One of Stanislavsky's most frequently quoted directives to actors is to play the specifics of life and to avoid the enemy of generalities. If this guideline can be applied to the composition of texts, then authors Jane Milling and Graham Ley of the University of Exeter have succeeded in disarming that enemy in print. Their detailed analyses of the writings of an illustrious group of twentieth-century theatrical figures is solidly grounded in sociocultural and artistic specifics and illuminates the theoretical trails blazed by these practitioners.