcat. In Cruzcat, choose subject search and enter the name of the playwright by last name, first name. Then scroll down to find entries such as these below.

EXAMPLES: