This issue of Music and Arts in Action (MAiA) marks the start of our third year of publication. The articles in this issue address varied fields of performance: opera, rock music, and engaged theatre. Taken together, these pieces look in detail at how individual performers, prop-makers, directors, playwrights, composers, and others work interactively with aesthetic materials (e.g., scripts, lights, bodies, musical scores and instruments, etc.) to carefully design and carry out a ‘successful’ performance (both in terms of achieving a set aim of audience impact, as well as seamlessly integrating performer and performance). In other words, success in performance not only requires close attention to an artistic and aesthetic narrative, but also significant emotional and social management by individual performers to play a role in this narrative.