Staff picks: Theatre websites

For some years now I have turned to two different web sites for information about "entertainment and entertainers". For film it is the Internet Movie Database. This is an encyclopedic treatment of all things film, including casts, crews, awards, biographical information, synopsis of plots and actions and reader contributed critiques.

It is without equal for US and Canadian film and not bad for other country's films, too (especially English language film). I really can't say enough good things about it - and it even links to Amazon if they know of a VHS or DVD source for it. It is NOT very strong for educational film, but does include quite a bit of documentary stuff.

The other one is http://www.allmusic.com, another excellent source for finding information about recorded music and biographical sketches of singers, song writers, record producers and the like. All types of music (classical, jazz, popular, hip/hop, rock, etc.). Again it is encyclopedic in nature (comprehensive coverage, brief articles).

Just now, I have learned of another such site, this one devoted to what some insist on calling the "legitimate theater". It is Internet Broadway Data Base. Again, casts, crews, theaters (buildings) playwrights, awards, set designers, the whole "cast", as it were. So three great resources for the humanities in general and these topics in particular. Great stuff and so far - free.

Adrien Taylor, Reference Librarian