News and Updates
May 2023: L.A. Theatre Works: 21 plays added to the collection
21 audio plays now live including: Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises; Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman and The Ride Down Mt. Morgan starring Brian Cox; Tom Stoppard's absurdist, existential comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead; Twelfth Night adapted by Martin Jarvis; plus Five Short Stories by Women from some of America's most distinguished female authors: Sandra Cisneros, Nadine Gordimer, Amy Hempel, Rebecca Lee, Joyce Carol Oates.
Find out more about LA Theatre Works
May 2023: National Theatre Collections: Audio descriptions now available
Audio description is now available for 21 titles in the National Theatre collections, making these productions accessible to a wider audience. Performances include: Angels in America Parts 1 and 2; Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge and All my Sons; Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Othello, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night; and many more.
Explore the National Theatre Collections
April 2023: Oberon Books Collection 2 now live
This second collection which will offer 400 titles has launched with 199, including plays by Hassan Abdulrazzak, Howard Barker, Alfred Fagon, Karen Zacarias and a wealth of stand-out plays by inspiring contemporary writers.
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February 2023: RSC Live: 5 new films now available
These performances were performed or broadcast in 2021 or 2022 and include: Henry VI: Part One, Henry VI: Part Two, Henry VI: Part Three, The Comedy of Errors and The Winter's Tale.
Find out more about the RSC Live collection
January 2023: Nick Hern Books 30 new plays now live
Highlights include: Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams; The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs by Iman Qureshi; Pride and Prejudice (sort of) adapted by Isobel McArthur; and The Meaning of Zong by Giles Terera.
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December 2022: Six brand new video collections
Announcing a suite of six new video collections which explore theatre traditions from around the world and offer practical insight into the industry from leading writers and directors. These curated video collections are designed to enhance and expand your theatre teaching and research:
November 2022: Critical Studies and Performance Practice 2022 Update
New critical studies titles range from The Merchant of Venice: Language and Writing and Shakespeare in the Global South to The Changeling: A Critical Reader and Screening the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Performance practice titles include Teaching Playwriting, Peter Brook: Threads of Time, The Actor's Career Bible, and Thinking Through Theatre and Performance.
Download the 2022 Update title list here.
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection here.
November 2022: 91 new titles added to the TCG Books Play Collection
91 new titles have been added to the TCG Books Play Collection, which is now complete. The collection offers 200 plays from TCG Books, the largest independent trade publisher of dramatic literature in North America.
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11th August 2022: Shakespeare's Globe to Globe Festival on Screen 1
In the summer of 2012, Shakespeare's Globe hosted the hugely successful Globe to Globe Festival which saw companies from across the world perform in over 30 different languages. Now you can watch 10 of these performances on Drama Online.
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3rd May 2022: Core Collection: 60+ new plays now live
Includes the powerful NW Trilogy, that shows us how we can change the world from our doorstep, as well as 5 Tom Stoppard plays.
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28th April 2022: Nick Hern Books: 30 new plays now live
Features 2:22 A Ghost Story, nominated for 3 Olivier Awards, and What If If Only, Caryl Churchill's short play about grief and loss.
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12th April 2022: Theatre Performance and Practice Video Library now live
Seven educational films from Pumpkin Interactive, the UK's leading producer of high-quality video content for schools, colleges and universities, which will enable users to understand first-hand the process of creating theatre from inception through to performance.
Find out more
January 2022: TCG Books Play Collection now live
The collection has launched with 110 titles and will complete with a further 90 in Fall this year.
January 2022: Announcing the addition of Angels of America Parts 1 and 2 as two of the ten new filmed performances that will join the National Theatre Collection 2 in February!
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December 2021: Announcing 8 of the 10 new filmed productions to go live in the National Theatre Collection 2 in February 2022 (with news on 2 more coming soon!)
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22nd September 2021: The National Theatre Collection 2 has launched with 10 filmed productions.
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6th September 2021: Critical Studies and Performance Practice 2021 Update
New titles range from An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre and Prison Theatre and the Global Crisis of Incarceration to The Arden Guide to Renaissance Drama.
Download the 2021 Update title list here.
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection here.
29th June 2021: Oberon Books Collection is now complete
This content update includes stand-out plays from some of today's foremost British playwrights, such as Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Inua Ellams, Dennis Kelly and Laura Wade, as well as key contemporary writers from the USA, such as Clare Barron and Anne Washburn.
Download the complete Oberon Books Collection title list here.
May 2021: Over 120 new titles from Methuen, Faber & Faber, Nick Hern Books, and L.A. Theatre Works now live.
- Download the Core Collection title list here.
- Download the Nick Hern Books title list here.
- Download the L.A. Theatre Works title list here.
February 2021: Oberon Books Collection is now live
Discover ground-breaking British plays and the best of international drama and plays in translation
Download the Oberon Books Collection title list here.
December 2020: Drama Online is one of Library Journal's Must-Have Databases for Academic and Public Libraries 2020!
Read more on Library Journal here.
November 2020: 90 new titles from Methuen, Faber & Faber, and Nick Hern Books now live.
- Download the Core Collection title list here.
- Download the Nick Hern Books title list here.
October 2020: The Stratford Festival Shakespeare Collection - now live
10 filmed performances including: Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, King John, King Lear, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, The Adventures of Pericles, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and Timon of Athens
Find out more
29th September 2020: Critical Studies and Performance Practice 2020 Update
New critical studies titles range from ShakesFear and How to Cure It, to Visions of Tragedy in Modern American Drama. Performance practice titles include those by working theatre practitioners, such as Patsy Rodenburg and Russell Jackson.
Download the 2020 Update title list here.
Find out more about the Critical Studies and Performance Practice collection here.
12th August 2020: RSC Live Collection completes with 4 new films
As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure and Timon of Athens
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Drama Online migration to new platform in July 2020
Access all the same high-quality content as before and benefit from an improved user experience.
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April 2020: 6 new films now live in the National Theatre Collection
Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts and featuring 30 titles, this collection is now complete.
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COVID-19 Response
Drama Online is now available to academic institutions upon request through the end of May 2020, at no cost or obligation and on an unlimited access basis. Find out more here.
The National Theatre Collection, already free to UK state schools and state-funded FE Colleges, is now available to those UK pupils and teachers via remote access. For a temporary period, whilst schools and colleges remain closed, log-in details can be shared with pupils to access resources at home. Register your school here.
March 2020: 90 new playtexts from Methuen, Faber & Faber, and Nick Hern Books now live.
Download the Core Collection title list here.
Download the Nick Hern Books title list here.
Case Studies
Find out how Drama Online has transformed teaching and learning by opening up new themes, topics, and ways of approaching the material.
Read case studies
January 2020: 5 new films now live in the National Theatre Collection
Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts, this collection now offers 24 titles.
Find out more
