Acknowledgments
An edited collection brings together an array of voices and talents for a common purpose. In addition to those whose names appear in the table of contents, I would like to acknowledge the following individuals whose presence and efforts were instrumental to the completion of the first (2013) edition of this book. Vicki Cooper, Fleur Jones, and Rebecca Taylor at Cambridge University Press saw the potential in this project and served as the book’s earliest advocates. Project manager Emma Wildsmith at Out of House Publishing Solutions arranged for copyediting, typesetting, and proofreading. Robert Whitelock copyedited this manuscript. Christine Simonian Bean and Katie Zien provided general (but vital) editorial assistance, including reformatting chapters and reading chapter drafts.
This revised and expanded second edition was embraced by Emily Hockley at Cambridge University Press. Vignesh Viswanathan and Vinod Kumar Prasad at Integra Software Services managed production, including copyediting and proofreading. I am thankful that Khalid Y. Long, Ariel Nereson, and Leticia Ridley accepted my invitation to contribute original chapters. Stacy McKenna provided a range of support, from managing my calendar to printing out drafts, that assisted this project.
In mapping out the direction for this new edition, I regularly conferred with a group of Boston University students who were enrolled in my African American Theatre seminar in spring 2021. I appreciate the insights provided by Khadija Bangoura, Maddy Bedenko, Allison Donahue, Julia Goldberg, Mya Ison, Brittani McBride, Daniel Perkins, Bree Perry, Ireon Roach, John Tomlinson, Michael Valladares, and Sara Vargas.
When the first edition of this book was published in 2013, my son, Zeke, was an energetic three-year-old. A decade later, he’s a voracious reader and a kind, caring teenager with an emerging interest in theatre. His performance of Dennis/Sir Galahad in a middle-school production of Spamalot remains a wonderful memory. My daughter Cora, who is eight, is a storyteller, dancer, and aspiring artisan who has brightened and improved my life in ways that I could have never imagined when I began working on the original Companion.
