It includes biographies of the three co-directors, Robert Kalfin, Michael David, and Burl Hash, and anecdotes about behind-the-scenes activities at the Chelsea.

[1] The author reports that when she submitted a draft of the work as a doctoral dissertation, she was asked to rewrite it because the creative nonfiction approach had not yet been accepted in the academic community.

According to her report, members of her dissertation committee said that while it was thorough and accurate, they felt they were reading a novel; they asked her to make changes in the style so that it no longer met the criteria of creative nonfiction.

1 Wherein Robert Kalfin uses his salary to pay for Chelsea's first off-Broadway contract production in order to attract media attention and funding and thereby loses his partners and his space.

2 How Chelsea finds an ideal, inexpensive space in a major cultural institution which rarely attracts Manhattan audiences and where agents don't send performers to audition.

3 Wherein Chelsea's empathic Caucasian director discovers exciting Black plays and gives militant performers a forum for their views, and how this results in a major triumph for the young theater, an international tour which the actors abandon in Zurich.

4 In which Chelsea mounts three major productions, moves two shows off-Broadway for unlimited runs, is featured on the front page of the Arts and Leisure section of The New York Times and can't get funding to finish the season.

8 How Kalfin defends art from an experimental playwright, a Tony-nominated actress, a Hollywood star, his partners, his board, and a tribe of Indians.

He made us all feel special and a part of something important...This book is interesting to me because it explores group dynamics...How does one maintain an organization that is created out of the passion and spontaneity and chemistry of certain key individuals?"

Clashing ideals, opposing personalities, economic hazards and withal superb and original productions are all part of Davi Napoleon's narrative and make up a beguiling chapter of our theatrical history."

It follows a diminishing curve of moral responsibility emphasized by the government's unwillingness to acknowledge the place of art in the quality of our lives...They tell me that it's only cyclical, that times will change, that the worship of Mammon will give way to daydreaming, impracticality, naiveté, idealism.