Drama

The New School Libraries hold thousands of plays in our print collections. You will find a large number of scripts in the Performing Arts Library, largely in single-play, performer's editions. You can find these on the 9th floor at Arnhold Hall, 55 w. 13th street.Cataloged under call numbers beginning with the letter "P," including PN, PQ, PR PS. The scripts fill most of the aisle that is furthest away from the elevators (this will make sense when you're there). The plays at PAL are mostly single-title, performer's editions. In other words, just one play per item, in the version that stage actors would use to prepare their performance.

Additionally, there are plays on the shelves at the List Center Library. The editions you find at List are often anthologies or include extensive analysis and commentary, more appropriate for the study of literature than for preparing performance. These are still cataloged with P- call numbers, but are interfiled with other genres of literature such as novels and poetry. 

 How can you find them? It's always best to search on our website, library.newschool.edu. Here are some tips to help make your effort there productive:

• Click the "Advanced Search" button. You will now be able to specify that "Tennessee Williams", for example, is the author of the item you need. Without this specification, you will also see tons of books about Tennessee Williams. 
•  This also makes it possible to search for plays by specific title.
• The library search engine will show you results for print material that we own, print material that our consortium partners (such as NYU and Cooper Union) own, and many of the electronic resources to which we have access
• Once you have executed a search, use the "resource type" filter on the left side of your results list to limit the results to "books". There is no filter specifically for "scripts", but they are included with books. 

You can certainly browse the shelves at PAL and at List, but it is very important to keep in mind that what you see is only a small part of what you get. What are you missing? 

1. Items that are checked out to other people. Folks use our stuff! If someone else has it, then you won't see it on the shelf. 
2. Items that are in offsite storage-- every library in Manhattan uses offsite storage, because none of us has enough space to accommodate everything that we own.
3. Items owned by our consortium partners.
4. Electronically accessible items. Plays that we hold only as eBooks will not appear on our shelves.

It's important to check the "Books and More" search at library.newschool.edu, even when you are browsing for a print publication.