Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Redefinitions of ensemble. Michael Boyd (Royal Shakespeare Company): A "contingent community" in a free market economy -- Gabor Tompa (Hungarian Theatre of Cluj): Between the East and the West today -- Hermann Wündrich (The Berliner Ensemble): How The Berliner Ensemble changes with time -- Yuri Butusov (guest director Satirikon Theatre): Directing as an art of composition -- Max Stafford-Clark (Out of joint): A tried and tested ensemble methodology -- Elizabeth Lecompte (The Wooster Group): "A group of people around a place" -- Lyn Gardner (The guardian newspaper): On regional theatre-making -- Working processes. Anton Adassinsky and Elena Yarovaya (Derevo): Beyond words -- Emma Rice (Kneehigh Theatre): From a community to The West End -- Joanna Holden (Northern Stage, Kneehigh, Cirque du soleil): On being an ensemble actor in the UK -- Ian Morgan (Song of the goat): An actor's journey between Wales and Wroclaw -- Dan Rothenberg (Pig Iron): "Comic figures repurposed" -- Adriano Shaplin (The Riot Group): Ensemble as a musical "intersubjective unit" -- Hanna Slättne (Tinderbox Theatre): Working together in Northern Ireland -- Alexander Kelly (Third Angel) and Chris Thorpe (Unlimited Theatre): On writing and performance in an ensemble -- Ensemble and the audience. Mike Alfreds (ex-shared experience, method and madness): Sharing the experience of imagination -- Greg Allen (The Neo-futurists): An interactive ensemble -- Phelim McDermott (Improbable): "Safe emergencies" -- Peter Eckersall (Not yet it's difficult): The dramaturgy of long-term cross-cultural collaboration -- Katarina Pejovic and Boris Bakal (Shadow casters): Ensemble as a tool of civic engagement -- David Bauwens, Alexander Devriendt, Joeri Smet (Ontroerend Goed): On courting the audience -- Richard Jordan (Richard Jordan Productions): Towards a global ensemble.