Sterling Houston is an innovative African American writer whose 
plays are known for biting social commentary combined with eye-
popping theatricality. Despite many successful productions, his work 
has never before been widely available in print. The four plays in this
collection represent Houston's full range of themes and styles. High 
Yello Rose deflates the Alamo myth by casting the heroes' parts 
entirely with women. Isis in Nubia is a love story that sets the Isis/
Osiris myth in West Africa. Black Lily and White Lily is a realistic 
domestic drama exploring racial tensions. Miranda Rites returns to
Houston's broadly farcical style, enacting Martha Mitchell's last days 
in a hospital, where she hallucinates about Marilyn Monroe and 
Dorothy Dandridge, and is escorted to the underworld by Carmen 
Miranda.

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Born in San Antonio, STERLING HOUSTON has spent thirty years in 
the theatre as actor, composer, and playwright. He is artistic director 
and writer-in-residence for Jump-Start Performance Co. in San Antonio, 
where he has premiered twenty plays since 1988. SANDRA M. MAYO 
is currently Director of Multicultural and Gender Studies and Associate 
Professor of Theatre at Texas State University in San Marcos.



What people are saying about this book

"The reading public, as well as the theatre community and academic 
theatre programs, need many more plays of the sort Houston writes, 
to teach their students, to consider producing, and to join a cultural 
conversation about politics, history, race, class, and nation."—Jill
Dolan, Z. T. Scott Family Chair in Drama, University of Texas