Guides: Theatre Arts: Background Sources

Theatre Statistics

Cultural Policy and the Arts National Data Archive
Interactive digital archive of data on the arts and cultural policy in the United States. Includes data on artists, arts and cultural organizations, audiences, and funding for arts and culture.
Theatrical Employment
Bureau of Labor Statistics overview: Producers and Directors
National Endowment for the Arts
Providing financial support to all manner of performing artists.

Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance
Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre
Oxford Companion to American Theatre
Oxford Music Online
Enhanced online version of the 29-volume print edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition, also comprising the complete New Grove Dictionary of Opera. Contains scholarly articles on all aspects of music and includes links to images, digital sound, and related sites.
International Encyclopedia of Dance
Oxford Dictionary of Dance

Literature Criticism Online
includes various critical series, including Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism (CMLC) Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) Drama Criticism (DC) and others.
Routledge Performance Archive
Provides exclusive access to an unprecedented and continually expanding range of streamed video and audio footage from performance practitioners past and present paired with relevant critical commentary delivered directly to the classroom, rehearsal hall, library and desktop or digital device

Shakespeare Glossary
Oxford Bibliographies Online
Browse by subject, then narrow down to your particular topic to find an annotated list of recommended books and articles.