SIDNEY KINGSLEY

Sidney Kingsley is a playwright, but through his writing he has played many other parts as well - a social and political activist, a health care reformer, an advocate for children, a patriot, a visionary. Of his nine professionally produced plays, five garnered major awards. This collection of Kingsley's award-winning plays fills a void in American dramatic publishing and provides the definitive edition of the plays, each with an introduction by the playwright. Although critical statements on Kingsley's work do appear in significant studies of American theatre, and though his plays continue to be produced, there has never been a standard edition of his major works. At a time when abortion may again become illegal and the inadequacy of the health care system is a daily topic, when children facing hopelessness and poverty stare at us from the evening news, when police brutality cases are before the courts, and when issues of individual patriotism and the position of the United States as a democracy in a rapidly changing world arise - in a time, in fact, when all the human rights issues and social problems dealt with in these plays are still, or again, with us - Sidney Kingsley has proven to be a playwright whose work is timely as well as timeless.