AustLit

Australian Drama originated in the specialist work From Page to Stage: An Annotated Bibliography of Australian Drama, compiled by Kerry Kilner and established with the support of the National Centre for Australian Studies at Monash University. From Page to Stage received initial funding from the Australian Research Council in 1997. It enhanced earlier work undertaken under the auspices of the Bibliography of Australian Literature project.

The project was a concerted effort to identify and record details on published and unpublished Australian drama and theatre works, articles, reviews of both published and performed works. Information on playwrights from 1778 to the present was also recorded.

Almost 6,000 plays were indexed over the course of two or three years, of which more than 1,800 were unpublished. The dramatic works described range from the theatrical farce and melodrama of the late 18th century to contemporary plays which fuse drama and musical forms. It recorded details of plays in collections, appearing in small print runs, published as supplemental to programs, and produced on radio and television.

The project ran for some four years and was absorbed into AustLit upon its establishment. The recording of information about Australian drama and other performance works continues as a matter of course under AustLit general work and no specialist work on drama in the format that this project took is necessary.