Editor Caridad Svich has gathered forty-three essays from admired theater professionals that comprise a volume of inspiring and innovative techniques for creating theater. Inside are words of wisdom and advice from experienced playwrights, directors, performers, teachers, dramaturgs, artistic directors and founders—each sharing the creative challenges and triumphs of developing original works for today's stages, wherever they might be.

Caridad Svich received a 2012 OBIE Award for Lifetime Achievement in the theater, a 2012 Edgerton Foundation New Play Award for her play GUAPA, and the 2011 American Theatre Critics Association Primus Prize for her play The House of the Spirits, based on the Isabel Allende novel.