The Cambridge Guides are comprehensive guides to the history and practice of theater arts and include information on major playwrights, works, theatrical traditions, theory, theatrical companies and practitioners, venues, and events. They also include entries on the origins of theater traditions, including folk drama and street theater; the work of actors, directors, and designers; and theatrical production including lighting and sound, technical theater, theater architecture, and theater design.

Authoritative information about theater and performance from Ancient Greece to the present. Covers performance in theater, dance, opera, radio, film, and television. Includes definitions of terms; detailed overviews of genres, movements, and critical approaches; and entries on cities and regions as well as social and political contexts.

Selected Oxford University Press reference books available online and searchable as a group. Includes The Oxford Companion to American Theatre, The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, and The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. You may also wish to search Oxford Reference Online: Literature which includes several guides to world literature as well as The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms and A Dictionary of Writers and Their Works.

An authoritative and wide-ranging history of American theater in all its dimensions, from theater building to play writing, directors, performers, and designers.

An authoritative and wide-ranging history of British theater in all its dimensions, from theater building to play writing, directors, performers, and designers.