North American Women's Drama delivers 1,500 plays by women from the United States and Canada. Presenting the complete works of leading and lesser-known playwrights, many of the plays are rare, hard to find or out of print.
Relevant for the study of literature, the collection also will be of interest for women’s studies and the history of feminism.
North American Women’s Drama begins with the works of Mercy Otis Warren, Judith Sargent Murray, and Susanna Haswell Rowson in Colonial times. It includes a rich collection of nineteenth-century melodramas, exploring topics from domestic entrapment to life on the frontier to the Underground Railroad. The database covers the campaign for voting rights, including propaganda plays, as well as the growing crusade for women’s access to higher education and inclusion in various professions. The collection covers contemporary drama, including the works of performance artists.
The following authors are included: Susan Glaspell, Sophie Treadwell, Rachel Crothers, Gertrude Stein, Beth Henley, Carol Bolt, Cherríe Moraga, Dorothy Heyward, Zona Gale, Zora Neale Hurston, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Megan Terry, Rochelle Owens, Shirley Graham DuBois, Jeannie Barroga, and many others . . . more than a hundred in all.
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