Research Guides: PAL Research Guide: Books

About Books

When you are gathering book sources, be sure to make note of the following bibliographic items: the author name(s), other contributors such as translators or editors, the book’s title, editions of the book, the publication date, the publisher, and the pagination.

**Play scripts have very specific in-text citations but they will be cited the same way as other books in the Works Cited page.**

Types of Book Citations

Changed for Good by Stacy Wolf
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; ML2054.W64 2002
ISBN: 9780195378245
Publication Date: 2011-07-07
From Adelaide in "Guys and Dolls" to Nina in "In the Heights" and Elphaba in "Wicked," female characters in Broadway musicals have belted and crooned their way into the American psyche. In this lively book, Stacy Wolf illuminates the women of American musical theatre - performers, creators, and characters -- from the start of the cold war to the present day, creating a new, feminist history of the genre. Moving from decade to decade, Wolf first highlights the assumptions that circulated about gender and sexuality at the time. She then looks at the leading musicals to stress the key aspects of the plays as they relate to women, and often finds overlooked moments of empowerment for female audience members. The musicals discussed here are among the most beloved in the canon--"West Side Story," "Cabaret," "A Chorus Line," "Phantom of the Opera," and many others--with special emphasis on the blockbuster "Wicked." Along the way, Wolf demonstrates how the musical since the mid-1940s has actually been dominated by women--women onstage, women in the wings, and women offstage as spectators and fans.

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of book. Publisher, Date of Publication.

Wolf, Stacy. Changed for Good: A Feminist History of the Broadway Musical. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Rock in the Musical Theatre by Joseph Church
Call Number: Online Resource
ISBN: 9780190943462
Publication Date: 2019-11-01
Today's musical theatre world rocks. Now that rock 'n' roll music and its offshoots, including pop, hard rock, rap, randb, funk, folk, and world-pop music, are the standard language of musical theatre, theatre singers need a source of information on these styles, their origins, and their performance practices. Rock in the Musical Theatre: A Guide for Singers fills this need. Today's musical theatre training programs are now including rock music in their coursework and rock songs and musicals in their repertoires. This is a text for those trainees, courses, and productions. It will also be of great value to working professionals, teachers, music directors, and coaches less familiar with rock styles, or who want to improve their rock-related skills. The author, an experienced music director, vocal coach, and university professor, and an acknowledged expert on rock music in the theatre, examines the many aspects of performing rock music in the theatre and offers practical advice through a combination of aesthetic and theoretical study, extensive discussions of musical, vocal, and acting techniques, and chronicles of coaching sessions. The book also includes advice from working actors, casting directors, and music directors who specialize in rock music for the stage.

Electronic books are treated similarly to print books. The only difference is that after the citation you include the URL or DOI someone can use to access it.

Church, Joseph. Rock in the musical theatre: a guide for singers. Oxford University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190943462.001.0001.

The Theatre Art of Boris Aronson by Frank Rich; Lisa Aronson
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; PN2096.A76 R5 1987
ISBN: 9780394529134
Publication Date: 1987-11-12
This book concludes Gerald Bordman's acclaimed survey of American non-musical theatre. It deals with the years 1930 to 1970, a period when the number of yearly new plays was shrinking, but a period during which American drama as a whole entered the world stage and became a dominant force. With works like Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night, Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire, and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, American theater finally reached adulthood both dramatically and psychologically. Bordman's lively, authoritative study covers every Broadway production, as well as every major off-Broadway show. His discussion moves season by season and show by show in chronological order; he offers plot synopses and details the physical production, directors, players, theaters, and newspaper reviews. This book and the preceding volumes of American Theatre stand as the premier history of American drama.

Author Last Name, Author First Name and Author First Name Author Last Name. Title of book. Publisher, Date of Publication.

Rich, Frank and Lisa Jalowetz Aronson. The Theatre Art of Boris Aronson. Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Book chapter." Title of book, Translated OR edited by First Name Last Name, Publisher, Date of Publication, page range.

Rich, Frank, and Lisa Jalowetz Aronson. "Yiddish Theatre." The Theatre Art of Boris Aronson, Alfred A. Knopf, 1987, 35-47.

Reframing the Musical by Sarah K. Whitfield (Editor)
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; ML3918.M87 R34 2019
ISBN: 9781352005325
Publication Date: 2019-03-08
This critical and inclusive edited collection offers an overview of the musical in relation to issues of race, culture and identity. Bringing together contributions from cultural, American and theatre studies for the first time, the chapters offer fresh perspectives on musical theatre history, calling for a radical and inclusive new approach. By questioning ideas about what the musical is about and who it for, this groundbreaking book retells the story of the musical, prioritising previously neglected voices to reshape our understanding of the form. Timely and engaging, this is required reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of musical theatre. It offers an intersectional approach which will also be invaluable for theatre practitioners.

Editor Last Name, Editor First Name, eds. OR trans. Title of book. Publisher, Date of Publication.

Whitfield, Sarah Kate, eds. Reframing the Musical: Race, Culture and Identity. Red Globe Press, 2019.

Culture Is the Body by Tadashi Suzuki; Kameron Steele (Translator)
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; PN2039.S93 2015
ISBN: 9781559364966
Publication Date: 2015-08-04
One of the world's most revered theatre directors, Tadashi Suzuki is also a seminal thinker and practitioner whose work has had a profound influence on theatre worldwide. This landmark collection of his writings provides a thorough and invaluable look at his philosophical and practical approaches to the stage. Culture is the Body is a complete revision of Suzuki's influential book The Way of Acting, and contains several new essays. It is translated by Kameron Steele, a longtime collaborator of Suzuki's. 'From his artistic home in the small village of Toga Mura in the Japanese Alps, Tadashi Suzuki's influence has spread around the world, transcending cultural and political boundaries. His bold vision of what the theatre can be and what the theatre can do is both uncompromising and exceedingly generous. The SCOT company's groundbreaking productions and methods of training have inspired and continue to inspire generations of theatre artists and audiences. The day I first met Suzuki, the trajectory of my life was altered irrevocably. The very existence of SITI Company is due to Suzuki's foresight, bigheartedness and determination.' Anne Bogart

When focus is not on the translated work:

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of book. Translated OR Edited by First Name Last Name. Publisher, Date of Publication.

Suzuki, Tadashi. Culture is the Body: the Theatre writings of Tadashi Suzuki. Translated by Kameron H. Steele. Theatre Communications Group, 2015.

When focus IS on the translated work:

Translator Last Name, Translator First Name. Title of book. By Author first name, Author Last name, Publisher, Year.

Steele, Kameron H., translator. Culture is the Body: the Theatre writings of Tadashi Suzuki. By Tadashi Suzuki, Theatre Communications Group, 2015.

The Cambridge History of American Theatre by Don B. Wilmeth (Contribution by, Editor); Christopher Bigsby (Contribution by, Editor); Marilyn Butler (Contribution by); James Chandler (Contribution by)
Call Number: Performing Arts Library Performing Arts Library - Stacks PN2221.C37 1998
ISBN: 9780521472043
Publication Date: 1998-02-28
The Cambridge History of American Theatre is an authoritative and wide-ranging history of American theatre in all its dimensions, from theatre building to play writing, directors, performers, and designers. Engaging the theatre as a performance art, a cultural institution, and a fact of American social and political life, the History recognizes changing styles of presentation and performance and addresses the economic context that conditions the drama presented. The History approaches its subject with a full awareness of relevant developments in literary criticism, cultural analysis, and performance theory. At the same time, it is designed to be an accessible, challenging narrative. Volume One deals with the colonial inceptions of American theatre through the post-Civil War period: the European antecedents, the New World influences of the French and Spanish colonists, and the development of uniquely American traditions in tandem with the emergence of national identity.

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Reference Work. Volume, Publisher, Date of Publication, page numbers (only include if the encyclopedia is not in alphabetical order).

Wilmeth, Don B., Christopher Bigsby, Marilyn Butler, and James Chandler. "Plays and playwrights to 1800." The Cambridge history of American Theatre. Vol. 1, Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Cite the book as you normally would, but add the number of the edition after the title.

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of book. Edition. Publisher, Date of Publication.

Mason, Fran. Historical dictionary of postmodernist literature and theater. 2nd ed. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2016.

With no main author focus:

Title of book. Edition. Publisher, date of publication.

MLA Handbook. 9th ed. Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

The Cambridge Companion to the Musical by William A. Everett (Editor); Paul R. Laird (Editor)
Call Number: Performing Arts Library - Stacks ; ML2054.C35 2008
ISBN: 9780521862387
Publication Date: 2008-05-22
Tracing the development of the musical on both Broadway and in London's West End, this updated Companion continues to provide a broad and thorough overview of one of the liveliest and most popular forms of musical performance. Ordered chronologically, essays cover from the American musical of the nineteenth century through to the most recent productions, and the book also includes key information on singers, audience, critical reception, and traditions. All of the chapters from the first edition remain - several in substantially updated forms - and five completely new chapters have been added, covering: ethnic musicals in the United States; the European musical; Broadway musicals in revival and on television; the most recent shows; and a case study of the creation of the popular show Wicked based on interviews with its creators. The Companion also includes an extensive bibliography and photographs from key productions.

Usually in a scholarly context, it'll look like this:

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Reference Work. edited by Names of Editors, volume, Publisher, Date of Publication. Title of the Series.

Preston, Katherine K. "American musical theatre before the twentieth century Katherine K. Preston." The Cambridge Companion to the Musical. Edited by William A. Everett and Paul R. Laird, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press, 2008. Cambridge Companions to Music.

If you quote a novel, it'd be:

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Date of Publication. Title of the Series.

Maguire, Gregory. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. William Morrow, Oct. 13, 2009. The Wicked Years.