Performing Arts Encyclopedia
- Performing Arts EncyclopediaExplore music, theater, and dance at the Library of Congress
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.
Americans for the Arts
- Americans for the ArtsAmericans for the Arts is the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.
Other Important Library Collections
- SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutionslists over 7000 international institutions with material relating to the performing arts (theatre, opera, music, ballet, film, circus, radio, television, cabaret, pantomime). Basic info and information about collections found within the institutions.
- The New York Public Library for the Performing Artshouses the world's most extensive combination of circulating
and non-circulating reference and research materials
on music, dance, theatre, recorded sound, and
other performing arts.
Digital Collections
- NYPL Digital Galleryprovides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.
- Digital Performance Archivetraces the rapid developments taking place which combine performance activity with new digital technologies - from live theatre and dance productions that incorporate digital projections, to performances that take place on the computer-screen via webcasts
- AHDS Performing Artssupports research, learning and teaching with high quality and dependable digital resources related to music, dance, theatre, radio, film, television, and performance.
- V&A's Theatre Collectionsnational collection of material about live
performance in the UK since Shakespeare's
day, covering drama, dance, musical theatre,
circus, music hall, rock and pop, and other
forms of live entertainment. - GloPAC - Global Performing Arts Consortiuman international organization of institutions and individuals committed to using innovative digital technologies to create easily accessible, multimedia, and multilingual information resources for the study and preservation of the performing arts.
- Theatre Productions and Players, 1920s-1957: Vandamm Studio PhotographsThe thousands of items in this digital presentation are a sampling of an archive of more than 75,000 images of theatrical personalities and productions. Images in the current presentation represent glass plate and acetate negatives primarily.
- "Queen of Off-Broadway:" Lucille Lortel Collection Photographs 1902-1998An appreciative selected collection of eighteen memorabilia photographs from the papers of Lucille Lortel (1900-1999), the woman regarded as the founder of Off-Broadway, the second wave of little theatre in America.
2nd Avenue Online
- 2nd Avenue OnlineThe Second Avenue Online project employs digital technology to preserve this invaluable historic resource and to make it available to the widest possible audience. Through oral history, video and audio recordings, photographs and a wide range of information about the institutions and the people that made Yiddish theater a living tradition, Second Avenue Online seeks to capture the memory and to convey the feel of 2nd Avenue as a living part of the history and culture of New York and America.
Poster for "The Yiddish King Lear".
The following partial translation comes from the NYPL site (links and formatting added): Der Yudisher Kenig Lier [The Jewish King Lear] by Mr. en:Jacob Gordin Mr. en:Jacob Adler as King Lear, Mr. [Berl] Bernstein as Shammai
Windsor Theatre, Thursday, en:October 13, en:1898.
Partial translation: 'A sea of diamonds! 'What, more diamonds?' we hear
you say with a smirk. 'It must be some new play, but what of it' 'No,
friend, this time you are wrong. We tell you in all seriousness that we
have put together something the like of which you have never seen
before, even in your dreams. Listen, now, to what we have for you: The Jewish King Lear, for the benefit of the Hebrew Legal Aid and Protective Association.' 1898.
This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
The Internet Broadway Database
- The Internet Broadway DatabaseIBDB (Internet Broadway Database) archive is the official database for Broadway theatre information. IBDB provides records of productions from the beginnings of New York theatre until today.
Lortel Archives
- Lortel ArchivesThe Lortel Archives, also known as www.IOBDB.com (Internet Off-Broadway Database) provides a catalogue of shows produced Off-Broadway.
Virtual Vaudeville
- Virtual VaudevilleTransports you back to the nineteenth century on your PC. Watch a 3D simulation of a complete act by legendary vaudeville comedian Frank Bush and observe the reactions of the historical spectators.
Vaudeville!
- Vaudeville!The American Studies department at the University of Virginia has a great online exhibit on vaudeville. photographs of theaters and a show poster, articles written by famous viewers, journalists, and performers of vaudeville, see such original short films from the early 1900s, ear "songs, sketches and recitations and dialect comedy.