Directors have long been the main figures on Eastern European stages. During the last three decades some of the most outstanding among them have risen to international stardom thanks to their ground-breaking productions that speak to audiences far beyond local borders. Not by chance, a considerable number of these directors have won the second-biggest theatre award on the continent - the European Prize for (New) Theatrical Realities. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the top directors of the region have been pushing contemporary theatre as a whole ahead into new territories. This book offers informative and in-depth portraits of twenty of these directors, written by leading critics, scholars, and researchers, who shed light on the directors' signature styles with examples of their emblematic productions and outline the reasons for their impact. In addition, in two chapters the selected directors themselves discuss their artistic family trees as well as the main stakes theatrefaces today. The book will be of interest to theatre scholars, students, and anybody engaged with theatre on a global scale.

1. Grzegorz Bral: Cosmopolitan Experiments in Theatre.- 2. My Name Is Gianina Carbunariu: I'm a Lioness.- 3. Oliver Frljic or the Theatre of Provocation.- 4. Alvis Hermanis: "To Be Everything and Nothing at All".- 5. Grzegorz Jarzyna's Theatre of Post-Dramatic Joy and Recognition.- 6. Jan Klata: The Social-Identity DJ of the Polish Theatre.- 7. "What Is Hecuba to Him or He to Hecuba?" or the Theatre of Oskaras KorSunovas.- 8. Jernej Lorenci: "People Are the Key".- 9. Krystian Lupa: The Maestro They Criticise Love.- 10. Dark Visions of Jan MikuláSek.- 11. Alexander Morfov, the Game-Changer and His Collective Theatre.- 12. Eimuntas NekroSius: The Poetics of Paradise and Hell.- 13. Béla Pintér and His Postmodern National Theatre.- 14. Silviu Purcarete: The Master of Rich Theatre.- 15. From the Theatron to the Agora: Changing Concepts of Theatricality in Schilling Árpád's Oeuvre.- 16. Andrei ¿erban: The Search for 'New Forms'.- 17. Beauty by Instinct or Daniel spinar's Theatre of Style.- 18. Wlodzimierz Staniewski: (Re-)Constructing Traditions and Archetypes.- 19. Rimas Tuminas: A Poetic View of Theatre.- 20. Krzysztof Warlikowski: A Beautiful Shock Therapy.- 21. An Attempt at Drawing an Artistic Family Tree.- 22. The Stakes Today.