Research Guides: English Literature: Shakespeare and Performance

Shakespeare and Performance

This guide provides links and resources relevant to Shakespeare and Performance topics at Toronto Metropolitan University, with resources relevant to students in the Department of English and Chang School.

Shakespeare's Globe, London, UK (Ank Kumar, Infosys Limited). CC-BY-SA4.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Key Resources

Key Journals

Shakespeare Quarterly
Shakespeare Quarterly (SQ) is a leading journal in Shakespeare studies, publishing highly original, rigorously researched essays, notes, and book reviews.
Shakespeare Survey
Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production. Since 1948 Survey has published the best international scholarship in English.
Shakespeare Bulletin
Shakespeare Bulletin is a peer-reviewed quarterly journal which publishes articles at the cutting edge of Shakespearean and early modern performance studies and theater history. Since its early days as the publication of the New York Shakespeare Society (from 1980) and its incorporation of the Shakespeare on Film Newsletter edited by Kenneth Rothwell and Bernice Kliman in 1992, Shakespeare Bulletin has grown into the leading journal of early modern performance studies.
The journal welcomes scholarship on the performance of Shakespeare and other early modern drama across stage, screen, digital platforms, and other media, from the sixteenth century to the present day, and from around the world.
The journal is edited by an international team of scholars and has its offices at the Shakespeare & Performance program at Mary Baldwin University, USA.
Shakespeare Studies
Shakespeare Studies is a peer-reviewed volume published annually in hard cover featuring the work of performance scholars, literary critics and cultural historians across the globe. The journal focuses attention primarily on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, but embraces theoretical and historical studies of socio-political, intellectual and artistic contexts that extend well beyond the early modern English theatrical milieu in both space and time. In addition to articles, Shakespeare Studies offers unique opportunities for extended intellectual exchange through its thematically-focused Forum feature, showcases early career scholars through its Next Generation Plenary and includes substantial reviews of significant publications.
Shakespeare
Promotes the British Shakespeare Association’s goal to bridge the gap between literary and performance-based criticism of William Shakespeare.
Borrowers and lenders : the journal of Shakespeare and appropriation
Borrowers and Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation is a peer-reviewed, online, multimedia journal that welcomes original scholarship engaging with the afterlives of Shakespearean texts and their literary, filmic, multimedia, and critical histories. It encourages contributors to use the online format to its best advantage, in particular, by imagining how to enhance or illustrate their essays with multimedia. B&L won the CELJ's "Best New Journal" Award in 2007. B&L is fully indexed in the MLA Bibliography, the World Shakespeare Bibliography, and other databases. B&L is currently co-edited by Dr. James Newlin and Dr. L. Monique Pittman; correspondence should be submitted through the OJS3 interface.
Theatre Topics
A publication of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, it focuses on performance studies, dramaturgy, and theatre pedagogy. Concise and timely articles on a broad array of practical, performance-oriented subjects (with special attention to topics of current interest to the profession) keep readers informed of the latest developments on the stage and in the classroom.
TDR
TDR is scholarly, accessible, and dynamic with a global appeal. Each article is tightly focused, but the effect of the whole is of a broad range of topics. TDR is at the cutting edge of performance studies. TDR supports progressive political and social movements and ideas. TDR is inclusive and interdisciplinary. Written by and for scholars and artists—and their students—TDR is where leaders and future leaders of performance studies go for performance texts, performative writing, editorials, reviews, and articles about the performing arts, performance in everyday life, politics, popular entertainment, business, and sports.

Useful Databases

Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection (Drama Online)
Located in Stratford, Ontario, Canada, the Stratford Festival is the largest classical repertory theatre company in North America. Each season, they present a dozen or more productions in different venues.

Other collections available from Drama Online.
Shakespeare in the Present (Drama Online)
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.

Other Drama Online collections.
Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 1&2 (Drama Online)
Inspired and informed by the unique historic playing conditions of two beautiful iconic theatres, Shakespeare’s Globe’s diverse programme of work harnesses the power of performance, cultivates intellectual curiosity, and excites learning to make Shakespeare accessible for all. These films showcase the Globe’s two unique playing spaces on Bankside and how different artists respond to them. Each performance transports viewers directly into the standing yard of the world famous Globe or the magical candlelit interior of the captivating new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

Other Drama Online collections.

Internet Shakespeare Editions
Our aim is to inspire a love of Shakespeare's works by delivering open-access, peer-reviewed Shakespeare resources with the highest standards of scholarship, design, and usability. Since 1996, the ISE website has been an innovator in providing academic resources for the online digital medium.
World Shakespeare Bibliography
The World Shakespeare Bibliography Online is a searchable electronic database consisting of the most comprehensive record of Shakespeare-related scholarship and theatrical productions published or produced worldwide from 1960 to the present.

Key Indexing Resources

MLA International Bibliography
The MLA International Bibliography, produced by the Modern Languages Association of America, is the fundamental research tool for the humanities. The database is an index of international scholarly materials on modern language, literature, linguistics, and folklore. The citations are from over 4,000 journals and series, monographs, working papers and conference proceedings.
International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text
The definitive research tool for the study of theatre and the performing arts. International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text was initiated by the American Society for Theatre Research, and since 1984, the Theatre Research Data Center (TRDC) at Brooklyn College has published 14 volumes of the IBTD.
Digital Theatre+
Digital Theatre+ is the world’s leading educational platform for the performing arts. DT+ collaborates with world-class theatre companies, industry associations, practitioners, teachers, examination boards and scholars to:
• Capture and curate live performance in stunning quality
• Bring an unprecedented range of insights from behind the scenes
• Commission bespoke educational resources to support study at every level

DT+ is constantly evolving and growing, with more filmed productions and interviews as well as superb written content being added every month.

Note: Digital+ requires the newest version of Chrome to work. Please update (URL: https://www.google.ca/intl/en_ca/chrome/update/) your browser if it is not working.
Oxford Bibliographies Online - Cinema and Media Studies
Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies has recruited many of the finest scholars in cinema and media studies to chart a path through the information thicket and toward a carefully organized, thoroughly peer-reviewed account of the most important books, articles, and Web sites. With frequent updates, Oxford Bibliographies in Cinema and Media Studies is an essential resource for students, faculty, and researchers.
North American Theatre Online
North American Theatre Online is a comprehensive reference work covering all aspects of the Canadian and American Theatre. It includes some 40,000 pages of major reference materials, together with records to approximately 30,000 plays, 57,000 people, 5,400 theatres, 22,000 productions, and 2,500 production companies. Each year we'll add more than 20,000 new records. The collection also includes approximately 10,500 images, playbills, postcards, scrapbooks and other resources.

Archival Newspapers

ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Globe and Mail
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1844 - 2021
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1851 - 2021
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Toronto Star
This historical newspaper provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
Coverage: 1894 - 2022
Times Digital Archive, 1785-2019
Researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), using keyword searching and hit-term highlighting to retrieve full facsimile images of either a specific article or a complete page. The entire newspaper is available, with all articles, advertisements and illustrations/photos divided into categories to aid searching.