InfoGuides: Theater: Find Video/ Audio Recordings

Find Streaming Performance Recordings

Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Includes the BBC Literary Adaptations in Video, BroadwayHD, the National Theater Collection, the Royal Shakespeare Company Collection, and Theater in Video I and II.
BBC Shakespeare Plays This link opens in a new window
This collection provides access to the 37 Shakespeare plays produced by the BBC between 1978 and 1985, featuring such great actors as Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Derek Jacobi, Sir John Gielgud, Anthony Hopkins, Bob Hoskins, and John Cleese.
Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new window
Collection of streaming videos featuring unique films of current, leading British theatre productions. It includes behind-the-scenes documentaries as well as teaching and learning resources. This collection features items such as David Tennant and Catherine Tate's Much Ado About Nothing, Helen Mirren and David Suchet's All My Sons, London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre's Into the Woods, and Richard Armitage's The Crucible.
Drama Online This link opens in a new window
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.
Films On Demand This link opens in a new window
Streaming video platform, with films spanning the Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, Business, Economics and Health. Includes theatrical productions and documentaries.
Literature & Language Video Collection This link opens in a new window
Presents an extensive array of content in video, audio and text-based formats. It includes content in the subjects of drama, film, language and literature.
Music & Performing Arts Collection This link opens in a new window
Presents an extensive array of content in video, audio and text-based, covering different time periods, artists, composers, choreographers, and ensembles. Subjects include dance, film, music, and theater.
National Theatre Collection This link opens in a new window
Drawing on 10 years of National Theatre Live broadcasts as well as recordings never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive, the video content includes 30 video performances. As a supplement to the filmed productions, exclusive digitized archival materials such as prompt scripts, costume designs, and more are available to provide behind-the-scenes background and contextual information.
OntheBoards This link opens in a new window
A website that delivers full-length, high quality contemporary performance films to your TV, desktop or mobile device.
Routledge Performance Archive This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a range of audio-visual material from past and present practitioners of performance. Consists of streamed video and audio footage with relevant critical commentary, including: interviews with key figures in theater history and contemporary practice; masterclasses with specialist actor trainers from around the world; footage of legendary practitioners; excerpted and full-length contemporary productions; and documentaries. Spans more than fifty years of documented work direct from renowned practitioners and specialists, and ranges across the entire spectrum of theater topics.

Find Streaming Audio Recordings

Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains 300 dramatic works in streaming audio from the L.A. Theatre Works. Includes significant dramatic literature of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries performed by leading actors from around the world and recorded specifically for online listening.
Pro Sound Effects Library This link opens in a new window
Contains over 60,000 professional sound effects for high definition media production. Includes Sonopedia and Hybrid Library.

Find Physical Recordings

There are a several thousand DVDs and VHS tapes available through Mason Libraries that show theatrical productions and plays adapted for film.

Simply search for a title, director, genre, or other keyterm in the Library Search and click "submit". After that, limit by Resource Type: Videos in the left column. This will yield films that the library owns and streaming films from a few of our major databases (but not all!)

Our DVDS and VHS tapes are currently housed on the first floor of the Fenwick Library, along with viewing stations.

Use Mason Library's Media Services page to help with your search.

Fenwick Library also has a limited collection of audio recordings of plays. You can discover them in the Media Library on the first floor. Search for specific titles and authors in the catalog by limiting your search by Material Type: Sound Recording.