This study is the culmination of ideas, questions and observations that have been growing on me in the course of the last decade, and it would be contrary to the participatory ethos to claim them as entirely my own, although no one other than myself can be held responsible for their limitations.
I am grateful to the International Research Centre ‘Interweaving Performance Cultures’ at the Freie Universität in Berlin for a fel- lowship in 2014–15, which permitted me to write the bulk of this study. I thank all the colleagues and scholars at the Centre as well as the ‘Aesthetics of Applied Theatre’ Research Programme team for stimulating discussions and for their encouragement. I acknowledge the sabbatical leave periods and infrastructural support provided by the Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis, the Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies, the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis and the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam during various stages of research. I am grateful for the sustained support from colleagues at the University of Amsterdam, particularly in the Theatre Studies Department. My very special grati- tude to Veronika Zangl for her patient reading and helpful feedback.