Costume Design Resources

Keywords

After you have formed your research thesis, brainstorm Search Terms. These are the words that you will use to search the databases. For example:

Question: "Did Shakespeare's portrayal of women promote equality?"

keywords = Shakespeare women equality

Synonyms

When searching for articles, it is important to think about different terminology. For example, an author writing about Shakespearean women may only use the words "female characters" and "gender roles."  If you don't try different search terms, you may miss out on some great articles!

AND, OR, NOT

AND: results must include both words: Iraq AND War

OR: results can contain either of the words:  Children OR Adolescents

NOT: results include one word and not the other:  Global NOT Warming

Limit your Search

Databases all have ways to limit how you search them. This could be searching by Title, Author or Publication Date. Consider using the Subject field, sometimes called Descriptors.

These resources search scholarly journals (and some industry publications) useful for finding scholarly criticism on plays, literature, films, productions and actors.

International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance (GUIDE to using this resource)

• A comprehensive, multicultural and inter-disciplinary research tool comprised of over 60,000 journal articles, books and dissertation abstracts on all aspects of theatre and performance in 126 countries.

Literary Reference Center

• Literary Reference Center is a comprehensive literary reference database, which provides users with a broad spectrum of reference information from antiquity to the present day.

MLA International Bibliography

• A detailed bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA). Contains over 1.8 million citations from more than 4,400 journals & series, and 1,000 book publishers, including literary theory, criticism, folklore and the dramatic arts.

Academic Search Complete

• A full-text multi-disciplinary database that provides access to 4,650 scholarly journals, 3,600 of which are peer-reviewed. The majority of full-text availability goes back to 1975 (some even further).

Web of Knowledge

• An index to over 11,000 journals, including Arts & Humanities.  Allows citation searching (who an article has cited and who has cited that article).

Additional databases can be accessed at the Databases A-Z or the Subject Lists.

These resources search news sources, helpful for locating specific reviews and production visuals for plays, films, companies and actors.

LexisNexis Academic

Full-text access to 6,000 news, business and legal publications

Access World News

3,000 international newspapers

New York Times (1980-Present) & Historical New York Times (1851-2006)

Many other news sources can be found on the News Sources Research Guide.

This article, available fulltext in the International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance, discusses the New York's Fiasco Theater and their unique design of "Into the Woods" in 2013.

Why should you be interested in production reviews?

1. Find production critiques, reviews, and perhaps visuals
2. Scholarly research in the area of literature, film and theatre