If you italicize in one place, I think that whenever you mention it in the body, you have to do the same.

I can’t get the last question. To punctuate is to emphasize something. If you decide on italics, then there’s no need to punctuate. If you do not italicize, then whenever you mention it you say … but in the play “The Crucible”, there’s plenty of tests, or something.

Unless you mean something else by punctuate, which is to make it more noticeable to the general readership. In which case I would have to refer you to the masters. Like Hemingway.

Underlining or Italicizing Titles

Titles of longer written works are underlined or italicized.

Longer written works include books, full-length plays, films, longer musical compositions, and periodicals.

——————————————————————————

Always capitalize the first and last word in a title. Capitalize all the other words except for a, an, the, and conjunctions and prepositions of four letters or fewer.

This applies to titles of books, chapters, periodicals, poems, stories, plays paintings, musical compositions, and subtitles.

Examples: The Chronicles of Narnia

(The is the first word, so it is capitalized; of is not.)

Six Characters in Search of a Plot

(In, of, and a are short words.)

Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ

(Capitalize A because it is first word in subtitle.)