Emily Mann: Rebel Artist in the American Theater is the story of a remarkable American playwright, director, and artistic director. It is the story of a woman who defied the American theater's sexism, a traumatic assault, and illness to create unique documentary plays and to lead the McCarter Theatre Center, for thirty seasons, to a place of national recognition.

The book traces and describes Emily Mann's family life; her coming-of-age in Chicago during the exuberant, rebellious, and often violent 1960s; how sexual violence touched her personally; and how she fell in love with theater and began learning her craft at the Loeb Drama Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, while a student at Radcliffe.

Mann's evolution as a professional director and playwright is explored, first at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, where she received an MFA from the University of Minnesota, then in New York City, and again in the Midwest, where she became recognized internationally, married, had a child, and divorced her husband.

Mann's leadership of the McCarter is examined, along with her battles to overcome multiple sclerosis, and conquer—personally and artistically—the memories of the violence she experienced when a teenager. Finally, the book discusses her retirement from the McCarter Theatre Center, while she continues as a playwright, amplifying her journey as a female artist of sensitivity and originality.