The Cambridge Histories series is one of the most respected reference collections in academia. Now extending to over 400 volumes, titles nominally encompass 10 subject areas: American History; Ancient History & Classical Studies; Asian History; British & European History; Global History; Literature; Middle East & African Studies; Music & Theatre; Philosophy & Political Thought and Religion. However, it is worth noting that the topics addressed extend across the full range of the humanities, encompassing longstanding series, such as those documenting the history of the major global religions, but also recent innovations such as the World History series, which traces the development and chronology of fields as diverse as Food, Medical Ethics, Sexualities and Slavery.
Often incorporating contributions by University of Manchester academics, the collections offer invaluable contextual introductions for first-time researchers as well as regular monthly updates on developing areas of scholarship. The library has recently undertaken a review exercise to ensure online access to all available electronic titles and instituted a subscription for the addition of annual releases to ensure consistent and comprehensive access to this flagship reference series.
The Cambridge Histories also complement other recent state-of-the art and regularly updated reference material recently added to the Library’s holdings – most notably Oxford Bibliographies and Oxford Research Encyclopedias.
National Theatre Collections and a Peake Performance!
The latest addition to the Library’s Drama Online portfolio which completes a collection sourced from over a decade of ‘NT Live’ broadcasts. Now comprising 70 productions, the National Theatre Collections offer a compendium of high quality full-length staged performances stretching from Sophocles to Shakespeare and beyond. In line with previous releases NT3 is of course readily available to all members of the University of Manchester. The new additions incorporate: “marquee” productions from renowned directors of the calibre of Nicholas Hytner and Lyndsey Turner; literary adaptations from the poet, Carol Ann Duffy and the novelist, Zadie Smith, and acclaimed performances from the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ralph Fiennes, Sophie Okonedo, Catherine Parkinson, and Michael Sheen. To further discovery all new titles - which include ‘Antony & Cleopatra,’ ‘The Book of Dust,’ ‘The Crucible’ and ‘Under Milk Wood’ - are individually indexed on Library Search.
In conjunction with Collection 1 (30 plays) and 2 (20 plays), our NT portfolio complements the Library’s extensive reserves of streamed performances from other major UK theatre houses – including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s RSC Live Collection and Shakespeare’s Globe On Screen.
The Library has also recently acquired a small collection of additional streamed productions of Shakespeare and early modern drama housed on the Drama Online platform, which includes the Royal Exchange’s acclaimed 2014 production of Hamlet with Maxine Peake.
Collectively these resources form part of the Library’s ongoing collaboration with the Drama and English, American Studies and Creative Writing departments to support the study of performance-based arts in the challenging post-COVID environment.
National Theatre Collection 2 Online
A new addition to the Library’s Drama Online portfolio which completes a collection sourced from 10 years of ‘NT Live’ broadcasts. Now comprising 50 productions, the National Theatre Collection offers a compendium of high quality full-length staged performances stretching from Sophocles to Shakespeare and beyond. Available to all University of Manchester students, new additions incorporate: “marquee” productions from international directors of the calibre of Ivo van Howe; adaptations from poets, Kae Tempest and Inua Ellams, and acclaimed performances from the likes of Michaela Coel, Rory Kinnear, Ruth Wilson, and Mark Strong, together with “local” actors such as Lesley Sharp and Christopher Eccleston. To further discovery all titles are individually indexed on Library Search. The NT Collection complements the Library’s extensive reserves of streamed performances from other major UK theatre houses – including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s RSC Live Collection and The Globe On Screen – and form part of the Library’s ongoing collaboration with the Drama and English, American Studies and Creative Writing departments to support the study of performance-based arts in the challenging post-COVID environment.
One of the great treasures of The Rylands, our copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio, has long been available online and open access through Library Digiitised Collections, but we’re delighted to announce it now features in the recently launched First Folios Compared project which brings together over 50 first folios (just over 20% of all known surviving copies) for researchers to examine and explore. It also of course provides another example of the Library’s active commitment to Open Access scholarship.
This project opens up a host of exciting opportunities for close textual examination and work in the digital humanities on an incontrovertibly seminal work, stretching beyond the 36 plays to encompass the physical journeys undergone by the books themselves through the course of 4 centuries - from the amendments of printers to the annotations of owners. Copies from Skipton to Sydney, together with all their extant metadata, are now readily and freely available for viewing and direct comparison.
For more on the Project see the ‘Summary’ in the Details section on the database entry on Library Search.
Oberon Books Collection - newly expanded coverage
As a result of heavy usage of the material housed in the initial release of the Oberon ebook collection launched in 2021, the Library has now expanded its coverage to incorporate a second release of some 400 further (individually indexed) titles from this key publisher of plays and books on theatre practice and theory. In additional to canonical texts, the portfolio incorporates an unparalleled range of new writing from the contemporary era, including many significant works and writers that have been excluded from major collections to date. Particularly noteworthy in this release are some 39 plays by Howard Barker, whilst new works by Ontroerend Goed, Deborah Pearson, and Hannah Nicklin are also particularly welcome. Further evidence of the Library’s ongoing collaboration with the drama department to support performance-based arts in the challenging post-COVID environment, the material will also enhance efforts to rebalance our holdings and offer an opportunity to readily study and research a broader range of plays by contemporary Black and Global Majority artists.
The following are important databases for this subject area, however if you don't see what you're looking for, please go to the Database Directory for Drama to browse a wider selection.
Follow the links below to browse databases for specific types of resources.
You can use our Database Directory to browse a broader range of databases that are relevant to Drama as well as other subjects. The directory also allows you to identify databases that provide access to specific types of resources (e.g. Full Text Articles, Streaming Video, Patents, Theses and Dissertations, and much more).
The University of Manchester's research is internationally recognised. Go to Research Explorer, Manchester's research database, to discover the breadth of research produced by staff across the University.
Browse research publications from the Department of Drama (please note: whilst many of the publications listed are available to access/Open Access, some records are for forthcoming titles awaiting publication).
