American Playwrights Since 1945: A Guide to Scholarship, Criticism, and Performance

Informative and economically written, this book is a useful tool for theatre and literary practitioners.

American Theater

This guide to the state of research on forty major American playwrights and the history of their productions is among the first of its kind. It is actually many books: a bibliography, a stage history, an assessment of scholarly works about each playwright, and an invaluable guide to the types of research studies–biographical, bibliographical and critical–that remain to be done on each playwright. The essays were written by leading experts in American drama and theatre and focus on playwrights whose works have in some way shaped and influenced the American stage. Each essay follows a standard format and provides information on the playwright’s reputation and achievements; primary bibliography; production history of where, when, how often, and how well his or her works were performed; a rigorous identification and evaluation of secondary materials on bibliographies, biographies, influence studies, general works, and analyses of plays, and, most significantly, a detailed analysis of future research opportunities.