Looking at a century of American theatre, McDaniel investigates how racially-informed notions of motherhood become sites of resistance to social and political hierarchies. "(Re)Constructing Maternal Performance in Twentieth-Century Drama" locates a broad tradition of 'counter maternities', politically resistant performances that engage essentialist identities. While resituating motherhood as a role not always tied to biological gender, McDaniel employs a methodology informed by cultural, gender, and theatre studies and considers how the construction of mothering as universally women's work obscures additional, marginalizing identities based in race and class.

Looking at a century of American theatre, McDaniel investigates how race-based notions of maternal performance become sites of resistance to cultural and political hierarchies. This book considers how the construction of mothering as universally women's work obscures additional, equally constructed subdivisions based in race and class.