Contemporary African American Women Playwrights
A Casebook
Casebooks on Modern Dramatists Series

'The impressive array of scholars gathered in this collection, all experts in the field, read the plays with nuance and situate them deftly within their cultural and historical contexts. Scholars of contemporary theater and drama and of African American literature will find value in this engaging collection.' ? Choice

'For students and scholars of American theatre and drama generally and African American theatre and drama most particularly, this is an extremely valuable critical source.' ? Harry Elam, Stanford University, USA

In the last fifty years, American and World theatre has been challenged and enriched by the rise to prominence of numerous female African American dramatists. Contemporary African American Women Playwrights is the first critical volume to explore the contexts and influences of these writers, and their exploration of black history and identity through a wealth of diverse, courageous and visionary dramas.

Kolin compiles a wealth of new essays, comprising:

• Yale scholar David Krasner on the dramatic legacy of Lorraine Hansberry, Zora Neale Hurston, Marita Bonner and Georgia Douglas Johnson
• individual chapters devoted to: Alice Childress, Sonia Sanchez, Adrienne Kennedy, Ntozake Shange, Pearl Cleage, Aishah Rahman, Glenda Dickerson, Anna Deavere Smith and Suzan Lori-Parks
• an essay and accompanying interview with Lynn Nottage
• comprehensive discussion of attendant theatrical forms, from choreopoems and surrealistic plays, to documentary theatre and civil rights dramas, and their use in challenging racial and gender hierarchies.

Contributors: Brandi Wilkins Catanese, Soyica Diggs, James Fisher, Freda Scott Giles, Joan Wylie Hall, Philip C. Kolin, David Krasner, Sandra G. Shannon, Debby Thompson, Beth Turner and Jacqueline Wood.

1. 'Something's Going on here that Concerns Me': Johnson, Hurston, Bonner and Hansberry 2. Dialectical Dialogues: Performing Blackness in the Drama of Alice Childress 3. 'Shaking Loose': Sonia Sanchez's Militant Drama 4. American History/African Nightmares: Adrienne Kennedy and Civil Rights 5. 'Boogie Woogie Landscapes': The Dramatic/Poetic Collage of Ntozake Shange 6. The Feminist/Womanist Vision of Pearl Cleage 7. 'We Must keep on Writing': The Plays of Aishah Rahman 8. Glenda Dickerson’s Nu Shu: Combining Feminist Discourse/Predagogy/Theatre 9. 'Everybody's Talking': Anna Deavere Smith's Documentary Theater 10. Diggin the Fo'-Fathers: Suzan-Lori Parks's Histories 11. An Intimate Look at the Plays of Lynn Nottage 12. An Interview with Lynn Nottage

Philip C. Kolin is Professor of English at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published more than 35 books including Understanding Adrienne Kennedy (2005), The Tennessee Williams Encyclopedia (2004), and Othello:New Critical Essays (Routledge, 2001). He is general editor of the Routledge book series ShakespeareCriticism. He is also a poet who has published three books of verse.