"In this exciting new anthology, Wesley Brown and Aimee K. Michel bring together six wonderfully teachable plays by some of the greatest American women dramatists of the past fifty years-- Ntozake Shange, Suzan-Lori Parks, Paula Vogel, Lynn Nottage, Beth Henley, and Susan Yankowitz. The editors provide a helpful Introduction to the last 100 years of theatrical activity, from suffrage and anti-lynching plays, through the explosive 1960s, to recent Broadway triumphs, highlighting women's struggle-a struggle that continues--to put their vision and voices on the American stage." Elin Diamond, Rutgers University, USA This volume celebrates the iconoclastic power of six American women playwrights who pushed the boundaries of the form outside the box of conventional drama. Each play is accompanied by a short introduction providing the biographical background of the playwright as well as discussing the dramatic style of her writing, the extent to which her work is informed by major playwrights of the period, and how the specific work illustrates the overarching themes of her body of work. The plays included are: Gun by Susan Yankowitz Spell #7: geechee jibara quik magic trance manual for technologically stressed third world people by Ntozake Shange The Jacksonian by Beth Henley The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage

Past and present collide on a snowy Christmas Eve for a troubled family of five. Humorous and heart-wrenching, this play proves that magic can be found in the simplest breaths of life.

The fourteenth winner of the Yale Drama Series prize explores "Blackness" and the reasons why joy and peace might be harder to get than we think What does it mean to be safe when you're a person of color in the United States? If you were given the chance to leave and create a utopia, would you? Is utopia possible with all of our subconscious bias? Rachel Lynett's highly satirical and funny play is set in the fictional world following a second Civil War. Bronx Bay, an all-Black state (and neighborhood), is established in order to protect "Blackness." When Jules's new partner, Yael, moves into town, community members argue over whether Yael, who is Dominican, can stay. Questions of safety and protection surround both Jules and Yael as the utopia of Bronx Bay confronts within itself where the line is when it comes to defining who is Black and who gets left out in the process. The play is the fourteenth winner of the Yale Drama Series prize and the first one chosen by the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel.