Through this case study of the Cornerstone Theater, Staging America sets out to explore the complexities of theatrical practices that aim to transform their audiences and enact social change, especially within the context of national identity. Cornerstone was founded in 1986 by a group of Harvard graduates interested in “bringing theater to the culturally disadvantaged,” but the company soon found itself equally transformed by the communities it served (66). With unusual theoretical depth in its use of cultural studies and ethnography, Staging America chronicles Cornerstone's changes as it attempted to become America's national theatre, traveling across the country to foster grassroots productions of classical plays. It is a fascinating journey that never quite settles on any easy conclusions, for if Cornerstone has ever come close to being a national theatre, it is only with the same unease that any single “America” can ever be staged or even defined. Kuftinec argues that this unease is Cornerstone's strength, as it constantly refigures itself in an anxious dialogue over national identity. Ultimately, she says, Cornerstone reflects America as “a matrix of continuously refigured difference.”