Focusing on the collaborative and creative processes that go into productions, <i>The Creative Spirit: An Introduction to Theatre</i> 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. <i>The Creative Spirit</i> includes complete scripts of five plays: August Wilson's <i>Joe Turner's Come and Gone</i>, Wakako Yamauchi's <i>And the Soul Shall Dance</i>, Tony Kushner's <i>Angels in America</i>, Milcha Sanchez-Scott's <i>Dog Lady</i>, and Nilo Cruz's <i>Anna in the Tropics</i>.