The Victorian Drama League’s Library has over 28,000 scripts on its shelves. We have over 7000 full plays, melodramas, pantomimes, comedies etc, and 3000 one act plays for hire. With playwrights including: Shakespeare, Ibsen, Alan Ayckbourn, Terence Rattigan, J B Priestley, T.S. Eliot, David Williamson, & Alan Bennett, just to name a few.

The scripts are broken down into groups, such as, comedies, straight plays, melodramas, musicals etc. The League also has an extensive list of  all males plays and all female plays.

Members are encouraged to come into the Library and browse the shelves before hiring any book. Members requesting books can have them posted, but they will be sent only to an authorised person.

Callers at the Library must present a VDL Library Card. Books cannot be taken from the library without a card.

Title of play with the author's name as well as the number of male & female characters break down the library into a number of different groupings:

• Full length and One Act plays for mixed casts

• Full length and One Act plays for males only

• Full length and One Act plays for females only

• Comedies

• Mystery & suspense

• Comedy thrillers

• Melodramas

• Seasonal plays & religious dramas

• Musicals

3.Accounts

Accounts are rendered monthly and are payable within 7 days. The VDL reserves the right to suspend hiring privileges if payments are overdue.

4. Sets of Plays

Groups may hire sets of plays for reading and production. For play readings a set consists of one copy for each actor plus one extra. For production a set consists of one copy for each actor plus three extras (price current as of 1st January 2006).

• The borrowing fee for a set of One-Act Plays is $4.00 per week

• The borrowing fee for a set of Full Length Plays is $9.00 per week

For copyright reasons, a set of plays for a production must be hired for the entire rehearsal period.

5.Single copies of plays.

Groups and Individual Members may hire single copies of plays for a maximum of six weeks. Individual Members may only borrow up to 10 plays at any one time. The hiring fee is (price current as of 1st January 2006)

• $1.50 per week for One Act Plays,

• $ 3.00 per week for Full Length Plays

6.Single Copies of Musical Scores and Librettos

Groups and Individual Members may hire single copies of Scores and Librettos and miscellaneous items for the following fees:

• Vocal Scores $ 3.00 per week

• Libretti $ 2.00 per week

• Dialect Books, Tapes, CDs $ 4.00 per week

• Audio Tapes & CDs $ 2.00 per week

• Theatre Texts $3.00 per week

7.Lost Books

The person or group responsible must pay for copies of lost plays. Full replacement cost is charged. A $15.00 fine is also imposed; to cover the administrative costs incurred in replacing a lost book.

8.Care of Books

Scripts must not be marked with anything other than a light pencil, and such marks must be erased before return.

9.Postage

Cost of packing and postage of scripts will be charged to accounts.

10.Catalogues

We have no stock of printed catalogues, but Catalogue on CD may may be available if people are interested in an electronic version. The catalogue can be sectionalised into all female plays, all male plays, comedies, suspense, thrillers etc, as well as plays sorted by author. Alternatively the catalogue can be viewed on our website.

11.Performance Rights

Performing Groups must apply for the performance rights for all plays in our library, unless the play is out of copyright. If you are not sure, or you need information about who to apply to for the rights, please contact the office.