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.