Scholars have debated endlessly the transgressive potential of boy actors on the Elizabethan stage, but few have paid attention to the cultural implications of cross-dressed performances occurring on contemporary stages. The eleven essays in this groundbreaking volume seek to redress this imbalance. Examining recent performances through the lenses of feminism, queer theory, and cultural materialism, they situate cross-dressed Shakespeare in the context of current critical debates over the social construction of gender, the radical contingency of sexual desire, and differences among various forms and functions in transvestism.