Lectures & Live Performances
MLA:
Garber, Marjorie. Lecture on Shakespeare’s Othello. Literature and Arts A-41—
[speaker.] [“title.”] [sponsoring event/course name.]
Shakespeare, The Later Plays. Harvard University, Cambridge. 10 Mar 1982.
[location.] [performance date.]APA:
Identify as lecture or performance in your paper. Do not list in your References.Chicago:
33. Garber, Lecture on Othello.
[fn. #.] [speaker last name, title.]
[Shortened Chicago reference; see More Notes on Chicago Style for more information.]
A solo performance or a lecture is cited by the performer’s name. Include a title, if any, or a short descriptive word to identify the format. (Lectures with titles are listed with quotation marks; don’t use quotation marks if you are just using a descriptive phrase.) Include the location and date of the performance. If the event is part of a conference, course, or lecture series, you may add that after the performance title. Use this format when you quote or paraphrase part of your professor’s lectures in your paper.
If your paper cites a performance by two or more people, or the production of a play or other previously published or recorded work, what you list first depends on which element of the production your paper focuses on. This ambiguity is caused in part by the group nature of such productions: even if you identify a writer, producer, or director, a group performance never has the single authorship of a written text or image. See the discussion of film and video for discussion of a similar example.
In APA style, you do not include in your list of References any source that can’t be retrieved by your reader. If you refer to a lecture or performance in your paper, cite it as such in your text, and do not list it at the end.
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