Research Guides: Drama: Online

Streaming Plays at UCI

Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of many different plays that have been produced on the contemporary British stage and interviews with professional practitioners. Also includes commissioned essays by scholars intended to serve as introduction to key concepts and figures in theatre history.
National Theatre Collection This link opens in a new window
Volumes 1 and 2: Streaming videos of contemporary productions by the excellent National Theatre Company. Most all productions includes pdf discussion packets. Additional supplementary materials, such as costume bibles and prompt scripts, also included for selective productions.

National Theatre Collection
Volume 3: Streaming videos of contemporary productions by the excellent National Theatre Company. Most all productions includes pdf discussion packets. Additional supplementary materials, such as costume bibles and prompt scripts, also included for selective productions.

BroadwayHD This link opens in a new window
Small collection of streaming video of contemporary Broadway productions. Includes both plays and musicals.
Shakespeare's Globe on Screen This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of Shakespeare productions by "Globe on Screen."
Theatre in Video This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of significant play productions from the 1930s to the present. Also contains numerous documentaries and television broadcasts related to the field of Theatre.
Shakespeare in the Present: Patsy Rodenburg's Workshop This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of a six-hour masterclass with acclaimed master acting teaching Patsy Rodenburg. The film explores her unique approach to voice and acting and her highly sought-after techniques and exercises in Movement, Speech, Body, and Vocal Warm-up.
Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy provides access to contemporary and classic feature films and documentaries, from the major Hollywood studios as well as independent and international filmmakers.
Audio Drama: L.A. Theatre Works This link opens in a new window
Streaming audio of plays performed by leading actors from around the world. The collection presents classics of the Western canon, modern works by American luminaries, originally commissioned plays, and high profile docudramas by both renowned and emerging playwrights.

El Teatro Campesino
They contain El Teatro Campesino plays, television specials, concerts, interviews, news footage, commercials, and workshops. This series includes the first known film that has a segment about the Teatro, "Huelga," narrated by Cesar Chavez. Other films range from the early actos to television specials on the movie "Zoot Suit." There are films of scenes from plays and whole plays, interviews with Luis Valdez and others, footage of the twentieth anniversary gala of El Teatro Campesino, and a documentary on the history of the Teatro made in 1981. They originate in several locations, including Monterey, Sacramento, San Jose, and various parts of Mexico.

Online Full Text Plays and Film Scripts

Asian American Drama This link opens in a new window
Contains the full text of plays written by Asian American playwrights. Plays were written from late 19th century to the present, and almost half aren't published in any other place.
Black Drama This link opens in a new window
Full text of plays written between the mid-19th century to the present by hundreds English speaking playwrights of African descent. Includes basic facts about each play, such as first known production, production history, author biographical details, etc.

Contemporary World Drama
*TEMPORARY ACCESS*
Over 400 full text plays. Playwrights are from every continent. Plays are from 2000-present. *Database is still growing and expected to eventually reach over 1,000 plays*

Latin American Drama This link opens in a new window
Full text play scripts by Latin American playwrights. Plays were written from mid-19th to 21st centuries.

Latino Literature
Over 450 plays. Also contains poetry and literature. Written by Latinx writers based in the United States, generally from 1975-present. Contains works written in both Spanish and English.

New Play Exchange This link opens in a new window
A database that allows you to search for and discover plays using discrete indexing terms for facets like playwright demographics, cast information, themes, etc. Not only does it help you discover playwrights and plays (generally unpublished), but it also has full text for some (several thousand) plays. Also helpful for locating contact information for playwrights and/or their agents.
North American Indian Drama This link opens in a new window
Contains full text play scripts written by American Indian and First Nation playwrights during the 20th century. Playwrights represent groups such as Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Hawaiian, and others. Plays were written from 1920-present, although majority from 1990-present.
North American Women's Drama This link opens in a new window
Contains full text, English-language play scripts written by female playwrights from North America. Most plays have been written since 1900, but it does include about a hundred written prior to that date.
Twentieth Century North American Drama This link opens in a new window
Full text play scripts by North American playwrights written during the 20th century.
TCG Play Collection This link opens in a new window
Digital play scripts from TCG (Theatre Communications Group), including plays like FOB (David Henry Hwang), Killer Joe (Tracy Letts), Liquid Plain (Naomi Wallace), Mr. Burns (Anne Washburn), What the Constitution Means to Me (Heidi Schreck) and many more!

American Drama, 1714-1915 This link opens in a new window
Full text of dramatic works created by Americans between 1714 and 1915. Genres include: plays in verse; farces; melodramas; minstrel shows; realist plays; frontier plays; temperance dialogues; and others.
Bertolt Brechts Werke This link opens in a new window
A collection of Brecht's works and writings with brief notes on each text.
Black Drama This link opens in a new window
Full text of plays written between the mid-19th century to the present by hundreds English speaking playwrights of African descent. Includes basic facts about each play, such as first known production, production history, author biographical details, etc.
English Drama This link opens in a new window
Full text of several thousand plays written by British playwrights in English. Plays were written from late-13th to the early-20th centuries.
Latin American Drama This link opens in a new window
Full text play scripts by Latin American playwrights. Plays were written from mid-19th to 21st centuries.
Teatro Español del Siglo de Oro This link opens in a new window
Full text playscripts by Spanish playwrights from the 16th and 17th centuries. All scripts are in Spanish.

W.B. Yeats Collection
Provides access to the complete text of everything written by Yeats, including his plays.

Cambridge Shakespeare This link opens in a new window
The complete works of Shakespeare and integrated reference material. Search the Works of Shakespeare or the Worlds of Shakespeare together or independently.
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare This link opens in a new window
Provides access to 11 different major editions of Shakespeare's works, from the First Folio to the Cambridge edition of the mid-19th century. It also includes 24 different contemporary printings of individual plays and more than 100 adaptations, sequels, and burlesques written in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries.
The New Oxford Shakespeare This link opens in a new window
Presents a new consideration of all of Shakespeare's works, edited from first principles from the base-texts themselves, and drawing on the latest textual and theatrical scholarship. The project's scope, depth, and vision provide a platform for the future of Shakespeare studies.

American Film Scripts Online This link opens in a new window
Full text, accurate, and authorized film scripts. Many are not available from other resources. These scripts are provided in collaboration with major film studios like Warner Brothers, Sony, MGM, etc.