A collection of essays by the iconoclastic theorist and director, examining a generation of international avant-garde performance. Schechner sets contemporary thinking about performers and audiences in global perspective, with special emphasis on the work of Spalding Gray and The Wooster Group, and his concept of interculturalism. Includes an expanded version of his highly controversial essay, “The Decline and Fall of the (American) Avant-Garde,” and “The Crash of Performative Circumstances.”