Research Guides: Theatre Studies: Finding Images &amp; Videos

Finding Physical and Streaming Media

Avery Fisher Center
Located on Floor 7 of Bobst Library. The AFC collection contains an extensive variety of classic and contemporary feature films from the U.S. and around the world, as well as TV series, in a variety of media formats (DVD, blu-ray, videocassette. etc.) You can watch these films at AFC or borrow them to view offsite.
The Library's Catalog
Use the library's catalog to search for thousands of videos both in physical formats and streaming. The "Resource Type" filter allows you to limit your results to videos only.

To find images within books in the catalog, go to the search box and click on advanced. Then enter the topic in the first box limited to Anywhere in the Record. In the second box enter either illus. (for illustrations) or Plates (for color plates) also Anywhere in the Record.

Streaming Video Collections

Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Drama Online contains full texts and full-length filmed performances of plays ranging from Aeschylus to the present day, with supplementary material including first night program texts, critical analyses, and images from the Victoria and Albert Museum's archive of production photos. Includes the Core Collection, Critical Studies and Performance Practice, Nick Hern Books Modern Plays, National Theatre Collection, RSC Live Collection, and Aurora Metro Books, among others.
Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new window
Digital Theatre Plus offers full-length filmed stage performances of classic and modern plays, along with interviews and workshops with playwrights, directors, designers, actors, musicians, and others involved in the playmaking process.
Theatre in Video This link opens in a new window
Over 360 videos totaling 433 hours. Performances here include works by Shakespeare, Tennessee Williams, Wendy Wasserstein, John Cheever, Maxwell Anderson, Lanford Wilson, Terrence McNally, Jean Cocteau, D.H. Lawrence, Conor McPherson, and Clifford Odets, among others. There are also interviews with important figures in the development of Black Theatre, such as Ossie Davis, Joseph Papp, Lloyd Richards, Douglas Turner Ward, Amiri Baraka, and Derek Walcott. Contains more than 250 performances of the world's leading plays, together with more than 100 documentaries, all in streaming video.
BroadwayHD This link opens in a new window
BroadwayHD offers filmed performances of selected Broadway plays from the 1960s to the 2010s.
OntheBoards.tv This link opens in a new window
OntheBoards.tv is an online portal for films and live theatrical performances by a diverse array of emerging artists.
BBC Shakespeare Plays This link opens in a new window
The BBC Shakespeare Plays features full-length performances of the complete corpus of William Shakespeare's plays, produced by the British Broadcasting Company for television between 1978 and 1985.
Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library This link opens in a new window
The Hemispheric Institute Digital Video Library, a collaboration between New York University Libraries and NYU's Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, provides a venue for documenting the expression of social and political life through performance in the many cultures and political landscapes of the Americas.

Theatre on Film and Tape Archive
Since 1970, the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) has preserved live theatrical productions and documented the creative contributions of distinguished artists and legendary figures of the theatre. With the consent and cooperation of the theatrical unions and each production's artistic collaborators, TOFT produces video recordings of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theatre productions, as well as dialogues between notable theatre personalities.

Finding Images of Productions or People Involved in Theatre

Playbill
Use the search feature to locate images and information on performances.
New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Provides access to over 275000 images digitized from the library collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, etc.
Library of Congress American Memory
Online access to print, pictorial and audio-visual collections and other digital services
The Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York is pleased to announce that over 15,000 images of theatrical production are now freely accessible online through the Museum’s Collections Portal
GloPAD
GloPAD is a multimedia, multilingual, Web-accessible database containing digital images, texts, video clips, sound recordings, and complex media objects (such as 3-D images) related to the performing arts from around the world.
Creative Commons
Try the new CC image search with over 300 million images from 19 collections and easier attribution.

ARTstor This link opens in a new window
ARTstor is a repository of images of art, architecture, and design. The images are sourced from museums, libraries, archives, and photographers. ARTstor includes a suite of software tools to view, present, and manage images for research and teaching. ARTstor is supplemented by additional content, including publicly available image collections and locally-produced NYU collections.
Artstor has merged with JSTOR. You can now search for Artstor images through the JSTOR platform. This link directs you to the JSTOR image search.

In order to download images, users must create an account.