Research by Subject: THEA 240: Directing: Resources for Reviews

Sources for Reviews

Performing Arts Database This link opens in a new window
The Performing Arts Database offers access to citations, abstracts, and full text of articles from scholarly and professional journals, magazines, newspapers, and other publications. Subjects covered include dance, film, drama, opera, stagecraft, comedy, pantomime, puppetry, magic and television.
Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Search the New York Times (1851 - 2015), Wall Street Journal (1889 - 2001), Washington Post (1877- 2002), and the L.A Times (1881 - 1995) Historical Newspaper databases and more.
US Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Full text of over 1300 newspapers, news websites and blogs from leading publishers throughout the world. Major newspapers include the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian and many other national and regional titles. ProQuest Newsstand provides the very latest local, regional and national news.
Times (London) Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Full-text content from The Times (London), including headlines, advertisements, and images, from 1785 to 2019. The archive contains coverage of topics including history, politics, social and cultural history, law, genealogy and criminology.
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Provides access to full-text news, business, and legal publications. Search over 15,000 sources for up-to-the-minute and archived national and international news, company information, and federal and state court cases since 1789.

Using & Evaluating Reviews

Some areas and questions that might guide your questions when evaluating play reviews include:

The production being reviewed.
How long/in-depth it appears to be on the production of interest.
The reviewer (are they well known? can you google them?)
If/where the review is published (big difference between a blog and something from The New York TImes)
Is this mostly a summary or mostly an evaluation of the performance and play?
What parts of the production are evaluated, and what parts are not mentioned?
What evidence or criteria does the reviewer seem to have for their evaluation?
Is the review fully glowing with no negatives? Or fully dismissive with no positives? How might both those scenarios influence what you think of the reviewer and their work?
Often reviewers will do research before seeing the production to set their expectations, reflect, and write a thesis-driven review. Can you get a sense, by reading, of the work involved in this review?