Shakespeare's Globe Archive

This archive of the performances at the new Globe Theatre (a recon­struction of the open-air [theatre] where many of William Shakespeare's plays were first staged) is a trove of information. Students interested in [theatre] history and the cultural history of the Bard will discover here a rich, comprehensive resource with outstanding content; multiple search options make navigation effective and rewarding.

Shakespeare’s Globe Archive (SGA) is a digital database preserving the history of the Globe Theatre during the period when it was designed and rebuilt (1970–1997) and covering the first 20 years of productions (1997–2016), as Joe Badics wrote for ccAdvisor. This educational resource contains 14 areas of digitally curated archival resources, including prompt books, wardrobe notes, show reports, performance photographs, programs, and oral histories, among others. To search through these items, users may take advantage of either basic or advanced search options, which permit visitors to specify certain criteria, such as play, author, cast, director, or production. Some search capabilities are also offered under the “Documents” heading on the landing page, through which users can filter all available documents in SGA by date range, document type, season, theater, author, or director. Additionally, the “Image Gallery” heading provides “hundreds of photographs of the construction of the new Globe Theatre,” while under the “Explore” heading, the “Essays & Interviews” section offers important historical background on the theater, which Badics proclaimed should not be skipped. To facilitate user experience, patrons can locate guides under “Teaching” (found under “Help”), with helpful instruction on how best to use the archive and correctly cite its contents.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. —Abstracted from, ccAdvisor

This review is a summary of a longer review by Joe Badics, Eastern Michigan University, originally published in ccAdvisor.org. Copyright © 2019 by The Charleston Company.