This collection argues that religion is an explicitly public force that stimulates and complicates public actions. In short, it is a crucial aspect of much performance. This collection is both a means of, and urgent argument for, expanding the attention paid to religion as a critical point of concern within theatre and performance studies.

Introduction, Lance Gharavi Part I: Religious Actors 1. Becoming-empty: Tantrism and Theatre, Anthony Kubiak 2. The Theology of Actor Training: David Mamet, the Old Religion and the New Actor, Henry Bial 3. Hesychasm and Monastic Culture: Models for Understanding Holistic Acting, Andrew White 4. Queer Structures of Religious Feeling, Ann Pellegrini 5. Corporeality and Spiritual Transformation, Donnalee Dox Part II: Dramas and Theatres 6. Who is Rama? Richard Schechner 7. Ali Ahmed Bakathir, Islamic Playwright, Marvin Carlson 8. The Symbolist Legacy to Present-day Theatre: The Argument, Daniel Gerould 9. Invoking Gandhi: A Yoruba-Hindu-Muslim-Brazilian Sacred Fantasy, Isis McElroy Part III: Stages of Conflict 10. Performing Peace and Enacting Conflict in the Santa Fe Fiesta, Ronald L. Grimes 11. 'Prepare to Believe': The Creation Museum's Staging of Science and Religion, John Fletcher 12. Plain Speech Acts: Quakerism, Performance Studies and Immigration Activism, Tamara Underiner 13. Israeli Theatre's Homeopathic Struggle with the Religious Demon, Gad Kaynar 14. About/Doing Religion and Theatre: Study and Practice in the Academy, Lance Gharavi