Maddy Costa writes about theatre and performance online, in fanzines and in collaboration with other writers and artists. Together with Mary Paterson and Diana Damian Martin she is a co-founder of the experimental writing platform Something Other and the Department of Feminist Conversations collective.Andy Field is a writer, artist and the co-director of the award-winning performance collective Forest Fringe. He has toured his own contemporary performance work across the UK and internationally. He also writes on performance and in 2012 completed a PhD exploring the performance work of the New York avant-gardes of the 1960s and 1970s.

• AcknowledgementsAbout This Book1. Reckoning with HistoryRachael YoungDickie BeauTania El KhouryBreach TheatreUninvited Guests2. In Search of New LanguagesVerity StandenNigel Barrett & Louise MariEllie DuboisAlexandrina Hemsley & Jamila Johnson-Small3. The Company You KeepDeer ParkMade In ChinaBertrand Lesca & Nasi VoutsasNeil Callaghan & Simone KenyonAction Hero4. Fractures and How to Mend ThemDan CanhamSue MacLaineAmy SharrocksRachel MarsSelina Thompson5. Close EncountersAbigail ConwaySheila GhelaniBrian LobelRia HartleyStephanie Albert6. Acts of ResistanceNic GreenScotteeLeo Skilbeck & Milk PresentsChristopher Brett BaileyAdrian Howells7. Other Lives Are PossibleHunt & DartonRajni ShahBryony KimmingsEmma FranklandFigs in Wigs8. Ways of RememberingJemima YongDeborah PearsonGreg WoheadForced EntertainmentTim Crouch & Andy Smith

Andy Field and Maddy Costa have built a theatre of words inhabited by a fascinating cast of performers. Beyond their evocative descriptions of spectatorship and participation, Performance in an Age of Precarity also shares compelling accounts of friendship, landscapes of memory and expressions of political urgency. These warm and generous portraits are an important record of observation and affect, placing the artist (as independent maker) center stage.