In Staging Whiteness, Mary Brewer offers close textual readings of plays by American and British 20th century playwrights--both canonical and some that fall outside the mainstream--looking at how whiteness as an identity is created onstage, and how this has changed historically. With clarity and persuasion, Brewer argues that configurations of whiteness are dispersed and reflected through discourses that range from theory to literature and common social language, and that discursive performances of whiteness are a crucial feature of everyday social interactions. Includes discussions of: G.B. Shaw's Captain Brassbound's ConversionW. Somerset Maugham's The ExplorerW.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood's The Ascent of F6Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy ApeLangston Hughes' MulattoThornton Wilder's Our TownLillian Hellman's The Little FoxesBridget Boland's The CockpitT.S. Eliot's The Cocktail PartyJohn Osborne's The EntertainerEugene O'Neill's The Iceman ComethTennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named DesireArthur Miller's A View From the BridgeEdward Albee's The American DreamAmiri Baraka's DutchmanDavid Rabe's Sticks and BonesAdrienne Kennedy's A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and WhiteEdward Bond's Early MorningJohn Arden's and Margarette D'Arcy's The Island of the MightyCaryl Churchill's Cloud NineWendy Wasserstein's The Heidi ChroniclesTony Kushner's Angels in AmericaSuzan-Lori Parks' The America PlayPhilip Osment's This Island's MineMichael Ellis' ChameleonDavid Hare's The Absence of War