Skokie Public Library's Guide to...
Play Index from Wilson
Play Index is a database that indexes over 30,000 plays published from 1949 to the present. These plays were written over an even more extensive period of time, ranging from antiquity to this year. The index covers only plays written or translated into English, though one-act plays, monologues, pageants, and radio and television plays are included within its scope.
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Available everywhere with your Skokie Public Library card
- Why use Play Index?
- Searching
- Tips for effective searching
- Special features
- Handling your results
- Other resources
Why Use Play Index?
Play Index contains everything you need in order to find the full text of a play, whether it was published on its own or within an anthology. Search results give you the option to find a play in a book, or to view web resources related to the play. Each entry contains a one- or two-sentence summary of the play’s plot. Information helpful for staging plays, including the number of and gender of the characters and the musical and scenery requirements for the production, is also included for each play listed. Play Index can be used to search for plays appropriate for a certain age group, or to search within a particular theatrical style, such as drama, comedy, or musical.
Following are examples of the types of questions that could be answered by searching Play Index:
- I need a play for students in grades 9 through 12 that has parts for eight women and two men.
- I’m looking for plays set in Chicago.
- Have any fairy tales been made into plays?
Searching
Play Index can be searched using either basic searching, advanced searching, or browsing. Full text may be available for some plays; watch for entries marked
with a Full Text HTML 
or Full Text PDF 
image.
Basic Search
Use the basic search feature to view results in a single field, such as author name, keyword, or title. Simply type in a word or phrase, then examine the results for your topic.
Advanced Search
For more complex searches, you can use the advanced search, which allows you to search more than one field at a time. For example, you can search for author and title at the same time, or narrow your results for a certain type of audience or range of characters.
Skokie Public Library’s configuration of Play Index makes the Advanced Search the default search; if you prefer Basic Search or Browse, please choose from the buttons on the blue bar to the left of the screen.
Browsing
Browsing allows you to search an alphabetical list of results similar to the term you type into the search box. This is useful if you are unsure about how to spell an author’s name, or uncertain about the complete title of a play. For example, typing “Pir” into the browse search box would lead you to an alphabetical list that contains the playwright “Pirandello, Luigi.”
Tips for Effective Searching
- The Advanced Search screen allows you to search for a play or search for a book. Change your results by clicking the appropriate button at the top of the screen. You would probably want to search for a book if you are interested in a particular playwright, while if you are interested in meeting certain staging requirements or interested in a particular subject, you would retrieve more results by searching for a play.
- The Search for a Play screen within the Advanced Search allows you to combine a keyword, title, or author search with a particular genre (such as comedy, tragedy, or pageant). This screen also allows you to limit your results by cast composition or by age level.
- The Search for a Book screen within the Advanced Search allows you to choose how your results are displayed (by relevance, date, or title, for example) and to limit your results according to publication date.
- Playwrights can be searched both last name first and first name first, so both “Arthur Miller” and “Miller, Arthur” will retrieve the same results.
- Using quotation marks (“”) in your search will turn off the automatic stemming function, so searching “Walk” will return only results with “Walk” in the search field, rather than results including the words “Walks,” “Walking,” and “Walked.”
- If you are having trouble with searching, click the
Help link toward the bottom of the blue bar at the left of the screen for assistance and advice.
Special Features
Thesaurus
Play Index has a controlled vocabulary of terms called descriptors that are maintained in the Play Index thesaurus. Descriptors are used to organize database materials by subject. Use descriptors in your search to help locate materials of greater relevance to your topic.
Relevance ranking and sorting records
The results of your search will be listed in order of relevance to your topic, as determined by Wilson, unless you choose otherwise. To choose another method of displaying your results click on the “customize results” tab on the bottom right of the results screen. Here you will be able to display your results by author, title, or date of publication if you prefer.
Refining your results
If you find that a search returns too many results, you can refine your search by clicking on the “revise search” button on the bottom left of the results screen.
Viewing your results
Clicking the blue button labeled “full,” at the bottom of the results screen in the middle, will change the display of your results from brief information (author and title) to the full bibliographic entry for each result. You can navigate back by clicking the button marked “brief” that appears at the bottom of the results screen containing full entry displays.
Locating the full text of the play online
The full display for a result will contain a link called “Related Web Resources.” Clicking this link will occasionally take you to the full text of a play available on the Internet.
Locating the play at Skokie Public Library
To find the play within a book, click on the link called “Find This Play in a Book.” This will lead you to a citation for a particular book. If Skokie Public Library owns the book in which a play appears, an icon will appear in front of the citation. Clicking this icon will take you into the Skokie Public Library catalog, where you can find the call number for the book. You can also search the Skokie Public Library catalog for performances of the play on video or DVD. Please remember that the Reference and Readers’ Services staff are always happy to answer questions or to assist you with finding your materials in the Library.
Handling Your Results
Play Index allows you to print, email, or save the results of
your search. In order to complete any of these functions, click on the
button.
This is the last horizontal button on the left sidebar. When you reach the Print Email Save screen, further options and instructions are available by clicking on the horizontal blue bars in the center of the screen. You will be able to determine how your results will be displayed,
including whether your results will be shown in a full or brief citation, whether your search terms will be highlighted, and whether a search history will be included with your results.
Beneath the list of options available there is a link to instructions. Clicking on the plus sign 
to the left of the link allows you to review detailed instructions for selecting and using the options described above.
Other Resources
- Literature Resources from Gale contains biographies, bibliographies, and critical writings about authors, including several playwrights. This resource can be searched by time period and by genre, allowing you to find information on Elizabethan drama, for example.
- MagillOnLiterature contains biographical information and critical essays on famous playwrights, in addition to plot summaries and character profiles for major dramatic works.
- WorldCat can also be used to find plays within larger works. This database will not link you to full-text plays, but it will let you know which libraries own the play you are searching for, so that you can request it on interlibrary loan.
In addition, librarians at Skokie Public Library have selected and compiled the most useful databases and web sites for further study of drama and theater. Please check the arts and humanities and literary criticism areas of our Research section.