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To cite a play in MLA style, treat a printed play like a book: author, italicised title, publisher, year. The part that is different is the in-text citation, where you give the act, scene and line numbers instead of a page number. This guide covers the Works Cited entry for each way you might meet a play (printed book, anthology, e-book, stream, live performance), the in-text form, and the mistakes that most often appear in manuscripts and theses. It follows MLA 9th edition (2021), the current edition.
The format
A play published as a stand-alone book uses the standard book pattern. Each element is named below.
| Element | What goes there |
|---|---|
| Author | Playwright, last name first |
| Title | Title of the play, in italics |
| Publisher | The publisher of the edition you read |
| Year | Year of publication of that edition |
Pattern: Author Last name, First name. Title. Publisher, Year of Publication. The edition matters because your in-text page numbers, if you use them, belong to that edition.
Examples
Play printed as a book
MLA 9th pattern as shown in the University College Dublin Library MLA guide for plays:
Carr, Marina. Plays Three. Faber & Faber, 2015.
Another stand-alone play, in the same pattern:
Williams, Tennessee. The Glass Menagerie. New Directions, 1999.
Other ways to meet a play
Use this table to decide what to add to the book pattern.
| Where you read or saw it | What to include |
|---|---|
| Printed as its own book | Book format: author, italicised title, publisher, year |
| Inside an anthology or collection | The editors, the collection title in italics, publisher, year, and the page range of the play (for example pp. 7-102) |
| E-book | The book entry, plus the database name in italics and a permanent link after the year |
| Streamed performance | The streaming platform and the URL |
| Live performance | The director, the theatre company, the date, the venue and the city |
Live performance
The University College Dublin guide gives this pattern for a live production: Author. Title. Directed by First Last, Theatre Company, Day Month Year, Venue, City. The example below is an illustration of the pattern, not a record of a real production:
McDonagh, Rosaleen. Walls and Windows. Directed by Jason Byrne, 23 Aug. 2021, Abbey Theatre, Dublin.
Its in-text citation is just the author’s name: (McDonagh).
In-text citation version
How do you cite a play in text in MLA?
Cite the act, scene and line instead of a page number. Give them from the broadest division to the smallest, separated by periods, so that act 1, scene 5, lines 35 to 37 becomes 1.5.35-37. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Library gives the example (Hamlet 1.5.35-37), and notes that line numbers are the better choice because they are standard across editions.
Two further points from the same guide:
- If the playwright’s name already appears in your sentence, do not repeat it in the parentheses.
- Cite line numbers rather than page numbers, because line numbers are standard across editions.
A page number is the fallback when the edition you use has no line numbering. The UCD guide shows the page form as (Carr 43), the same author-and-page pattern the MLA Style Center uses for any one-author source.
Common errors
- Using page numbers for a play that has act, scene and line numbers. A reader with a different edition cannot find your page 43, but can find 1.5.35.
- Repeating the author in the parentheses when the sentence already names the playwright.
- Setting a stand-alone play’s title in quotation marks. The UCD guide and BibGuru both show a stand-alone play in italics, like a book.
- Leaving out the director when you cite a performance. A performance entry is built on the production, not only the script.
- Citing a play from an anthology as if it were a stand-alone book. The entry needs the collection and the page range of the play.
For manuscripts and theses: pick the act-scene-line approach once and use it throughout, so a reviewer or examiner using any edition can check every quotation. If your discipline uses another style, check its own rules instead; the same play needs a different pattern in each. For a related MLA case, see our guide to how to MLA cite films, and for the field context see what is literary studies. For more on stable identifiers such as DOIs, see how to find, look up and resolve a DOI.
Style-guide edition
This page follows MLA 9th edition (2021), the current edition as of October 2026. Patterns above follow the University College Dublin Library and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Library MLA guides for plays, with the MLA Style Center for the one-author in-text pattern.
FAQ
How do I cite a play in MLA format?
For a printed play, use the book pattern: Author Last name, First name. Title. Publisher, Year. In the text, give act, scene and line numbers in parentheses.
What is the MLA citation for a play in an anthology?
Give the editors, the collection title in italics, the publisher, the year and the page range of the play, as the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Library guide describes.
How do I cite a live performance of a play?
Include the director, theatre company, date, venue and city after the title. The in-text citation is the author’s name.
Do I use page numbers or line numbers for a play?
Line numbers, with act and scene, when the text has them, because they are standard across editions. Use the page number when the edition has no line numbering.
Sources
- University College Dublin Library, “MLA Style Guide: Plays” (MLA 9th), https://libguides.ucd.ie/mlastyle/play, page last updated 10 February 2026, checked 29 October 2026.
- University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Library, “MLA: Plays”, https://libguides.uww.edu/mla/play, last updated 4 August 2026, checked 29 October 2026.
- MLA Style Center, “In-Text Citations: An Overview”, https://style.mla.org/in-text-citations-overview/, checked 29 October 2026.
- BibGuru, “MLA play citation” (stand-alone play example), https://www.bibguru.com/g/mla-play-citation/, checked 29 October 2026.
