The Methuen Drama Book of New American Plays

The Methuen Drama Book of New American Plays is an anthology of six outstanding plays from some of the most exciting playwrights currently receiving critical acclaim in the States. It showcases work produced at a number of the leading theatres and charts something of the extraordinary range of current playwriting in America. It will be invaluable not only to readers and theatergoers in the U.S., but to those around the world seeking out new American plays and an insight into how U.S. playwrights are engaging with their current social and political environment.

There is a rich collection of distinctive, diverse voices at work in the contemporary American theatre and this brings together six of the best, with work by Suzan-Lori Parks, Christopher Shinn, Katori Hall, David Adjmi, Marcus Gardley and Annie Baker.

The plays include a diverse range of characters and locales, from a contemporary Brooklyn apartment, to a sprawling epic set in 1850s Oklahoma amidst the Seminole people, to a real-life housing project in Memphis Tennessee. They are also embracing a range of traditions, from American realism, to black folklore, to 'new naturalism', to more unconventional formal trends. The anthology will enable readers to engage with a range of playwriting approaches amongst America's leading voices in the theatre.