An Alchemy of Living Culture - (Theatre Makers) by Stacy Klein (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

This volume captures the theatrical and cultural practice to have come out of Double Edge Theatre, which Stacy Klein founded in 1982. It showcases the company's dedication to collective artistic creativity, cultural survival and sustained, equitable organization-building, with Klein's artistic and social vision at its centre.
Featuring interviews, artists' statements, essays and speeches in which Klein articulates the mission of Double Edge Theatre as it evolves, the volume captures the democratic spirit and boundary-pushing theatrical work the company has championed.

In doing so, it celebrates the company's connections across the globe, including its collaborations with Eastern European, Scandinavian and South American theatres, such as Grenland Friteater (Norway) and Diablomundo (Argentina) and its links with rich theatrical traditions, such as the Laboratory Theatre, poor theatre, street theatre and circus). It also documents Double Edge's exploration of the intersections between cultural, traditional and spiritual practice, which extends to their work with Jupiter Performance Studio, the SITI Company, Open Flame Theatre, Ohketeau Cultural Center and the Drogobych Synagogue in the Carpathian mountains of Ukraine, as well as the inspirations of artists Marc Chagall and Leonora Carrington.
The book features a scholarly introduction by Jonathan P. Eburne that situates Klein's writing in the broader landscape of theatre history.

An Alchemy of Living Culture offers first-hand insights into the pragmatic, as well as the visionary, aspects of experimental creation and speaks to a broad and multi-national community of theatre-makers.

About the Author

Stacy Klein is Founder, Vision Strategist and Artistic Director Emerita of Double Edge Theatre. Founded in 1982 in Boston, Massachusetts, the ensemble moved in 1994 to a former dairy farm in Ashfield, MA, to create a sustainable artistic home which became the theatre's Center of Art, Living Culture, and Art Justice. Klein has created six performance cycles and holds a PhD in Theatre History and Criticism from Tufts University, US. She received the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award in 2013 and is a member of the Doris Duke Artists Council.

Jonathan P. Eburne is Professor of Comparative Literature, English and French and Francophone Studies at Penn State University, USA. His recent books include Exploded Views: Speculative Form and the Labor of Inquiry (2025) and Outsider Theory: Intellectual Histories of Unorthodox Ideas (2018), which received the 2020 James Russell Lowell Prize from the Modern Language Association.