This revised and expanded Black Theatre USA broadens its collection to fifty-one outstanding plays, enhancing its status as the most authoritative anthology of African American drama with twenty-two new selections. This collection features plays written between 1935 and 1996.

Table of contents

(Applause Books). From the origins of the Negro spiritual and the birth of the Harlem Renaissance to the emergence of a national black theatre movement, The Theatre of Black Americans offers a penetrating look at a black art form that has exploded into an American cultural institution. Among the essays: James Hatch Some African Influences on the Afro-American Theatre; Shelby Steele Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theatre; Sister M. Francesca Thompson OSF The Lafayette Players; Ronald Ross The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre.

Theatre & Sexuality explains the critical validity of using sexuality as a lens for examining theatre's creation and reception. The book offers clear introductions to sexual identity politics, ways of 'reading' sexuality on stage and a select history of LGBTQ theatre, including a reading of Split Britches/Bloolips' production Belle Reprieve.

Angels in America paved a new way for American theatre in its combination of heightened theatricality and politics. Tony Kushner has emerged as one of the American theatre's leading playwrights and productions worldwide have meant that the play has been recognized as the most important American play in decades. With the scope of the characters' sexual, class and religious affiliations in the play, Angels in America offers a unique possibility to discuss the construction of American identity in the late 1980s and 1990s. This guide provides a comprehensive critical introduction to the play, giving students an overview of the background and context; detailed analysis of the play including its structure, style and characters; analysis of key production issues and choices; an overview of the performance history from the first performances of Millennium Approaches and Perestroika to recent productions and the 2003 HBO adaptation; and an annotated guide to further reading highlighting key critical approaches.

How can we rethink the importance of voice in performance? How can we understand voice simultaneously as music and text, as sound and body, or as both personal and political? This book explores voice across genres, media and cultures, inviting the reader to reassess established ways of analysing, enjoying and listening to voice. Using a wide range of case studies integrated with critical and philosophical frameworks, it makes audible the multiple ways in which voice contributes to how we perform identities. From opera and musical theatre to live art and immersive audio walks, Konstantinos Thomaidis presents voice as plural, elusive and ripe for reinvention.

If violence is a terrible thing, why do we watch it? Nevitt explores the use of violence in theatre and its effect on spectators. Critically engaging with examples of stage combat, rape, terrorism, wrestling and historical re-enactments, she argues that studying violence through theatre can be part of a desire to create a more peaceful world.