This edited volume constitutes the first historical study of the phenomenon of European theatre migration, and thus contributes in new and important ways to the formation of a historical discourse on theatre and migration. The hidden histories of European theatre migration that this book seeks to explore allow us to rethink global theatre history as a history of mobility with Europe as the point of departure rather than the point of arrival. It also allows the reader to challenge and to decenter a European self-understanding of insularity and a European cosmopolitanism ignorant of its imperial and colonial roots.