American Alternative Theatre maps the explosion of experimental performance that reshaped theatre in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s.

Theodore Shank examines the companies and artists who rejected the conventions of commercial stage production and instead built new forms of performance rooted in improvisation, political engagement, collective creation, and environmental staging.

The book moves through groups such as the Living Theatre, the Open Theatre, the Performance Group, and the San Francisco Mime Troupe, alongside figures including Richard Schechner and Joseph Chaikin.

Shank situates their work within broader shifts in postwar culture—counterculture politics, new acting methodologies, and the breakdown of traditional theatre spaces.