All the databases listed here may be found at the library website in the Language, Lit & Poetry category of Databases & Sources by Subject
While the terms "review" and "criticism"
are often used interchangeably, there are differences between them.
Literary criticism is the study, interpretation, and evaluation of a piece of literature and its place in literary history. Literary criticism usually offers interpretation of things like meaning, analysis of structure and style, judgement of its worth by comparison with other works, and an estimation of its likely effect on readers. Literary theory (e.g., feminist, postmodernist, etc.) often informs the critical analysis of a work.
Literary criticism differs from reviews in several ways: it entails both analysis and judgement; it may be published many years after a work is released; it is usually longer and more complex than a book review. A review is more "consumer-oriented," placing more emphasis on recommendation than analysis.Reviews are usually written around the time of a work's performance or perhaps when a new edition is released.
Reviews may be found in online databases that index newspapers and general interest magazines (e.g., New York Times , The New Yorker, The New Republic, etc.).
In-depth criticism and analyses of literary works may be found in more scholarly or academic publications (e.g.,TDR: The Drama Review; American Theatre; Shakespeare Bulletin, etc.) indexed in disciplinary databases, like the MLA Bibliography or scholarly journal collections such as JSTOR or Project Muse.
(The above adapted from something written by Patricia Mardeusz, Librarian at the Bailey/Howe Library of the U of Vermont, and used with permission.)
It's easy these days to find play production reviews. What's not always easy is finding a particular review, rather than just any.
To find a greater variety of reviews by professional writers, you'll need a magazine or newspaper index, and you'll need a subscription to get to the full text, which you have via Bethel. Use the library site to find them (Go to Databases & Sources by Subject).
For contemporary reviews of plays performed before the mid-80s: Electronic indexes often only go back to about the 1980s. For reviews written before then, you'll need that old technology--the book. Look for the Readers Guide upstairs in our index collection. Look for the name of the play or playwright. Once you get your citations from there, use the Journal Title search on our page to find our access to the journals, magazines or newspapers.
Most database interfaces offer an Advanced Search option that includes various ways to limit your results. One of the common limits is something like Document Type. If you don't see that kind of option, you can always use the word "review" as one of your search terms. While this isn't fool-proof, it does a pretty good job of getting you reviews rather than other types of things about your movie.
Any of the databases listed in the box above will contain reviews as well as analysis. In addition to these, try the resources below:
