In a tucked away corner of North Philly, six regulars gather at a neighborhood watering hole. Over twenty years, they turn their collective memories into a vivacious mythology. The tales they’d rather forget, however, keep sneaking up and tapping them on the shoulder. At Daphne’s Dive, an aloe plant, a girl’s sneaker, a stiff drink, and mounds of trash become talismanic treasures to a group of outsiders trying to be “in” together.

This book is open access and available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by Knowledge Unlatched. Many of the American playwrights who dominated the 20th century are no longer with us: Edward Albee, Arthur Miller, Sam Shepard, Neil Simon, August Wilson and Wendy Wasserstein. A new generation, whose careers began in this century, has emerged, and done so when the theatre itself, along with the society with which it engages, was changing. Capturing the cultural shifts of 21st-century America, Staging America explores the lives and works of 8 award-winning playwrights – including Ayad Akhtar, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Young Jean Lee and Quiara Alllegría Hudes – whose backgrounds reflect the social, religious, sexual and national diversity of American society. Each chapter is devoted to a single playwright and provides an overview of their career, a description and critical evaluation of their work, as well as a sense of their reception. Drawing on primary sources, including the playwrights' own commentaries and notes, and contemporary reviews, Christopher Bigsby enters into a dialogue with plays which are as various as the individuals who generated them. An essential read for theatre scholars and students, Staging America is a sharp and landmark study of the contemporary American playwright.

The Routledge Companion to Latine Theatre and Performance traces how manifestations of Latine self-determination in contemporary US theatre and performance practices affirm the value of Latine life in a theatrical culture that has a legacy of misrepresentation and erasure. This collection draws on fifty interdisciplinary contributions written by some of the leading Latine theatre and performance scholars and practitioners in the United States to highlight evolving and recurring strategies of world making, activism, and resistance taken by Latine culture makers to gain political agency on and off the stage. The project reveals the continued growth of Latine theatre and performance through chapters covering but not limited to playwriting, casting practices, representation, training, wrestling with anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity, theatre for young audiences, community empowerment, and the market forces that govern the US theatre industry. This book enters conversations in performance studies, ethnic studies, American studies, and Latina/e/o/x studies by taking up performance scholar Diana Taylor’s call to consider the ways that “embodied and performed acts generate, record, and transmit knowledge.” This collection is an essential resource for students, scholars, and theatremakers seeking to explore, understand, and advance the huge range and significance of Latine performance.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The eagerly awaited follow-up to the #1 New York Times bestseller Hamilton: The Revolution, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new book gives readers an extraordinary inside look at In the Heights, his breakout Broadway debut, written with Quiara Alegría Hudes, now a Hollywood blockbuster. “[An] exuberant, unique, and invaluable record of dynamic, brilliant, and soulful creativity.”—Booklist (starred review) In 2008, In the Heights, a new musical from up-and-coming young artists, electrified Broadway. The show’s vibrant mix of Latin music and hip-hop captured life in Washington Heights, the Latino neighborhood in upper Manhattan. It won four Tony Awards and became an international hit, delighting audiences around the world. For the film version, director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians) brought the story home, filming its spectacular dance numbers on location in Washington Heights. That’s where Usnavi, Nina, and their neighbors chase their dreams and ask a universal question: Where do I belong? In the Heights: Finding Home reunites Miranda with Jeremy McCarter, co-author of Hamilton: The Revolution, and Quiara Alegría Hudes, the Pulitzer Prize–winning librettist of the Broadway musical and screenwriter of the film. They do more than trace the making of an unlikely Broadway smash and a major motion picture: They give readers an intimate look at the decades-long creative life of In the Heights. Like Hamilton: The Revolution, the book offers untold stories, perceptive essays, and the lyrics to Miranda’s songs—complete with his funny, heartfelt annotations. It also features newly commissioned portraits and never-before-seen photos from backstage, the movie set, and productions around the world. This is the story of characters who search for a home—and the artists who created one.

Quiara Alegría Hudes’ stage adaptation of her much-lauded memoir is a joyous celebration of Puerto Rican womanhood in 1990s West Philadelphia. In this memoir-turned-play, Hudes showcases a handful of key life moments that mark subtle changes in her sense of self and her place in the world. Interlaid between these vignettes are moments of song, dance, and ritual that evoke her boisterous girlhood in a house run by the Perez women. Through this piece, we come to understand the collaborative art that was Hudes’s coming of age, and the communal nature of autobiography.

A key way to view Latina plays today is through the foundational frame of playwright and teacher, Maria Irene Fornes, who has transformed American theatre. Considering Fornes's legacy, Anne García-Romero shows how five award-winning playwrights continue to contest and complicate Latina theatre.

Which historical events were key to shaping Latino culture? This book provides coverage of the 50 most pivotal developments over 500 years that have shaped the Latino experience, offering primary sources, biographies of notable figures, and suggested readings for inquiry. Latinos—people of European, Indigenous, and African descent—have had a presence in North America long before the first British settlements arrived to the Eastern seaboard. The encounters between Spanish colonizers and the native peoples of the Americas initiated 500 years of a rich and vibrant history—an intermingled, cultural evolution that continues today in the 21st century. 50 Events that Shaped Latino History: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic is a valuable reference that provides a chronological overview of Latino/a history beginning with the indigenous populations of the Americas through the present day. It is divided into time period, such as Pre-Colonial Era to Spanish Empire, pre-1521–1810, and covers a variety of themes relevant to the time period, making it easy for the reader find information. The coverage offers readers background on critical events that have shaped Latino/a populations, revealed the conditions and experiences of Latinos, or highlighted their contributions to U.S. society. The text addresses events as varied as the U.S.-Mexican War to the rise of Latin jazz. The entries present a balance of political and cultural events, social developments, legal cases, and broader trends. Each entry has a chronology, a main narrative, biographies of notable figures, and suggested further readings, as well as one or more primary sources that offer additional context or information on the given event. These primary source materials offer readers additional insight via a first-hand account, original voices, or direct evidence on the subject matter.