Lynn Nottage

"Winner of the 2016 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize "From first moments to last, this compassionate but clear-eyed play throbs with heartfelt life, with characters as complicated as any you'll encounter at the theater today, and with a nifty ticking time bomb of a plot. That the people onstage are middle-class or lower-middle-class folks - too rarely given ample time on American stages - makes the play all the more vital a contribution to contemporary...

This collection includes Lynn Nottage's best known work, Crumbs from the Table of Joy, which has been produced widely since its premiere in May 1995 and which the Chicago Tribune hailed as "a complex and thought provoking new play." Also included are Mud, River, Stone, Poof, Por'Knockers and her latest work, Las Meninas, inspired by the playwright's research into the African presence in 17th century Europe. Lynn Nottage lives in Brooklyn, New York....

"Continuing in her tradition of crafting thought-provoking, socially-conscious dramas, Lynn Nottage's latest offering tells the story of Mlima, a majestic elephant struck down by poachers for his tusks. Beginning in a game park in Kenya and traveling around the world to a billionaire's penthouse in the West, the play tracks the trajectory of Mlima's tusks through the ivory trade market while Mlima's phantom follows close behind-marking all those involved...

"A truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen staff a shot at reclaiming their lives. Even as the shop's tough-as-nails owner tries to keep them under her thumb, the motley crew of line cooks are given purpose and permission to dream through their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich."--

African American women have increasingly begun to see their plays performed from regional stages to Broadway. Yet many of these artists still struggle to gain attention. In this volume, Sandra Adell draws from the vital wellspring of works created by African American women in the twenty-first century to present ten plays by both prominent and up-and-coming writers. Taken together, the selections portray how these women engage with history as they...