LibGuides: Finding Plays for Beginning and Intermediate Acting: Video & Audio

Criterion Collection

The library has items from the Criterion Collection. Click here for a listing of all Criterion Collection content in Alkek, or type in "criterion collection" as a keyword search.

There are 317 films from the Critierion Collection available in streaming video from Kanopy.

Selected Streaming Databases

There are plenty more! Visit the Streaming Databases for the complete list.

Academic Video Online: Premium This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive video collection covering American History, Area Studies, Art & Architecture, Asian Film, Black Studies, Business & Economics, Counseling & Therapy, Criminal Justice & Public Safety, Current Affairs, Dance, Education, Environmental Studies, Ethnic Studies, Ethnography, Fashion Studies, Film Studies, Gay & Lesbian Studies, Global Business & Economics, Health, Humanities, Music, Opera, Philosophy, Psychology, Rehabilitation Therapy, Religion & Science, Sports Medicine & Exercise Science, Theatre, Women's & Gender Studies, World History, World Languages & Literature, and a special collection for The March of Time.
Coverage: Varies

Audio Drama: The L.A. Theater Works Collection
Audio recordings of the dramatic works from the curated archive of the nation’s premiere radio theatre company.

BBC Shakespeare Plays This link opens in a new window
Streaming video of the complete dramatic works of William Shakespeare broadcast by the BBC in the 1980s.
Coverage: Complete collection
Films on Demand: Master Academic Collection This link opens in a new window
Anthropology, Archival Films & Newsreels, Area Studies, Art & Architecture, Biology, Business & Economics, Careers & Job Search, Communication, Criminal Justice & Law, Earth Science, Education, Engineering, English & Language Arts, Environmental Science, Family & Consumer Sciences, Geography, Guidance & Counseling, Health & Medicine, History, Mathematics, Music & Dance, Philosophy & Religion, Physical Science, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Technical & Trade Education, Technology & Society, and World Languages. Films are closed captioned.
Kanopy Streaming This link opens in a new window
Multidisciplinary video collection. Anthropology, Art, Business & Economics, Foreign Language Films, Gender/Race/Class studies, History (modern and North American), Media Communication, Multicultural studies, Nursing & Health studies, Psychology & Sociology, Sustainability & Environmental studies, plus 319 films from The Criterion Collection. The platform allows you to make playlists and clips, and share the links.

On the Boards
OntheBoards.tv provides access to works by the leading voices from the field of contemporary performance, some of which will never be performed again

American Music This link opens in a new window
American roots music and pre-1960 American popular music: genres including country, slave spirituals, folk, bluegrass, Western, old time, American Indian, blues, gospel, and shape note singing. Collection contains over 49,000 albums totaling more than 650,000 recordings.
Coverage: Recording dates are from 1911 to present.
Classical Music Library This link opens in a new window
Includes nearly one million licensed tracks s that users can listen to on the Internet. All major genres and time periods from medieval to contemporary, from choral works to symphonies, operas and the avant-garde. Browse by discipline, release date, language, label, performer, and more.
Contemporary World Music This link opens in a new window
Over 150,000 albums delivering contemporary genres such as reggae, worldbeat, neo-traditional, world fusion, Balkanic jazz, African film, Bollywood, Arab swing and jazz, Indian classical, fado, flamenco, klezmer, zydeco, gospel, gagaku, afro-pop, ambient, chant, contemporary Celtic and British folk music, electronic, ska, etc. The Voice of the People from the Topic label, a 20-volume series of English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh traditional music, is included in its entirety.
Dance in Video This link opens in a new window
Dance productions, documentaries and instructional videos by the most influential performers and companies of the 20th and 21st centuries. Selections cover ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, experimental, and improvisational dance, as well as forerunners of the forms and the pioneers of modern concert dance. Search and browse by performer, dance company, technique, genre, choreographer, venue, and more. 1955-present.
Digital Theatre Plus This link opens in a new window
Theater and film. High quality filmed versions of British theatrical productions along with documentaries and other educational materials such as study guides and making. Exclusive behind-the-scenes documentaries and interviews with professionals from all aspects of bringing a play to the stage.
DRAM (Database of Recorded American Music) This link opens in a new window
American music recordings by New World Records and other independent labels. From folk to opera, Native American to jazz, 19th century classical to early rock, musical theater, contemporary, and electronic music. 1975-present.
Drama Online This link opens in a new window
Theatre, drama and literature. Comprehensive database with hundreds of full-text plays combined with critical analysis, contextual information, biographies, and genres. Search for plays by theme, setting, time period or genre. Subscription includes Includes Nick Hern Book collection; and video collections Globe on Screen, Stage on Screen, Maxine Peake as Hamlet, and Patsy Rodenburg acting masterclass. Not all content is accessible to Texas State University users. If you are looking for the L.A. Theatre Works Collection, please go toAudio Drama.
Classical works to contemporary
Jazz Music Library This link opens in a new window
The largest and most comprehensive streaming audio collection of jazz music, featuring thousands of jazz performers from legendary record labels. It currently provides streaming access to more than half a million tracks, with new recordings added monthly. Browse by hundreds of distinct instrument categories, genres and sub-genres, artists and ensembles. 1920s to present
Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new window
Classical music from Medieval to contemporary. Access over 98,000 CDs from the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues plus the complete catalogues or selected titles from over 375 classical, jazz and world music labels.
Speech Accent Archive This link opens in a new window
Contains audio speech samples from a variety of language backgrounds, including native and non-native speakers of English.
Swank Digital Campus This link opens in a new window
A selection of feature films from well-known studios such as MGM, Miramax, United Artists, Columbia Pictures, and Dreamworks. Titles include The Hurt Locker, Dallas Buyers Club, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Citizen Kane, Brokeback Mountain, Selma and many more.For best results access with the most recent version of Chrome.
Varies
Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window
Graphically rich primary sources depicting popular entertainment in America, Britain and Europe in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Victorian Popular Culture is a portal comprised of four sections: Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment and Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema.

Wittliff Collections Reading Room

Some media content is housed in the Wittliff Collections Reading room.

The Wittliff Collections reading room is located on the seventh floor of Alkek Library. All of the materials are non-circulating and must be used in the reading room during the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Mondays through Friday. Access to archival collections and photograph resources is by appointment only.

Music Online This link opens in a new window
Includes content from several Alexander Street Music listening collections (American Music, Contemporary World Music, Classical Music Library, Jazz Music Library, and Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries) plus the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online and Classical Scores Library Volume II.

Media Collections at Alkek

If you are looking for audio recordings or videos of plays, you can search the Library Catalog by the play title, by author, or by main actor.

Most media content (videos, cassettes, DVDs, and CDs) at Alkek can be found on the 3rd floor.

There are dvd players available for playback.