This book looks at the way theater works in order to make "space for living." It provides the means to help one feel more deeply, think more clearly, and relate more personally by giving audiences and actors the opportunity to rehearse their roles within a setting which is imagined, but to make use of feelings and thoughts which are real. <I>The Open Space: Theatre as Opportunity for Living</I> extends the territory explored by Peter Brook in <I>The Empty Space</I>. It adds a new psychological dimension: recognizing that not only do we ourselves make space for theater, but it is also true that theater makes space for us. Roger Grainger looks in turn at the different kinds of space theater creates, using written sources and the spoken testimony of actors and members of the audience. The author’s own discoveries as a professional actor give passion and immediacy to the acting and audience participation opportunities these insights provide. Based on genuine experience of, and love for, the theater, this book does not present plays solely as literature but as particular kinds of theatrical experience. In doing so the author breaks new ground in theater studies and provides actors and audiences with tools that promote hands-on knowledge and experience of the human value of drama and theater.