InfoGuides: Resources for Actors: Find Scripts

New Scripts

Play Index

Play Index (H.W. Wilson)
Indexes classic and historical plays, along with the works of contemporary playwrights dating from 1949 to present. Covers new editions and translations, and includes descriptive annotations to summarize the plot and indicate musical requirements. View a tutorial on this database here.

The Play Index is a tool that allows you to search for plays by criteria such as subject, # of characters, length, etc.

It then displays a MasonLink button at the bottom to either take you to our physical or digital copy*, or give you the option to get it through Interlibrary Loan through one of our partnering institutions.

* Please note that while the search features are very useful, it does have some disadvantages. It does not interface with all of our play databases, only retrieves plays in its index and not plays excluded from its index, and it sometimes glitches when connecting with our records. Please let me know what specific issues you have with it and I can either try to resolve them or pass on the feedback to the vendor.

Because the system is a bit rough, please also use the methods below to find plays!

Find DIGITIZED Scripts

You can find thousands of digital scripts through the Mason Search bar on the main page, if you search for the title of the script or the playwright and then filter by "Available Online" and by "Resource Type: Book."

TIPS

Put quotations marks around the title to ensure that it searches for the complete title (ex. "We're Gonna Die").
If you are getting irrelevant results, (ex. articles about housing when you search "Rent"), filter by Subject.

If you wish to search in individual databases, which are created with theater artists in mind, and often do not integrate with our catalog search, these are great places to start:

Drama Online
Collection provides full text access to dramatic works from the early Greek period to the present day, as well as some works of criticism and information on theatre craft. Contains scholarly notes, annotated texts, contextual information, synopsis, biographical entries, and material on acting, directing, and lighting. Features drama titles from the Oberon Books Collection and the TCG Books Play Collection. Includes epics, monologues, and one-person plays in all time periods, as well as translations of major foreign works. Features play tools with character grids, words and speech graphs, and images.
View a tutorial on this database here.
New Play Exchange
A cloud-based system that lets you find, read, and evaluate exactly the scripts you're looking for, leverage the expertise of literary managers and dramaturgs throughout the new play sector, and share opportunities with writers.
Twentieth Century North American Drama
Contains 2,059 plays by 434 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. Also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.

English Verse Drama Database
English Drama contains more than 3,900 plays in verse and prose from the late thirteenth century - the likely date of the Shrewsbury Fragments - to the early twentieth. It offers exhaustive coverage of the prodigious dramatic literature of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods, as well as Restoration plays, medieval morality plays and mystery cycles, and nineteenth-century closet dramas. In addition to works by major dramatists such as Ben Jonson, Aphra Behn, William Wycherley, Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Sheridan, Oscar Wilde and J. M. Synge, English Drama includes the dramatic writings of many more neglected writers long inaccessible in print form. (Hosted at the University of Virginia for the VIVA libraries.)

We also have some excellent collections of female and BIPOC playwrights:

Asian American Drama
Brings together more than 250 plays, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information. Begins with the works of Sadakichi Hartmann in the late nineteenth century and progresses to the writings of contemporary playwrights, such as Philip Kan Gotanda, Elizabeth Wong, and Jeannie Barroga. View a tutorial on this database here.
Black Drama: Third Edition
Contains the full text of more than 1,700 plays written from the mid-1800s to the present by more than 200 playwrights from North America, English-speaking Africa, the Caribbean, and other African diaspora countries. More than 40 percent of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays. View a tutorial on this database here.
Latin American Drama
Contains plays written by Latin American playwrights in the 19th-21st centuries. Supports the study of American history, ethnic diversity, immigration issues, and political history.
North American Indian Drama: Second Edition
Contains over 200 plays representing the stories of American Indian and First Nation playwrights of the twentieth century. More than half of the works are previously unpublished, and hard to find, representing groups such as Cherokee, Métis, Creek, Choctaw, Pembina Chippewa, Ojibway, Lenape, Comanche, Cree, Navajo, Rappahannock, Hawaiian/Samoan, and others. View a tutorial on this database here.
North American Women's Drama: Second Edition
Collection contains over 1,500 full-text plays by women from colonial times to the present. Many of the works are rare, hard to find, or out of print. Almost a quarter of the collection consists of previously unpublished plays. The collection also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. View a tutorial on this database here.

Find PHYSICAL SCRIPTS

George Mason's plays are currently integrated with the literature collection, so it is difficult to browse the scripts we have by looking on the library shelves. Therefore, we have labeled the physical plays "playscripts" in the catalog so you can find them more easily.

Go to the Advanced Search, change the drop down menus to "Genre" and "is (exact)" and type in Playscripts. This will give you a comprehensive list of all the physical plays in our collection so far.

See the tutorial below for more details:

Within the Library of Congress Classification System, plays are mixed in with all of literature. Literature is divided first into countries, where you will find play collections, and then by individual authors by era of time. If you know the author's country and era, their plays will be easier to find on the shelves. The plays are located in the compact shelving on the 4th Floor.

To find specific scripts, search Mason Library's collection by title, author, keyword, or subject heading.

Literature (General). Drama: PN1600-3307
- The Monologue: PN1530
- The Dialogue: PN1551
- Dramatic representation. The Theater: PN2000-3307
  - By time period: PN2131-2193
- Collections of General Literature. Drama: PN6110.5-6120
Greek Literature: PA3050-4505
- Authors: PA3818-4505
French Literature: PQ500-2726
- Drama Collections: PQ1211-1241
- Authors: PQ1411-2726
Italian Literature: PQ4133-4926
- Drama Collections: PQ4227-4245
- Authors: PQ4265-4926
Spanish Literature: PQ6098.7-6726
- Drama Collections: PQ6217-6241
- Authors: PQ6271-6726
English Literature: PR621-6126
- Drama Collections: PR1241-1273
- Authors: PR1490-6126
American Literature: PS330-3626
- Drama Collections: PS623-635
- Authors: PS700-3626
German Literature: PT605-2728
- Drama Collections: PT1251-1299
- Authors: PT1501-2728

External Resources

The Dramatists Play Service Playfinder
Search for published plays by keyword, genre, and cast makeup, and then see if we have access to them at GMU. If not, please ask for us to purchase it!