"In this exciting new anthology, Wesley Brown and Aimée 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, USAThis book celebrates the iconoclastic power of seven American women playwrights who pushed their work outside the box of conventional drama.To support student use, each play is accompanied by a short introduction. This provides 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 and against the major playwrights of the period and how the specific work illustrates the overarching themes which her body of work addresses. Also covered are the historical and cultural context in which the play was presented, the feminist political context of the playwright and the performance practice of productions of the play.This anthology celebrates the iconoclastic power of seven American women playwrights who pushed their work outside the box of conventional drama. The plays and playwrights featured are: Susan Yankowitz's Gun; Ntozake Shange's Spell #7; Beth Henley's The Jacksonian; Paula Vogel's The Baltimore Waltz; Suzan-Lori Parks's In the Blood; and Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel. The volume celebrates fifty years of playwrights who have been continuously working in, and shaping, contemporary American theater.