Focusing on the collaborative and creative processes that go into productions, The Creative Spirit: An Introduction to Theatre introduces students to the theatre through the plays themselves and the people who write them, create them, and act in them. The book provides a rich context for each play with a discussion of the playwright"s other works, sources for the play, timelines that present historical and cultural background, and a section on a particular production of the play to give students a sense of the theatre industry at close hand. The Creative Spirit includes complete scripts of five plays: August Wilson"s Joe Turner"s Come and Gone, Wakako Yamauchi"s And the Soul Shall Dance, Tony Kushner"s Angels in America, Milcha Sanchez-Scott"s Dog Lady, and Nilo Cruz"s Anna in the Tropics.