How does one create a drama? What does theater want? What does the audience want? Peter Hacks (1928-2003) repeatedly discusses these questions with insightful artists and scholars at the Academy of Arts between 1972 and 1990. Hacks proves to be a brilliant discussant, moderator, and educator. In the relaxed, engaging atmosphere of the conversations, the subject of art is addressed in a way that is both unacademic and light-hearted, as well as knowledgeable and controversial, like rarely before. The fully edited and annotated protocols presented here make a unique aesthetic debate of the 20th century accessible for the first time.