This volume addresses the work of women playwrights throughout the history of the American theater, from the
early pioneers to contemporary feminists. Each chapter introduces the reader to the work of one or more playwrights,
covering significant writers such as Rachel Crothers, Susan Glaspell, Lillian Hellman, Sophie Treadwell, Lorraine
Hansberry, Alice Childress, Megan Terry, Ntozake Shange, Adrienne Kennedy, Wendy Wasserstein, Marsha Norman, Beth
Henley and Maria Irene Fornes, in the context of topics such as early comedy and melodrama, feminism and realism,
the Harlem Renaissance and feminism.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations
List of contributors
Preface
Chronology Stephanie Roach Part I. Pioneers:
1. Comedies by early American women Amelia Howe Kritzer
2. Women writing melodrama Sarah J. Blackstone
3. Realism and feminism in the Progressive era Patricia R. Schroeder
Part II. Inheritors:
4. Susan Glaspell and Modernism Veronica Makowsky
5. The Expressionist movement: Sophie Treadwell Jerry Dickey
6. Feminism and the marketplace: the career of Rachel Crothers Brenda Murphy
7. The Harlem Renaissance and the New Negro movement Judith L. Stephens
8. Lillian Hellman: feminism, formalism, and politics Thomas P. Adler
9. From Harlem to Broadway: African-American women playwrights at mid-century Margaret Wilkerson
Part III. New Feminists:
10. Feminist theory and contemporary drama Janet Brown
11. Feminist theater of the 'Seventies' in the United States Helene Keyssar
12. Contemporary Playwrights/traditional forms Laurin Porter
13. Wendy Wasserstein: a feminist voice from the Seventies to the present Jan Balakian
Part IV. Further Reading:
14. Contemporary American women playwrights: a brief survey of key scholarship Christy Gavin.
15. African-American women playwrights before 1930 Christine R. Gray
