Elam, Harry J., Jr., and Robert Alexander, eds., The Fire This Time: African-American Plays for the 21st Century, Theatre Communications Group, 2004.

Taking their title from a collection of essays made famous by James Baldwin, Elam and Alexander have compiled an anthology of African-American plays that reflects a broad continuum of artistic styles and voices, from August Wilson to Kamilah Forbes and Hip-Hop Junction. Suzan-Lori Parks's In the Blood, a play about a homeless black woman and her children, is included.

Fornes, Maria Irene, Plays: Mud, The Danube, The Conduct of Life, Sarita, PAJ Publications, 1986.

The Cuban-American playwright Maria Irene Fornes, whose plays often engage audiences in unconventional ways, such as incorporating language instruction tapes and marionettes into a production, has been an important influence on the American theatre since the 1960s. Fornes avoids ideological constructs when composing her plays, focusing instead on the needs of...