The politics of Ronald Reagan's presidency loomed large in the 1980s--an era characterized by greed,

consumption and conservative politics. Theatre of the 1980s acted as an antidote to the exclusionary ideology of the Reagan right, offering a counter narrative inclusive of minority voices and concerned with the major social and political issues of the decade: the AIDS epidemic, the war on drugs, the deregulation of the banking industry and survival of the welfare system. The major playwrights to receive in-depth coverage in this volume include Maria Irene Fornes, David Henry Hwang, David Mamet, and August Wilson.