A COOL DIP IN THE BARREN SAHARAN CRICK AND OTHER PLAYS collects three fascinating, political plays by accomplished US playwright Kia Corthron. The book also includes a personal essay on Liberia and its political landscape as well as a preface by Michael John Garces, artistic director of Cornerstone Theatre in Los Angeles, and an interview by playwright Kara Lee Corthron.

Three new plays from American playwright Oliver Mayer take feisty, sexy, playful turns through stories of politics, identity, freedom, music, and trans-locality. With an introduction by dramatist Velina Hasu Houston.

"'A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick' offers glimpses into the lives of Abebe, a young Ethopian man with a passion for the unlikely combination of Christianity and ecology, and the family that houses him during his college studies in Maryland." -- provided by the publisher.

This book is part of a three-volume book-set published under the general title of Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre. Each of the three books in the set has a unique subtitle that works to better focus its content, and differentiates it from the other two volumes. The contributors’ backgrounds and global spread adequately reflect the international focus of the three books that make up the collection. The contributions, in their various ways, demonstrate the many advances and ingenious solutions adopted by African theatre practitioners in tackling some of the challenges arising from the adverse colonial experience, as well as the “one-sided” advance of globalisation. The contributions attest to the thriving nature of African theatre and performance, which in the face of these challenges, has managed to retain its distinctiveness, while at the same time acknowledging, contesting, and appropriating influences from elsewhere into an aesthetic that is identifiably African. Consequently, the three books are presented as a comprehensive exploration of the current state of African theatre and performance, both on the continent and diaspora. Performative Inter-Actions in African Theatre 1: Diaspora Representations and the Interweaving of Cultures explores the idea that, in and from their various locations around the world, the plays of the African diaspora acknowledge and pay homage to the cultures of home, while simultaneously articulating a sense of their Africanness in their various inter-actions with their host cultures. Contributions in Diaspora Representations and the Interweaving of Cultures equally attest to the notion that the diaspora – as we see it – is not solely located outside of the African continent itself, but can be found in those performances in the continent that engage performatively with the West and other parts of the world in that process of articulating identity.

WAR PLAYS by Christine Evans collects for the first time three of this US-based, UK-Australian playwright's remarkable plays about war and aftermath: Trojan Barbie, Mothergun and Slow Falling Bird. With an introduction by esteemed filmmaker Peter Davis, this collection is a terrific introduction to Evans' astute theatrical voice.

AMERICAN JORNALERO: This new play by playwright Ed Cardona Jr., premiered at INTAR in New York City in May 2012, focuses on the plight of a group of day laborers/jornaleros in Queens. A portrait of the intersecting transient lives in the search for a daily wage in a land of many compromised American dreams. A compassionate, clear-eyed and illuminating look at lives and people too often ignored in the US landscape, AMERICAN JORNALERO is a vibrant play.

EMPANADA FOR A DREAM by writer/performer Juan Francisco Villa is one boy's story of growing up hard and fast on the Lower East Side. A moving, beautiful tale of love, loss, heartache and forgiveness. EMPANADA FOR A DREAM is a poignant and entertaining portrait of family and neighborhood - set against the secret that destroys it all. It's a story about growing up. It's a story about getting out. And coming back -- to one boy's Lower East Side.