A collection of music, dance, and theatre content spanning hundreds of genres and a wide range of subject types. Enjoy instructional videos, performances, and more from leading providers such as the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Qwest TV, Smithsonian, L.A. Theatre Works, and Broadway On-Demand.
Audio Collections
Audio Drama: The L.A. Theatre Works Collections delivers some of the most significant dramatic literature of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries by leading actors from around the world, all from the curated archive of the nation’s premiere radio theatre company and recorded specifically for online listening.
Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries provides an extensive virtual encyclopedia of unique American folk, blues, soul, jazz, and protest songs, as well as a broad range of world music through partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.
Video Collections
American History in Video features a variety of videos, from WWII newsreels to full documentaries on important historical subjects. Producers include California Newsreel, The History Channel, and PBS.
The BBC Horizon Collection, this television program, spanning the years from 2009 - 2023, makes science accessible and engaging to students. Horizon reveals the science behind a broad range of topics, including astronomy, physics, math, the environment, disease, and more.
BBC Literary Adaptations in Video, this collection of titles comprises a treasure trove of productions, many that were buried in the BBC archive for the past few decades. From Dickens to Shakespeare, from Chekhov to Arthur Miller, from Jane Austen to Mary Shelley, a great breadth of works is included. Talent like Mark Rylance, John Gielgud, Ian McKellen, Colin Firth, and more.
Music Online: The Qwest TV Collection, co-created by Quincy Jones & Reza Ackbaraly, offers valuable materials for music history and cultural studies through the preservation of diverse live performances, spanning the evolution of jazz and beyond — representing funk, soul, hip-hop, folk, indie, electronic, blues, and other eclectic world genres.
Dance Online: Dance in Video presents an extensive collection of performances, instructional materials, documentaries, and interviews, showcasing high-caliber performances from the greatest dance companies and performers worldwide, spanning from traditional ballet to hip hop, street dance, and modern dance, offering a unique opportunity for to study and analyze the fusion between styles.
The Broadway On Demand Collection takes viewers from behind the stage to the bright lights of Broadway through masterful plays, musicals, and dance performances, but it also provides a diverse range of unique behind-the-scenes series, documentaries, instructional videos, and more.
National Theatre Collections provides contemporary video productions, modern reinterpretations of classic all featuring acclaimed actors and directors of the highest caliber along with exclusive behind-the-scenes archival content.
The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection with high-definition recordings of The Bard's dramatic canon, featuring the world's finest Shakespearean actors and directors, along with supplementary teaching materials, the Royal Shakespeare Company Collection helps bring Shakespeare to life in the modern age.
Theatre in Video offers access to hundreds of the world's most important plays, documentaries, and instructional materials, as well as interviews with prominent directors, designers, writers, and actors, providing an authentic behind-the-scenes look at various productions.
Classical Music in Video provide an extensive collection of influential performances and documentaries demonstrating the continuous development of classical music, spanning eras from canonical masters to modern composers.
Opera in Video offers a curated selection of the world's most significant opera performances, featuring top artists, conductors, and venues, providing a valuable resource for studying opera's rich canon.
Access to these resources is made possible by the California State Library.
