“Nearly everything about David Adjmi’s Stunning has an original ring to it, from the setting . . . to the brassy bleat of the dialogue." –Time Out New York This volume of distinctive work includes Stunning, set in an insular Syrian Jewish community, where a teenage bride’s world is disrupted by her intellectual African American housekeeper; Evildoers, about the collapse of two privileged couples; and Elective Affinities, a post-9/11 monologue. David Adjmi’s work has been produced at Lincoln Center Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Woolly Mammoth, and the Royal Court in London. He has received numerous commissions and is the recipient of a 2009 Kesselring Fellowship and a Bush Artist Fellowship.

The breadth and richness of themes and styles in Dolores PridaÕs theater make this collection a reading experience almost as wonderful as seeing the plays themselves. Prida has mapped the urban landscape and covered many of the most important topics of her timeÑfeminism, racism, classism, bilingualism and biculturalismÑquite often tempering their seriousness with humor, pathos and music. This anthology includes: Beautiful Se–oritas (1977), a musical satire of womenÕs roles and images in Hispanic culture; Coser y Cantar (1981), a bilingual one-act play for two women which explores culture clash, especially as it concerns womenÕs roles; Savings (1985), a musical comedy about ÒgentrificationÓ; Pantallas (1986), a ÒblackÓ comedy on the subject of TV soap operas and nuclear disasters; and Bot‡nica (1990), a play about three generations of Puerto Rican women grappling with gaps and discrepancies in time and culture. Dolores Prida is ranked among the most important playwrights of the contemporary Hispanic theater in the United States. She has written for the stage and television and taught play-writing techniques.

In American Dramatists in the 21st Century: Opening Doors, Christopher Bigsby examines the careers of seven award-winning playwrights: David Adjmi, Julia Cho, Jackie Sibblies Drury, Will Eno, Martyna Majok, Dominique Morisseau and Anna Ziegler. In addition to covering all their plays, including several as yet unpublished, he notes their critical reception while drawing on their own commentary on their approach to writing and the business of developing a career. The writers studied come from a diverse range of racial, religious and immigrant backgrounds. Five of the seven are women. Together, they open doors on a changing theatre and a changing America, as ever concerned with identity, both personal and national. This is the third in a series of books which, together, have explored the work of twenty-four American playwrights who have emerged in the current century.

"Sixteen-year-old Lily knows nothing beyond the Syrian-Jewish community in Brooklyn where she lives a cloistered life with her much older husband. Soon an unlikely relationship with her enigmatic African-American maid opens Lily's world to new possibilities--but at a huge price."--P. [4] of cover.

Award-winning playwright Erin Shields has crafted three thought-provoking plays that centre on the inner lives of women, offering space for those who dare to listen.

Given the political relevance of the topic of community and the apparent volatility of its meanings, it is necessary to take time and create spaces for contemplation. How can theories of community be usefully applied to various forms of cultural production? How do notions of communitas affect representations as well as critiques of society and social developments? Based on a selection of papers given at the biennial conference of the Swiss Association for North American Studies in late 2016, this collection approaches discourses on literary texts and other cultural products from such angles as age studies, popular seriality, sustainability, and ecocriticism. While focused on community in contemporary American Studies, the articles in this collection also take into account some of the developments and issues surrounding community at a moment of heightened sensitivity towards this topic beyond academia.