The three directors gathered in this volume all approach theatre-making in part as an act of citizenship. Jesusa Rodríguez, Peter Sellars, and Reza Abdoh differ markedly in many important respects, but they all come to the theatre as an intervention in the public sphere. Rodríguez, Sellars, and Abdoh blend a spirit of social critique with acts of democratic community building. These essays examine how theatre, for them, is not a sphere of aesthetic experience insulated from the divisions, antagonisms, and alliances of a conflicted society. It is a way to forge fleeting but consequential communities that might reverberate through that society and affect its future development. The Great North American Stage Directors series provides an authoritative account of the art of directing in North America by examining the work of twenty-four major practitioners from the late 19th century to the present. Each of the eight volumes examines three directors and offers an overview of their practices, theoretical ideas, and contributions to modern theatre. The studies chart the life and work of each director, placing his or her achievement in the context of other important theatre practitioners and broader social history. Written by a team of leading experts, the series presents the genealogy of directing in North America while simultaneously chronicling crucial trends and championing contemporary interpretation.

List of Figures
Series Introduction, James Peck (Muhlenberg College, USA)
Acknowledgements

Introduction. Jesusa Rodríguez, Peter Sellars, Reza Abdoh, James Peck (Muhlenberg College, USA)

Jesusa Rodríguez
1. From El Hábito to Resistencia Creativa: Reimagining Mexico through Jesusa Rodríguez's Artivism, Leticia Robles-Moreno (Muhlenberg College, USA)
2. Directing the Public: On Jesusa Rodríguez's Lesbian Feminist Interventions, Iván A. Ramos (University of Maryland, USA)

Peter Sellars
3. Peter Sellars: Politics and Spirituality in Opera, James Peck (Muhlenberg College, USA)
4. Peter Sellars' Work in Theatre Directing, Peter Lichtenfels (University of California Davis, USA)

Reza Abdoh
5. Hypervalent Elegies: Death and Loss in the Late Works of Reza Abdoh, Daniel Mufson (Author, Germany)
6. Tough Love: Offstage and Affect in the Late Plays of Reza Abdoh, Guy Zimmerman (Padua Playwrights, USA)

Notes on Contributors
Index