THEATRE LINKS
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ARTHUR LLOYD This site is dedicated to the late nineteenth century music hall performer Arthur Lloyd. It has thousands of pages and images related to the history of the music hall in the U.K. Areas dealt with include music hall, variety, pantomime, songs, posters, people, timelines, theatres and maps. The site is an excellent resource for anyone interested in any aspect of music hall.

THE BALLET This site contains information on ballet history, great dancers, and the ballets themselves. It has two main sections: "Studio to Stage", which has step-by-step articles on ballet including a history, life as a ballet dancer, performing, and ballet technique; and an "Encyclopedia" which has a variety of information about ballet and ballet dancers.

THE BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE This site deals with every aspect of British theatre, and whatever you are interested in, there is likely to be something here for you. Although it looks crowded and has some advertising, it is easy to navigate. There are reviews of country-wide productions by a variety of different people, but the site appears to be mainly the work of Peter Lathan, whose personal observations and articles are generally helpful and revealing, and often crisply pointed and entertaining.

CIRCUSNET Created as “a Record and Documentation Center about the circus”, this site contains an eclectic hotchpotch of material including articles, advertising, programs, photos, models, magazines, books, postcards, toys – in fact, anything related to the world of circus. It exists in a French and an English version, and navigation is a bit confusing, but there is a wealth of material on all aspects of circus.

THE COSTUMER’S MANIFESTO This describes itself as ‘one of the World Wide Web's largest, and most eclectic, costume sites.’ It is hosted by the Online Costume Store and contains information, photographs and designs for a wide range of productions, as well as numerous links to other sites related to the subject.

THE GILBERT AND SULLIVAN ARCHIVE This is an exhaustive site dealing with all aspects of the lives and works of W. S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan. It includes a variety of Gilbert and Sullivan related items, such as clip art, librettos, plot summaries, pictures of the original Gilbert and Sullivan stars, song scores, midi and mpeg audio files, and newsletter articles. New items are added regularly, and there are also links to many other related sites.

LEEDS ARTS CENTRE This is the website of the amateur dramatic company of which I have been a member for more years than I care to remember, and for which all the productions in the Designs section of this website were designed and directed at the Civic Theatre and now the Carriageworks in Leeds. The website provides a wealth of information about the society itself, as well as containing information about past, present and future productions, costume and set designs and photographs.

MOTLEY COLLECTION This is a wonderful resource for anyone interested in designs for theatre sets and costumes. It contains a large number of original designs for six famous productions of Shakespeare’s plays from the mid twentieth century. The page for each production includes thumbnails of the designs that lead the user to a larger and more detailed image file. The word ‘Production’ at the top of the page for each play is also a link to production notes and reviews for that performance.

MUSICALS101 This is an exhaustive cyber encyclopaedia covering everything from the history of musicals, through reviews and essays, to "the nuts and bolts of writing and putting on a Broadway show". It is functionally presented and quite easy to navigate. As well as all the written material, there is an extensive gallery of photographs from stage and screen musicals. Although the site is largely geared towards American productions, there is also plenty of fascinating material on British musicals.

OPERA GLASS This is collection of libretti for a wide range of classic operas. They are listed in alphabetical order of title, and have synopses in English while the libretti themselves are generally in the original language. Some of the operas also have a performance history, background, sources, discography and pictures, and there is also information about many of the composers.

SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE TThe official website of the rebuilt Globe Theatre in London is full of information about the theatre, performances, history and exhibitions. You can take a virtual tour of the theatre, viewing it from the stage, the yard and various galleries, which gives a very clear idea of the architecture and feel of the building. There are also photographs from past productions, and a useful Education section.

SOCIETY OF BRITISH THEATRE DESIGNERS This functional website contains a designers' register, details of news items, publications and training, as well as a wide variety of links to other related sites. The best part of the site is the picture gallery, which contains pictures of scenery, costume and lighting designs for a variety of productions. Although it is clearly the mouthpiece of the Society, it is generally objective and presents as much factual information as possible about all aspects of theatre design in Britain.

THE STAGE This is a site with all the latest U.K. theatre news. There is quite a lot of advertising on the site, but it also contains comprehensive details of shows all over the country, reviews of those currently running and information about forthcoming productions and events.

STAGEWORK Stagework describes itself as “a unique resource designed to make innovative theatre practice at the National Theatre and selected regional partners in England more widely available to new and existing audiences.” It covers all aspects of the creative processes in the theatre, with articles, video clips, interviews and much more. It certainly deserves its two 2005 BAFTAs for Best Factual Website and Best Learning Website.

THEATRE COLLECTION ONLINE This is part of the Victoria and Albert Museum website, and replaces what used to be the Theatre Museum website. It contains some of the material from that site, including information about circus, drama, dance, opera, puppetry and theatre buildings. Much of the site, like the Theatre Collection at the V&A, is still under development, but it is still a useful resource for those interested in theatre, and will hopefully increase in value and interest as it develops.

THEATRE CRAFTS This site claims to be “Biggest Technical Theatre Glossary on the Web”, and includes clear and concise definitions of a very wide range of theatre terms from “A Type” to “Zoom Profile” (look them up!). The site is run by a member of the University of Exeter Drama Department, and lists over 1610 terms, mainly based in the U.K., with more added regularly. The glossary is searchable by word, letter or category, and also contains a forum where visitors can ask questions.

THEATRE DATABASE This site has a wealth of information about all periods of theatre history from Ancient Greece to the 21st Century. It is fairly comprehensive with extensive articles on a worldwide range of playwrights and movements in the theatre, and also has links to other related websites. It is organised by historical periods, and presented in a straightforward way with simple navigation.

THEATRE HISTORY This is a wide-ranging site dealing with all aspects of world theatre history from its origins through to the present. There are many links to articles within and outside the site, dealing with most aspects of the subject. There is also a small selection of online texts, and a Bookstore which links to the American Amazon site. The Links section offers brief descriptions of sites dealing with a wide range of topics, mostly centred on America.

THE VICTORIAN PLAYS PROJECT This is “A digital archive of selected plays from T.H. Lacy’s Acting Edition of Victorian Plays (1848-1873)”. It contains a huge number of texts of Victorian plays, melodramas and pantomimes by a wide range of authors. The majority of them are long out of print and unavailable elsewhere, so this is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the drama of the mid nineteenth century.

WHATSONSTAGE This is a comprehensive guide to what is on in theatres around Britain, though its main focus is inevitably London. It offers news, features and discussion about productions and performers, a searchable database, ticket information, and reviews of a wide variety of shows. The reviews are by a number of different people, sometimes with conflicting opinions. The only disappointment is the number of relative links in the articles which lead to a blank.