Drama, Performance and Musical Theatre

Search Discovery for resources relating to the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries.

Search across all subject areas.

Explore Credo for trusted reference sources like dictionaries - a great alternative to Wikipedia! 

Watch these short videos to get started:

1. Search tips
2. Using the automated mind map

A comprehensive online resource devoted to music search of all the world's peoples.

The national record of over 60,000 biographies, 72 million words, 11,000 portraits of significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century - extremely useful for detailed biographies about literary figures.

The most trusted source about words in English, containing definitions, plus very detailed word histories.

Gives you encyclopedic information on all styles of music including 21st century popular music.

This resource provides access to key drama texts, critical analysis and images from the V&A's productions stills archive.

Access around 200,000 ebooks across all subject areas.

Find journal articles and other sources of information relating to theatre and dance. Many articles can be read online.

A full text database which includes classic and contemporary short stories and poems, classic novels, author biographies, criticism and reviews, synopses and journal articles.

The world's leading source of articles and chapters on literature, language, folklore and related culture.

Watch this video for a quick overview and this video provides tips on searching more effectively

Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, reports and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Watch this video for great tips.

An archive of hundreds of digitised scholarly journals in the humanities and social sciences

An on-line guide to music collections in archives, libraries and museums in the UK and Ireland.

Watch high quality films of leading theatre productions. Discover how plays are brought to the stage in interviews with the creative teams. Learn about interpretive choice through detailed analysis of play texts.

Watch this 5 minute video for an overview of the content and how to navigate it.

This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

You have two ways to access the login instructions:

1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

• Email: library@port.ac.uk
• Tel: 023 9284 3228

2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

View restricted access information for resources

To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

This resource provides access to key drama texts, critical analysis and images from the V&A's productions stills archive.

This third National Theatre collection offers 20 performances, from Greek tragedy, a medieval morality play, and Shakespeare, to plays about Generation Z.

National Theatre Collection: Volumes I & II bring the stage to life through access to high-definition streaming video of world-class productions and unique archival material offering significant insight into theatre and performance studies. Through a collaboration with the U.K.'s National Theatre, the collections offer a range of digital performance resources never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive. 

Full text articles from many news sources and trade journals both UK and international. Archives sometimes stretching back to the mid 1980s. For use in the UK only.

PressReader lets you access UK and international newspapers, plus a wide range of magazine content. Everything is full colour with archives varying in length depending on the publication.

Login guidance

Search and read a wide range of national and regional newspapers from 1741-1950.

Watch this short video to get a quick overview (we have parts 1 - 5).

Use with care as this tabloid is known for its strong views but it can help with some assignments and certain dissertation topics. Search for stories or use the browse feature to flick through the paper on particular days, including special editions published in connection with Queen Victoria, George V, Elizabeth II's coronation and Winston Churchill. Use Nexis if you want to go beyond 2016.

Access stories and photos from The Guardian (1821-2003) and The Observer (1791-2003). Use Nexis if you want to search up to the current day.

The world's first illustrated weekly newspaper containing useful background for Victorian topics in particular.

Founded in 1903, the Mirror plays a pivotal role in the history of journalism. Peaking in 1967, with a daily circulation of 5.25 million, the newspaper has had a history full of highs and lows. Today, it is the only mainstream left-wing tabloid remaining in the UK. Gale's Mirror Historical Archive, 1903-2000 features more than 800,000 pages of brand-new, full text searchable, scans of the complete run of the Mirror from 1903-2000, including the Sunday Mirror.

Launched in 1855 as an affordable newspaper, by 1876 The Telegraph was the largest-selling newspaper in the world. The newspaper was directed at a wealthy, educated readership and is commonly associated with traditional Toryism, despite its more "liberal" beginnings. The Telegraph Historical Archive has over 1 million pages of content and includes the Sunday edition from its inception in 1961. The archive offers a fundamental insight into UK domestic and international affairs and culture.

During the twentieth century, The Telegraph cemented its reputation as a pioneering yet reliable source of news reporting. There was the infamous uncensored interview with Kaiser Wilhelm of 1908, in which he successfully alienated Britain, France, Russia, and Japan. In 1942, the newspaper published the cryptic crossword puzzle responsible for recruiting Allied codebreakers during the Second World War.

Search over 200 years of articles. Articles are full facsimiles of what was published on the day and you can view the article in its original page location if you want.

Watch this video showing you how to make the most of the features available.

Explore 20 collections of documents, including minutes of meetings and conferences, press releases, fliers, brochures, press clippings, US government memoranda and reports, private correspondence, surveys and photos.

Watch this quick introduction to the archive - please note we only subscribe to Part 1 which contains British material as well as coverage from North America.

Access a wide range of primary sources related to the arts in the Victorian era, from playbills and scripts to operas and complete scores. These rare documents were sourced from the British Library and other renowned institutions. Covering more than a century, British Theatre, Music, and Literature is without equal as a resource for 19th century scholars. The collection provides a detailed look at the state of the British art world with, for example, not only manuscripts and compositions, but also documents such as personal letters, annotated programs, meeting minutes, and financial records, offering scholars an unmatched glimpse into the inner workings of the arts world and life in Victorian Britain.

Disability in the Modern World: History of a Social Movement encompasses an international set of resources to enrich study in a wide range of disciplines from media studies to philosophy.

This resource covers the fascinating subject of feminism over the long nineteenth century (1776-1928). It contains an extensive range of primary and secondary resources, including photographs and illustrations.

Access a range of primary and secondary sources covering London from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. As well as documents, you will find interactive maps, illustrations and photographs to really bring the streets to life.

Digital archive chronicling the history of disability arts in the UK. It includes 3,500 images, oral history film interviews, educational resources and animations and articles.

Explore documents, fanzines, photos and newsreel footage to help understand these key decades when consumer culture and pop music took off and protest movements were big news.

An essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries containing everything from full-text books, to posters and performance tickets.

Watch this 90 second video about how to store items for later use.

This resource provides access to key drama texts, critical analysis and images from the V&A's productions stills archive.

High quality production music for TV, film, advertising and corporate video. Pre-cleared for worldwide and multi-platform use. Students should contact their course leaders in order to set up an account.

Formerly known as ArtFilms, this resource brings together award-winning, international film and videos across a wide range of interdisciplinary subjects including visual arts, architecture, music, film, dance, history and culture.

An archive of UK television and radio programmes from free to air channels (1998 onwards). For use in the UK only. Find some great tips about how to use BoB in these short videos.

You can access the basic subscription which includes 400+ high resolution sequences of athletes, artists, and dancers taken from one, two or three camera angles. Perfect reference for gesture drawing, anatomy study, and animation.

This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

You have two ways to access the login instructions:

1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

• Email: library@port.ac.uk
• Tel: 023 9284 3228

2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

View restricted access information for resources

To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

Sound recordings from all over the world, covering the entire range of recorded sound: music, drama and literature, oral history, wildlife and environmental sounds.

Watch high quality films of leading theatre productions. Discover how plays are brought to the stage in interviews with the creative teams. Learn about interpretive choice through detailed analysis of play texts.

Watch this 5 minute video for an overview of the content and how to navigate it.

This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

You have two ways to access the login instructions:

1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

• Email: library@port.ac.uk
• Tel: 023 9284 3228

2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

View restricted access information for resources

To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

A unique collections of films including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases on every topic imaginable. Content can be searched or browsed.

National Theatre Collection: Volumes I & II bring the stage to life through access to high-definition streaming video of world-class productions and unique archival material offering significant insight into theatre and performance studies. Through a collaboration with the U.K.'s National Theatre, the collections offer a range of digital performance resources never previously seen outside of the National Theatre’s archive. 

This third National Theatre collection offers 20 performances, from Greek tragedy, a medieval morality play, and Shakespeare, to plays about Generation Z.

A recorded music database of more than 1 million tracks. Genres include classical, jazz, folk, blues, nostalgia, world, folk, Chinese, rock and pop.

This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

You have two ways to access the login instructions:

1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

• Email: library@port.ac.uk
• Tel: 023 9284 3228

2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

View restricted access information for resources

To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

A library of Jazz with information about artists and songwriters. also with a New&News section.

This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

You have two ways to access the login instructions:

1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

• Email: library@port.ac.uk
• Tel: 023 9284 3228

2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

View restricted access information for resources

To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.