The Library of Congress > Linked Data Service > LC Subject Headings (LCSH)

Historical drama


  • URI(s)

  • Variants

    • Chronicle histories (Drama)
    • Chronicle history (Drama)
    • Chronicle plays
    • Docudrama
    • Documentary plays
    • Historical plays
    • Verbatim plays
  • Broader Terms

  • Closely Matching Concepts from Other Schemes

  • Sources

    • found: Heywood, T. Two historical plays on the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1851.
    • found: Guo, M. Five historical plays, 1984.
    • found: Cassin-Scott, J. Costumes and settings for staging historical plays, 1979.
    • found: Paget, D. True stories? : documentary drama on radio, screen, and stage, c1990:p. 15 (the 'Theatre of Fact' of the 1970s) p. 16 (source documents (often primary sources) assume a much higher profile than is the case in a historical drama (where secondary sources are more often the norm); the documentary play; records, documents, letters, statistics, market reports, statements by banks and companies, government statements, speeches, interviews, statements by well-known personalities, newspaper and broadcast reports, photos, documentary films and other contemporary documents are the basis of the performance; to these could be added film, photographs, audio and video tape) p. 42 (documentary drama will be used to describe the full range of dramatic practices in which the True Story invokes the special power of the document) p. 43 (Documentary Theatre as a new genre; is predominantly events- and/or issues-centered)
    • found: Arader, M. Reality show : the diverging paths of documentary theater, c2001, viewed online Apr. 17, 2012("Also known as documentary drama, reality theater, and theatrical journalism, today the term documentary theater seems to indicate that most of the dialogue for a piece is verbatim transcription of what people actually said. Beyond that, documentary theater may take many of the same dramatic licenses allowed fiction pieces. ... While documentary theater is limited as a factual document, its powers lie in the ability of the art form to delve into the emotions, issues or lessons behind the facts. The past decade has seen several documentary plays produced, some with startling success. Two examples indicative of the varied directions documentary theater is moving are The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project, and Charlie Victor Romeo, created by Robert Berger, Patrick Daniels and Irving Gregory.")
    • found: Baldick, Chris. The Oxford dictionary of literary terms (online), viewed April 9, 2024(history play; A play representing events drawn wholly or partly from recorded history. The term usually refers to chronicle plays, especially those of Shakespeare, but it also covers some later works such as Schiller's Maria Stuart (1800) and John Osborne's Luther (1961). In a somewhat looser sense, it has been applied also to some plays that take as their subject the impact of historical change on the lives of fictional characters.)
  • LC Classification

    • PN1872-PN1879
  • Editorial Notes

    • subdivision [History--Drama] or subdivision [History--[period subdivision]--Drama] under names of countries, cities, etc.; and subdivision [Drama] under names of historical events and persons
  • Instance Of

  • Scheme Membership(s)

  • Collection Membership(s)

  • Change Notes

    • 1986-02-11: new
    • 2024-05-24: revised
  • Alternate Formats