It is the purpose of this paper to make a general study of David Belasco's use of naturalism in the American theatre. More specifically, it is to determine Belasco's methods of achieving naturalism in his stage settings and lighting. From the study of his techniques and methods, and effort is made to establish his contributions to the naturalistic movement.

The continued publication of articles concerning drama and theatre in scholarly periodicals has resulted in the "loss" of much research due to the lack of retrieval tools. This work is designed to partially fill this lack by cassifying the articles found in fourteen current periodicals using Trussler's taxonomy. This bibliography could also be updated on a regular basis. The issues that are presently not available through the North Texas State University Libraries could be ordered, classified and appended to this work. In short, this thesis is a start toward the opening of the source material held by the campus libraries. But it is only a start. There is still a treasure trove yet to be developed.