Front Lines: Political Plays by American Women /

Front Lines is a pathbreaking collection of the most important, critically acclaimed plays written by the country’s leading contemporary female playwrights. Including seven full scripts and accompanying materials, Front Lines provides both major examples of the playwright’s craft and an essential introduction to the politically inspired work of female dramatists of the twenty-first century.

Here is Jessica Blank’s widely heralded The Exonerated (written with Erik Jensen), based on interviews with American prisoners incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. Also included is Nilaja Sun’s outstanding No Child . . . , winner of the Outer Critics Circle’s 2007 John Gassner Award for Best New Play—a funny, stirring one-woman show centering on an inner-city teacher’s success at involving her rebellious students in their own education by putting on a play. Rounding out the collection are Emily Mann’s Mrs. Packard; Paula Vogel’s Hot ’n’ Throbbing; Shirley Lauro’s Clarence Darrow’s Last Trial; Quiara Alegría Hudes’s Eliot: A Soldier’s Fugue; and Cindy Cooper’s Words of Choice, co-adapted with Suzanne Bennett.

With a preface by distinguished playwright Shirley Lauro and an introduction by theater critic Alexis Greene, Front Lines also includes short biographies of the playwrights and a production photo of each play.