AHDS Performing Arts
http://www.ahds.ac.uk/performingarts/
The AHDS Performing Arts (formerly known as PADS - Performing Arts Data Service) was one of five Subject Centres of the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). It was funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council for eleven years until March 2008 and is freely available. The AHDS Performing Arts collected, documented, preserved and promoted the use of digital data resources to support research and teaching in music, film, theatre, dance and the broadcast arts. It provided information and support in data documentation, encoding formats and digitisation processes for the wide variety of media types created in its subject areas. It also facilitated access to a growing number of significant collections, including the Bach Bibliography Database, the Scottish Screen Archive Catalogue, the Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture Catalogue, the Scottish Music Information Centre Catalogue, and the King Lear Performance Photographs Collection; all of which are held by AHDS Performing Arts for preservation only and must be accessed through external sites. Other collections, such as the North African Film and Filmmakers Dictionary, and the Five Centuries of Scottish Music Collection are hosted by AHDS Performing Arts.
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Andrew Lloyd Webber
http://www.andrewlloydwebber.com
This is the official website of musician and composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. Features include a regularly updated blog, interviews and video diaries. There are also sections on Lloyd Webber's activities in the areas of Theatre, Recordings, Film, and Art. In addition, there are sections on the Open Churches Trust, founded by Andrew in 1994, and biographies on the Lloyd Webbers, including Andrew's brother Julian, and his father William Southcombe Lloyd Webber. It is possible to subscribe to a newsletter and music is available through the website for downloading.
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Archive of performances of Greek and Roman drama (APGRD)
http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/
This is the online presence of the Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama (APGRD), an inter-disciplinary research project at the University of Oxford which is aimed at establishing the international history of the production and reception of classical plays from the Renaissance to the present day, and to trace all extant evidence for performance and re-performance of plays within antiquity. The purpose of the APGRD is both to serve as a repository of physical materials relating to the stage history of the works in performance (such as playbills, programmes, reviews, drawings, photographs and audio-visual recordings) and to compile a comprehensive production history of ancient drama on the modern stage (revivals and adaptations on stage and film, and in opera and dance). Users may register to search the online APGRD Database of more than 9,000 productions of Greek and Roman drama on the modern stage, plus bibliographical sources for them. Playwrights whose works feature are Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Terence, and Seneca. This site provides information about the project, its events (including seminars, conferences and colloquia) and publications, as well as links to further research resources and listings of current and forthcoming productions of ancient drama. Links to relevant online resources include those for the reception of ancient drama, Classics in general and theatre studies. Funding is received from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
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Arts of the book collection
http://www.library.yale.edu/aob/
The Arts of the Book Collection (AOB) is a research facility housed in the Sterling Memorial Library of Yale University. The website provides descriptions of the collections which make up the AOB; these include: artists' books, bibliographical press, bookplate collection, Fritz Eichenberg collection, Fritz Kredel (1900-1973) collection, Overbrook Press printing library, Paul Rand collection, Carl Purington Rollins printing library and type specimens. An online version of the finding aids to the Fritz Kredel Collection is available on the site and there are also summaries of AOB exhibitions from Autumn 2000 to the present. A links section lists Web resources on the book arts, covering artists' books, book dealers, bookbinding and typography.
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Artslynx international arts resources : theatre resources
http://www.artslynx.org/theatre/
Part of Artslynx, an international directory of links to websites and pages relevant to a range of arts subjects, 'theatre resources' is a guide created by Professor Richard Finkelstein, an American theatre studies scholar. It is divided into many subject areas surrounding drama, dramaturgy, performance, plays and theatre education. Each category has a dedicated page and is further sub-divided for different subjects and types of resource. This site provides a vast range of links resources, many of which are accompanied by a brief description.
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Backstage : a performing arts gateway for the UK
http://www.backstage.ac.uk/
Backstage aims to provide a single point of access for searching performing arts collections within UK libraries and archives. The gateway consists of a database containing three strands of information: a directory of institutions; collection level descriptions; and selected item level records. The project is led by the University of Kent at Canterbury with support from Bristol University. There are a further eighteen project partners, based at institutions holding significant theatrical collections. The project involves the retrospective digitisation of catalogues to electronic form (based on the ISAD(G) archival standard) from selected institutions. Other partners provide collection-level descriptions. The website gives further information about the project and its partners. Over 900 collection-level descriptions are available for browsing and there is also a browsable directory of institutions, which has summary information and contact details for 418 libraries, record offices, and other establishments. The database contains over 60,000 individual item records. The search engine permits keyword and phrase searching of the descriptions, including by materials format (e.g. scores, playtexts, posters, programmes). Backstage receives funding from the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP). The gateway is aimed at the research community plus anyone interested in the performing arts.
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BAFA : arts festivals
http://www.artsfestivals.co.uk/
The British Arts Festivals Association (BAFA) exists to promote information about arts festivals to audiences in the UK and worldwide, to represent festivals interests and to facilitate the exchange of expertise and experience between festivals. This website features a directory of professional arts festivals in the UK, in the areas of music, literature, dance, theatre & performance and the street arts. The festivals can be browsed in a number of ways: via a calendar of events, a clickable map of the UK or an A-Z of festivals. Descriptions and links to individual festival sites are provided.
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Banff Centre
http://www.banffcentre.ca/
Founded in 1933, the Banff Centre for the Arts is an international centre for the fine arts; since the 1950s, it has offered programmes in management and leadership training; and more recently, it offers courses on mountain culture. The Centre, located on a world heritage site in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada, is near the town of the same name which boasts a mineral hot springs, and has attracted all kinds of artists seasonally since the early 1880s. The Centre activities include conferences; arts festivals; competitions; film shoots; lectures; professional development; a wired writing studio; recitals, jazz concerts and other musical performances. The site also elaborates upon its facilities, current events, national and international connections and impact, and lists hundreds of famous alumni.
The site provides in-depth descriptions of all its programmes in dance, theatre, music, visual arts, and literary arts, as well as electronic arts and aboriginal arts. It also gives information on the application process and financial aid to attend. It offers programmes of varying duration and at different levels.
The site posts job announcements and gives an overview of services and housing available for support staff who work at the Centre. The site has a searchable index to aid navigation, as well as fundraising information and copies of annual reports and other administrative publications.
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BBC radio 3 : speech and drama
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/speechanddrama/
This site, entitled Speech and Drama, is a subsite of the BBC Radio 3 website. The site posts information on and audio links to the different BBC Speech and Drama programmes, which include: Night Waves; The Verb; Sunday Feature; Between The Ears; Drama on 3; and The Wire. Site visitors can access programmes relevant to the study of classic and contemporary literature, poetry, film and drama. One highlight in this respect is the site's Poetry Library, which features audio recordings of poems being read out loud, in some cases by the poets themselves. There are also some elements of the site which will interest specialists in Cultural History, with a specific programme on Czech history, for example. The site has an artist search engine, with which users can search for biographies and discographies on 15,000 artists across all genres. An interview subsite includes interviews with noted composers, directors, photographers, film-makers, sculptors, painters, artists, choreographers, historians, novelists, playwrights and poets.
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Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
http://www.bhavan.net/
The website of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Institute for Indian art and culture) promotes the many activities of the organisation. The Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan is an international organisation which was founded in 1938. The UK branch, of which this is the website, is located in West Kensington. It was the first, and is the largest, Bhavan outside India. The website features a number of cultural activities - dance, music, drama and art - all with the aim of preserving the tradition of Indian art and culture. The website advertises the Bhavan's programme of regular events. Alongside these cultural events, the website provides information about a series of courses: musical tuition is offered on a range of traditional Indian instruments, there is also a degree course in Indian music run at the Bhavan under the aegis of Westminster University; language courses to GCSE and A level are available in Gujarati, Hindi, Bangali, Tamil and Sanskrit. The website contains a gallery of artworks.
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Biennale di Venezia
http://www.labiennale.org/
This is the website of La Biennale di Venezia, the well-known and prestigious Italian institution devoted to contemporary arts. The site provides rich information on the various festivals organised periodically and usually set in Venice, such as: the International Film Festival; the International Architecture Exhibition; the International Art Exhibition; the Festival of Contemporary Music and Theatre and the Festival of Contemporary Dance. The history of the Biennale, from its origins in 1895 up to the present day, is outlined on the site, and users can also view a photogallery of past events and people. A calendar with venues and other general information on events and artists is also provided. The site is useful not only for its provision of up-to-date information on initiatives and cultural events relating to the popular Cinema Festival, but also for its information and news on new trends in Italian and international theatre, dance, music and visual arts.
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Brighton festival fringe
http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/
Brighton Festival Fringe grew out of the Brighton International Festival, initially established in 1967. The organisation aims to support artists, producers, and audiences, whilst encouraging the development of the arts and entertainment activity. The Fringe is open to anyone, and can include any art form, from performance to visual arts. In this way, it aims to create a platform for new talent. The website provides a history of the Fringe and its objectives, in addition to listings of events for the current Fringe. There is also an archive of previous events, dating back to 2004. Other features include a gallery of photographs from previous events, press information and sponsor details. There is a link to the Brighton International Festival.
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British theatre guide
http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/
This site is devoted to all aspects of British theatre and includes experimental theatre as well as mainstream. It is a re-establishment of an earlier site About British Theatre which closed in 2001. Users can subscribe to a free weekly email newsletter which, as well as providing updates on what is happening in theatre in the United Kingdom, gives updates on new features or stories on the website. The site includes articles on all aspects of British theatre, indexed both by date and by subject. Subjects include, theatre history, Shakespeare, and actors and acting. There are also British theatre reviews from the UK and New York, book reviews, a news section, and a discussion forum. Other resources on this extensive site include a British Theatre Directors' Index, a British Actors' Index, a Directory of Theatres in Britain arranged town by town, a glossary of theatre terms, an amateur theatre index, playwrights' FAQs, and the text of some interviews of relevance to British theatre.
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BUBL link : catalogue of internet resources : the arts
http://www.bubl.ac.uk/link/linkbrowse.cfm?menuid=9847
Introduced in 1999 and published by the Centre for Digital Library Research at University of Strathclyde, the BUBL Information Service provides a resource list for networked electronic resources. This section of the website supplies a list of Web resources in the subject areas surrounding the creative arts. Specific subjects covered include all aspects of fine and applied arts, architecture, art galleries and museums, music, dance, design, film and theatre studies, radio and television broadcasting and photography. Also included are short reviews of linked individual website resources within the various subject areas. An opportunity is provided to submit a website.
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Bunraku kyōkai
http://bunraku.or.jp/
The official website of the Bunraku Kyōkai (Bunraku Association) provides information on this traditional form of Japanese puppet theatre with many photographs and other images. A nicely atmospheric sound file accompanies the opening pages of both English and Japanese versions. The English version consists mainly of an introduction to bunraku, with sections on: history and development; narrators; puppeteers; shamisen (accompanying musical instrument); and puppet construction. In addition to this background information, the Japanese version provides: up-to-date schedules of performances; a list of association members; PDF files public documents of the association (plans, budget, reports, etc) for downloading; and links to the websites of the National Theatre (Kokuritsu Gekijo) and other relevant sites.
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Center for arts and cultural policy studies
http://www.princeton.edu/~artspol/
The aim of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies is to "improve the clarity, accuracy and sophistication of discourse about the nation's artistic and cultural life". Information is provided on events, awards and fellowships, research and publications, courses, conferences and meetings. Also included is a set of links to external related resources.
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Central School of Speech and Drama, The University of London
http://www.cssd.ac.uk
The Central School of Speech and Drama offers academic courses in speech and drama. There are undergraduate and postgraduate courses teaching a broad spectrum of 'performance techniques and genres, theatre production and design, analysis and research'. The home page provides a link to forthcoming events and the opportunity to view video clips of the students, for which flash player is required. There is a link to forthcoming productions and their dates with details of how to book tickets. Information is also provided about student services, staff, research and the courses on offer. As well as the higher education courses, there are short courses, Saturday courses and business courses. Students of the school are offered the opportunity to post their photographs and CV on the website.
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Chapter
http://www.chapter.org/
Established in April 1971, Chapter is a media arts centre based in Cardiff, Wales. Its website offers monthly highlights of the centre's programme of events in the areas of visual arts, cinema, and theatre. The site also provides details about the 150 artists, filmmakers, animators, designers and photographers housed at the centre's three buildings in Cardiff.
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Complete works of Christopher Marlowe : an electronic edition
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Texts/Marlowe.html
This electronic edition of the complete works of Christopher Marlowe provides hypertext links to textual variations and the 'Perseus look-up tool', which searches for other appearances of key phrases in the electronic texts, images, and atlases associated with the Perseus project, of which this is a part. Doctor Faustus is particularly well developed, with both the A text and the B text viewable with original and modernised spelling. P. F. Gent's Elizabethan translation of 'The Historie of the damnable life, and the deserved death of Doctor Iohn Faustus' is also reproduced on the site. Each poem and play included in the site is easily navigable and clearly presented.
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Cultural industries : the British experience in international perspective
http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/conferences/culturalindustries/proc/culturalindust
'Cultural industries: the British experience in international perspective' is a free ebook that contains the full-text proceedings of a 2006 conference of the same name held at the Centre for British Studies, Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin. This 233-page 75,000-word book is available online in standard PDF format. The book contains chapters on: "The Creative Industries: Definitions, Quantification and Practice"; "Methodology and Ideology in the Evaluation of Cultural Investments"; "The Question of Quality in a Comparison of British and German Theatre"; "The Creative Industries and Cultural Politics in Britain from the 1960s to Cool Britannia"; and "From Gentlemanly Publishing to Conglomerates: The Contemporary Literary Field in the UK", among others. There is no index. There is a list of contributors at the end of the book, including email contact addresses.
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dg : dramaturgische Gesellschaft
http://www.dramaturgische-gesellschaft.de/dramaturg/
DG: Dramaturgische Gesellschaft (Dramaturgical Society) is a German-based society devoted to uniting theatre artists and craftspeople associated with theatrical production in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. People represented here include dramaturgs, stage directors, theatre managers, as well as publishers and journalists who focus on dramatic works. Nor does the Society neglect video, film and related motion picture media as they relate to the stage. The Society debates dramaturgical themes and broader related questions, with the aim of determining contemporary artistic and social aspects of these themes. The Society provides an open discussion network and forum for its members to achieve these aims. The site gives a history of the Society's activities up to current and upcoming events listings. These are mainly evident in symposia, lectures and discussions, along with cooperative ventures with particular theatre companies and groups. The table of contents of the Society's annual journal, "Dramaturgie," is posted here running back to 2000. The site also has a blog and provides links to relevant press releases. The site is entirely in German.
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Disability - useful websites
http://www.arts.ac.uk/student/disability/ss-dis-websites.htm
Part of the Student Services section of the website of the University of the Arts London, this page provides some links to websites surrounding disability. It consists of the following sections: disability arts; dyslexic students; deaf students and students with a hearing loss; blind and visually impaired students; students with mental health problems; and general disability. There are also links to information about the Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA); a section on 'after your studies' with related links; and details about events and publications.
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DXARTS : center for digital arts and experimental media, University of Washington
http://www.washington.edu/dxarts/index.php
This is the website for the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (also known as DXARTS) at the University of Washington in Seattle. Of particular interest is the Center for Advanced Research Technology (CARTAH) an interdisciplinary "project-based research lab, providing unique resources for artists and scholars engaged in technology-based work", and the website includes details of its projects. Full details and images are provided regarding the Center's facilities, projects and resources, in addition to updated news, events, visiting artists and staff details.
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Edinburgh festival fringe
http://www.edfringe.com/
This is the official website of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, an annual event that takes place in summer. It was "started by festival gatecrashers in 1947". The festival comprises theatre, comedy, music and dance events. There is a searchable guide to festival shows and events and information on buying tickets. 'About the fringe' includes information on the services provided by the Festival Fringe Society, fringe facts, sponsors, staff and jobs. There is an option to register and create your own personal fringe diary to keep track of events. A message board is also available.
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Edinburgh international festival
http://www.eif.co.uk/
This is the official website of the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), an annual event that takes place in late summer. The festival "brings to Edinburgh some of the best in international theatre, music, dance and opera and presents the arts in Scotland to the world". The website includes details of the current programme and booking facilities. The latest press releases are also available. The history section includes history and background information on the EIF such as attendance statistics, list of previous festival directors and previous EIF dates. Annual reviews for past festivals can be viewed on PDF format. These contain an overview of each festival, full financial information and a complete listing of events. One can join the mailing list to receive a free annual brochure and a winter newsletter.
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