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President’s Message – November 2023

Dear ATDS colleagues,

I’m writing with some updates and sending you a virtual mooncake in honor of the upcoming mid-autumn festival. 🥮

As I said stepping into the role of President at our Austin conference, I’m grateful for Jocelyn’s leadership, and I’m humbled by all the great
people who make this organization possible. I’m eager to build on our initiatives supporting contingent faculty, emerging scholars, and those at the mid-career and senior levels. I’m excited for the direction of our field as represented by our awards, journals, and sessions offering mentorship, centering marginalized people, lifting up innovative and transgressive artistic-political work, interrogating unequal power dynamics, and moving within and beyond the United States. I’m energized by our values–accessibility and equity for queer, trans, and global majority people–and I’ll do my best to represent you and advocate for you.

ATDS shined at ATHE with a slew of co-sponsored sessions, award celebrations, and meetups with friends. If you have ideas for our conference in Atlanta next year, then please contact me, our new Vice President/Focus Group Representative Ginny Anderson, and our fantastic Co-Conference Planners Amy Meyer and Heidi Nees. ATHE is also hosting an online town hall on Wednesday, September 27th at 12pm Eastern time to seek more feedback on the future of the organization. You can register for the town hall at this link.

The ATDS governing body recently voted to change our bylaws (https://www.atds.org/about/) to grant our Conference Planners voting privileges and to turn the Conference Planner position into an elected one. This means we will host a special election for the next Conference Planner very soon, because they will shadow our current Co-Conference Planners this year. In the spring, we will hold an election for a new Digital Media Secretary. I encourage you to consider running for office and becoming a part of our terrific team. I also want to thank Pria Wood, Bess Rowen, and David Bisaha for serving on our Nominations Committee this year.

Please renew your ATDS membership if you haven’t already done so, especially since membership will enable you to vote during the special election and access our upcoming programming. We’re continuing to offer pay-what-you-can membership.

Finally, I’m delighted to announce that, with the support of Theatre Annual’s editors Ann Folino White and Peter Reed and their editorial board, the Journal of American Drama and Theatre’s editors, the ATDS Emerging Scholar Awards Committee, our Editorial Advisory Committee, and our governing body, Theatre Annual will begin inviting the winners of our annual Emerging Scholar Awards to publish their ATHE conference papers in a new special section. We believe that this opportunity will be a wonderful way to support graduate students and expand our field. In addition, please check out the latest CFPs for journals such as Theatre Annual and the Journal of American Drama and Theatre on our CFP page.

We have plans for more year-round online programming to spotlight anti-racist work, publications, and professionalization, so let’s stay connected.

Best wishes,
Donatella
—
Donatella Galella
President, American Theatre and Drama Society
Associate Professor, University of California, Riverside
she/her

June 2022 – President’s Message

30 June 2023

Dear ATDS colleagues,

We hope you and your loved ones and communities are experiencing a healthy and restorative summer as we look forward to ATDS’s participation at ATHE in August.

In August, Dr. Jocelyn Buckner’s term as president concludes and Dr. Donatella Galella assumes the presidency of ATDS. We write now, together, in the midst of a collaborative transition in leadership.

We are excited for additional transitions in 2023 with the election of Ginny Anderson as Vice President/President Elect, David Bisaha as Membership Secretary, Victoria LeFave as Graduate Student Representative, and Bess Rowen, Jonathan Shandell, Jonathan Chambers, and Claire Syler as Executive Board Members. Thanks to our outgoing officers Valerie Joyce (Membership Secretary), Mia Levenson (Graduate Student Representative), and our outgoing Board Members Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, Ginny Anderson, Andrew Gibb, and Ariel Nereson for your service to ATDS.

The 2023 ATDS special issue of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre is live! Edited by Jacqueline Goldfinger, the issue’s theme is “Revolutions in New Work Development.” It features diverse commentary from a wide range of theatre professionals in formats including academic articles, case studies, interviews, and firstperson accounts. https://jadtjournal.org

Congratulations to the 2023 ATDS Award winners! Please find awardee names and projects below. Thank you to our awards committee chairs and members (also below) for your labor in recognizing our colleagues’ endeavors. We will celebrate our award winners at ATHE during the ATDS business meeting on Thursday, August 1:002:30pm. Please attend to learn more about ATDS and to celebrate our colleagues’ work!

Additionally, please plan to join us for ATDS’s Virtual Business and Membership Meeting which will be held on Monday, July 24th, 2:30-4:00pm Eastern (agenda and Zoom link forthcoming).

Both ATDS members and non-members are welcome. (Invite a friend!)

If you are attending the conference in Austin, we hope you will support ATDS’s programming at ATHE (ATDS panel schedule attached). Thank you to ATDS Conference Planners Heidi Nees and Amy Meyer for all your efforts in coordinating such an exciting schedule.

We hope to see many familiar and new faces during our pre-conference online membership meeting, and to reconnect with as many of you as possible during our sessions at ATHE.

Best wishes, Jocelyn and Donatella

American Theatre and Drama Society 2023 AWARD WINNERS Attend the ATDS awards celebration at ATHE on Thursday 8/3 at 1:00-2:30 to honor our colleagues!

Betty Jean Jones Award
Annabelle Winograd

John W. Frick Book Award
Esther Kim Lee, Made-Up Asians: Yellowface During the Exclusion Era, UMich Press

John W. Frick Book Award
Honorable Mention Julius Fleming, Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation, NYU Press

John W. Frick Book Award
Honorable Mention Ariel Nereson, Democracy Moving: Bill T. Jones, Contemporary Performance, and the American Racial Past, UMich Press

Vera Mowry Roberts Award
Amanda Reid, “Dancing Shay-Shay: Katherine Dunham, Marcus Garvey, and Jamaican Decolonization,” Theatre Journal

Vera Mowry Roberts Award Honorable Mention
Samuel Yates, “A Critical Guide to Code-Meshing, Multilingualism, and Musicals,” The Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre, Routledge

Publication Subvention Award
Jieun Lee, Performing Transnational Adoption: Unsettling Scripts (The Ohio State University Press)

Publication Subvention Award Honorable Mention
Patrick McKelvey, Disability Works: US Performance After Rehabilitation(New York University Press)

Faculty Travel/Research Award
Nick Fesette, Emory University Benjamine Gillespie, Baruch College-CUNY

Contingent Faculty Travel/Research Award
Lynn Deboeck, University of Utah Scott Bradley, University of Iowa

Graduate Student Travel/Research Award
Mariah Horner, “Abolitionist Dramaturgies: Theatre as World Building”

Graduate Student Travel/Research Award Honorable Mention
Sam Briggs, “Exploring the Possibility of Female Power in Seneca’s Phaedra”

ATDS Emerging Scholar Awards
Carlina Perna, “Drawing a Wider Circle for Contemporary Trans Theatre”
Gabrielle Lewis, “Centering Care in Performing the Archive: Reflecting on Petrificationology”

ATDS 2023 AWARD COMMITTEES

Betty Jean Jones Award
Andy Gibb (chair), Bethany Hughes, Vanessa Campagna John W. Frick Book Award Paige McGinley (chair), Virginia Anderson, Christin Essin

Vera Mowry Roberts Award
Jeanmarie Higgins (chair), Catharine Young, Bryan Vandevender

Publication Subvention Award
Dani Snyder-Young (chair), Dave Bisaha, Ryan Donovan

Faculty Travel/Research Award
Dan Venning (chair), Leah Lowe, Patrick McKelvey

Contingent Faculty Travel/Research Award
Susanne Shawyer (chair), Jonathan Shandell, Drew Eisenhauer

Graduate Student Travel/Research Award
Karen Jean Martinson (chair), Stephanie Lim, Alejandro Bastien Olvera

ATDS Emerging Scholar Awards
Jane Barnette (chair), Amy Huang, Gina Sandi-Diaz

November 2022 President’s Message

November 2022 President’s Message

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

As the festive season begins and the American Theatre and Drama Society’s 35th Anniversary year draws to a close, I am reflecting on our organization’s commitment to fostering community, promoting creative and intellectual growth, and encouraging professional development across the field at large. I am especially grateful to you, our members, whose support enables our year-round programming. In the spirit of the season, I hope you will visit our website and consider an end-of-year donation of $35.00 to ATDS in honor of our 35th Anniversary, or any other amount that works in your budget.

I also encourage you to visit our website to give the gift of ATDS membership – to a friend, a colleague, a mentee, or even yourself!

Membership begins at the pay-what-you-can level and extends through the lifetime membership option,providing professional resources at every career stage. In addition to the support donations provide, every level of ATDS membership enables you to maintain and access resources including:

  • Subscription to Theatre Annual:A Journal of Theatre and Performance of the Americas – this is your last chance to renew or become a member and receive the 2022 issue of Theatre Annual!
  • Anti-racism programming – more sessions will be announced for 2023!
  • ATDS professional development programming at ATHE and throughout the year
  • ATDS’s popular First Book Bootcamp
  • Guaranteed ATDS panels at the Modern Languages Association (MLA) and American Literature Association (ALA) conferences, as well as other national and international venues
  • Opportunities to network, mentor, and be mentored at events for ATDS members and graduate students throughout the year and at ATHE
  • Sponsorship of and the opportunity to apply for ATDS’s annual awards which honor career and scholarly excellence amongst our members, promote the creation of new scholarship, and fund graduate students, emerging scholars, and contingent colleagues

Thank you for including the American Theatre and Drama Society as part of your holiday giving. Your support of and active participation in ATDS is the lifeblood of our organization, and for that I am truly grateful.

Wishing you health and peace,
Jocelyn L. Buckner
ATDS President
November 28, 2022

January 2022

Dear ATDS colleagues, 

Greetings in this still new year. I hope 2022 has brought health and peace to you, and that you are finding ways to thrive personally and professionally. As we near the two-year anniversary of living in pandemic mode I am reminded that the connections we foster in communities such as American Theatre and Drama Society remain critical to continuing our work and our engagement with one another. Thank you all for your ongoing support of ATDS, and each other as individuals, scholars, and artists.

ATDS remains committed to supporting and expanding our membership. Some of our current initiatives and ways to get involved include:

  • ATDS awards are now accepting applications! Please apply or nominate a fellow scholar or mentor for recognition and support.
  • Anti-racism Initiative co-chairs Dr. Ariel Nereson and Dr. Jonathan Shandell have organized monthly “anti-racism reading circle” events for ATDS members throughout Spring 2022. These events, inspired by members’ responses to a survey circulated last year, will convene ATDS members to discuss key texts (either in entirely or focusing on selected sections) related to antiracism in the profession. Dates and titles for the reading circle events will be:  

Watch for additional workshop, discussion, and resource information in the coming weeks.

  • Theatre Annual’s CFP has been extended until February 15, 2022! Submit your work today!
  • The “Asian American Dramaturgies” special issue of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre edited by ATDS Vice President Dr. Donatella Galella will publish this spring, one of the first journal issues in our field dedicated to Asian American theatre.
  • ATDS is marking its 35th Anniversary through exciting conference programming and special events at ATHE in Detroit July 28-31, 2022. Please plan to join us for reflection, conversation, and celebration!
  • ATDS will support five $100 graduate student conference subventions for the ATHE 2022 conference. Stay tuned to the listserv and social media for a call for applications.
  • ATDS will circulate calls in 2022 for the following editorial positions:

Associate Editor, Theatre Annual

Book Review Editor, Theatre Annual

Guest Editor, Spring 2023 special issue of Journal of American Drama and Theatre

  •  We continue to offer ATDS memberships on a pay-what-you-can basis. Renew, join, or gift a membership today!  

ATDS is a vibrant, thriving scholarly/creative community thanks to your investment and support. I hope you will find ways to participate in our many initiatives and will reach out to me with suggestions for more.

As always, thank you for your contributions to the field and to ATDS.

Jocelyn L. Buckner, ATDS President

Fall 2021 President’s Message

Fall 2021 President’s Message

Welcome to the American Theatre and Drama Society website. As we continue to engage in remote and hybrid ways, I hope you experience ATDS as a scholarly community of support, inspiration, and encouragement.

ATDS 2021 Awards Winners:

Congratulations once again to the 2021 ATDS awards winners! We look forward to congratulating you again in person in 2022. Thank you for the privilege of recognizing your work and thank you to the committees and chairs responsible for choosing these distinguished honorees.

Betty Jean Jones Award

Cheryl Black
Curators Distinguished Professor of Theatre Emerita
University of Missouri

John W. Frick Book Award

Sean Metzger, THE CHINESE ATLANTIC: SEASCAPES AND THE THEATRICALITY OF GLOBALIZATION (Indiana University Press)

Honorable Mention
Virginie Magnat, THE PERFORMATIVE POWER OF VOCALITY (Routledge)

Vera Mowry Roberts Award

Catherine M. Young, “The Performance and Politics of Concurrent Temporalities in George C. Wolfe’s Shuffle Along.”

Honorable Mention
Bethany Hughes, “Oka Apesvchi: Indigenous Feminism, Performance, and Protest”

Honorable Mention
Heidi Carolyn Feldman, “Staging Public Blackness in Peru: The Repertoires of Pancho Fierro and Cumanana.”

Publication Subvention Award

Ariel Nereson, DEMOCRACY MOVING: BILL T. JONES, CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN PERFORMANCE, AND THE RACIAL PAST

Honorable Mention
David Bisaha, AMERICAN SCENIC DESIGN AND FREELANCE PROFESSIONALISM

Faculty Travel/Research Award

Kate Buselle, to present “Gender and Violence in Marisa Wegrzyn’s KILLING WOMEN,” at the Comparative Drama Conference, 2021

Contingent Faculty Travel/Research Award

Beto O’Byrne, “Pedagogical Applications of El Teatro Campesino’s newly codified acting practice, ‘Theatre of the Sphere’”

Graduate Student Travel/Research Award

Stephanie Lim, “Deaf Music-Making: Performing National Identity and Decolonizing the Musical World”

ATDS Emerging Scholar Awards

Evan Duncan, “An (Un)abashed Exercise in Overthinking: Practice, Second Nature, and Double Consciousness”

Jay Kimberley, “Trauma, Theatre, and the Power of Community: Re-Imagining Therapeutic Intervention for Foster Youth”

Spotlight on New Works:

The ATDS/BTA/LIA Spotlight on New Works session highlighted the following new works which are already making a tremendous impact in our field. I encourage you to engage with these titles, and to add them to your syllabi as well as personal and institutional libraries.

Critical Companion to Native American and First Nations Theatre and Performance: Indigenous Spaces
By Jaye T. Darby, Courtney Elkin Mohler, and Christy Stanlake

Breaking It Down: Audition Techniques for Actors of the Global Majority
By Nicole Hodges Persley & Monica White Ndounou

The Performative Power of Vocality
By Virginie Magnat

The Chinese Atlantic: Seascapes and the Theatricality of Globalization
By Sean Metzger

Casting a Movement: The Welcome Table Initiative
By Claire Syler & Daniel Banks

Cracking Up: Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Century United States
By Katelyn Hale Wood

As the new academic year starts, ATDS’s programming begins again with a renewed commitment to our current ongoing initiatives: mentoring and supporting the development of new works by scholars at all stages of their careers, and continuing to offer anti-racism programming that works to dismantle systems of oppression within our field. I invite you to take this moment to consider how your own creative/scholarly work aligns with ATDS’s offerings, and ways you might wish to become further involved with the workings of the organization.

There are many ways to take part in our endeavors, including:

Submitting your work to one of our journals or awards committees. In particular, please see the CFP for the spring 2022 ATDS special issue of JADT, “Asian American Dramaturgies,” edited by ATDS Vice President Dr. Donatella Galella.

Participating in our anti-racism programming. Planning is underway for this year’s sessions, so stay tuned!

Applying for the First Book Bootcamp. 2022 will be the third year of the FBB, which is focused on supporting the development of new publications in our field through guided workshops, mentoring from experienced authors and editors in the field, and pitch-your-book sessions with series acquisitions editors. Be on the lookout for the call for proposals!

Attending ATHE/ATDS in Detroit, MI, July 28-21, 2022. The ATDS call for papers is now available, and we welcome individual paper and panel submissions.

Celebrating ATDS’s 35th anniversary during next year’s conference. If you are interested in serving on the anniversary planning committee, please reach out to me.

Not sure how you’d like to get involved? Complete our volunteer formand we will connect you with opportunities that align with your interests. To receive news and updates from ATDS throughout the year, please join our listserv.

Finally, if you have not already done so, please join or renew your membership to ATDS, and invite a colleague or friend to join with you! We offer memberships at all levels, including a pay-what-you-can option as well as a lifetime membership that guarantees you member benefits, well, for a lifetime! Memberships and donations sustain the vital work of our organization, and we are grateful for your engagement and support.

Please contact me if you have ideas for ways ATDS can further serve our field. I wish you a productive, healthy, and happy fall.

Jocelyn L. Buckner
President, American Theatre and Drama Society

January 2021 President’s Note

January 2021

Greetings ATDS colleagues, 

As we begin 2021, we hope you and your loved ones and communities are healthy and safe.  

In August 2021, Lisa’s term as president will conclude, and Dr. Jocelyn L. Buckner will assume the presidency of ATDS.  We write now, together, as we look forward to a collaborative transition in leadership. 

We are excited for additional transitions in 2021 with the election of three Board members, four officers (Vice-President/President-Elect, Secretary, Treasurer, and International Secretary), and a Graduate Student Rep.  Please send all nominations and self-nominations to ATDS Board Member Donatella Galella  (galella@ucr.edu) by February 1, 2021. We are indebted to our colleagues who have served in these roles over the past years. Thank you Jordan, Laura, Fonzie, Josh, Dorothy, James, Heather, and Megan. Your labor, wisdom, and friendship has been invaluable to us and to ATDS.

ATDS hosted two anti-racist training workshops this fall.  Thank you to Dr. Koritha Mitchell and Dr. Claire Syler for leading these workshops. We will host a third workshop in January with Dr. Brian Herrera.  Click here to register for “Responsive Pedagogy with Dr. Brian Herrera.”  These workshops are available at no cost to ATDS members. Thank you to Board Members Donatella Galella, Ariel Nereson, and Digital Media Secretary Peter Wood for organizing and stewarding these events. 

Please take a moment to peruse the many ATDS awards and opportunities coming up this winter and spring.  Please share widely, and please submit your work.  Reviewing and celebrating our field through our awards is a true highlight of the organization.  Thank you to all our committee chairs and members.  

We look forward to the next Theatre Annual issue, as well as the Spring 2021 issue of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, co-edited by the American Theatre and Drama Society, the Black Theatre Association, and the Black Theatre Network, and focusing on the theme: Milestones in Black Theatre.

ATDS has had a very busy year. Archives of officer reports and messages from the president can be found on our website.  

We are pleased to offer ATDS memberships on a sliding scale; we hope you will renew, join, or gift a membership today: https://www.atds.org/membership-shop/.  We look forward to working with you in 2021. 

Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, President
Jocelyn L. Buckner, Vice-President/President-Elect

September 2020 President’s Note

September 2020

From the American Theatre and Drama Society

Welcome to the website of the American Theatre and Drama Society.

I hope you will find many resources in these pages to support and inspire you.

I invite you to enjoy the four featured books on our homepage. Authors Julie Burrelle, Patricia Herrera, Laura Mielke, Sharrell D. Luckett, David Román, and Isaiah Matthew Wooden were featured at the annual Spotlight on New Works Panel at ATHE, a collaboration between ATDS, Black Theatre Association, and the Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Focus Group.

I hope you will visit our awards and journals pages and consider submitting your work and projects.

I am very proud that ATDS will collaborate with Black Theatre Network and Black Theatre Association to guest edit the spring 2021 issue of the Journal of American Theatre and Drama. The issue is devoted to “Milestones in Black Theatre.” Please find the cfp here.

I invite all members to register for ATDS supported anti-racist workshops with Dr. Koritha Mitchell and Dr. Claire Syler this fall.  These events are organized by Dr. Donatella Galella and Dr. Ariel Nereson, ATDS Board Members. Register for Dr. Mitchell workshop here.

I hope, as you explore our site, that you might be moved to join ATDS.  We have a tiered membership fee structure as well as a pay what you can option.  We want ATDS membership to be accessible. If none of our options work for you—reach out to me. 

I invite you to consider joining the leadership of ATDS. We have many positions open for election this coming year.  Please join our listservfor notices on nominations and elections. We also have many opportunities to get involved across our committees and journals; please email me with your interest.  I would love to hear from you.

Finally, to learn more about the recent work of the organization, please visit “ATDS Summer Update 2020” for details on our:

  • Actions in support of the ATDS statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter
  • Pay What You Can Membership Initiative
  • The First Ever ATDS First Book Bootcamp
  • ATDS 2020 Award Winners
  • Spotlight on New Works Books (ATDS, LIA, BTA)
  • ATHE 2020 News
  • Working with the Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Focus Group to amplify Latinx and Indigenous histories
  • Gender Inclusive Language—ATDS By-Laws
  • ATDS Reports 2020
  • ATDS Awards 2021
  • ATDS Elections 2021

I wish you safety this fall. 

I look forward to working with you.

Yours,
Dr. Lisa Jackson-Schebetta
President, American Theatre and Drama Society

Summer 2020 Updates

Dear ATDS colleagues,

I hope this finds you and your loved ones and communities safe and well, as we transition towards the fall.  

I write to you from Saratoga Springs, New York, the ancestral lands of Haudenosaunee,  Mohawk, Mohican, and Abenaki peoples. I acknowledge that I occupy these lands through the violence of colonialism and that these are unceded territories. (If you are interested in land acknowledgment and native territories in your region, a starter resource can be found here: https://native-land.ca.)

I write to update you with ATDS news from the summer, from ATHE, and from our Annual Membership and Business Meetings. We have much news to share, including:

  • Actions in support of the ATDS statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter
  • Pay What You Can Membership Initiative
  • The First Ever ATDS First Book Bootcamp
  • ATDS 2020 Award Winners
  • Spotlight on New Works Books (ATDS, LIA, BTA)
  • ATHE 2020 News
  • Working with the Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Focus Group to amplify Latinx and Indigenous histories
  • Gender Inclusive Language—ATDS By-Laws
  • ATDS Reports 2020
  • ATDS Awards 2021
  • ATDS Elections 2021

Before I move on to provide details of these projects and initiatives, I offer my profound gratitude to our members; our Award Committee chairs and members; our Conference Planner, David Bisaha; our Officers and Board Members; our journal editors, editorial committees, and presses; and our colleagues from Black Theatre Association, Black Theatre Network, and the Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Focus Group who continue to collaborate with, support, and lead us. 

A special thank you to Dorothy Chansky– immediate past president, board member, past editor of Theatre Annual, and Betty Jean Jones Award winner– who concludes her board membership this year.  Thank you, Dorothy, for your leadership and ever-present support; I look forward to working with you in ATDS in new ways in the coming year.

And now, NEWS!

Actions in support of our statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter

In June, ATDS published a statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter.  The statement is available on our website, and was accompanied by a feature highlighting recent books centered on Black theatre and performance.  ATDS recognizes that words are not enough; actions must be taken.

In June the ATDS Governing Body voted to support Black Theatre Association with a donation of $1000, to be used at BTA’s discretion.  ATDS also donated $500 to Black Theatre Network, and will donate $250 to BTN every year, from 2021 forward, in perpetuity.

At our Business Meeting in July, the Governing Body voted to earmark $1,000 to be used for compensating speakers and/or workshop leaders for two online events open to the membership. These events will focus on anti-racism in our professional fields. ATDS Board Members, Donatella Galella and Ariel Nereson, will coordinate these events with the support of ATDS Digital Media Secretary, Peter Wood.

Pay What You Can Membership Initiative

Recognizing that the financial crisis and COVID-19 has affected our entire field, and disproportionately affected BIPOC, international, and immigrant communities, as well as contingent faculty and graduate students, ATDS has approved a pay what you can membership fee initiative for the coming year:

“Even though our membership fees are among the lowest for a national organization of theatre scholars, we realize that, in many circumstances, even low prices might be out of the reach of some potential members. We are instituting a pay-what-you-can membership for anyone who needs to use it. While $10 is suggested, you may pay less than that cost if you need. Additionally, if you can afford to pay more for a membership, any money you pay above the regular membership fee will go to making up these lower membership revenues.”

The First Ever ATDS First Book Bootcamp

Thank you to Heather Nathans, Donatella Gallela, and Kirsten Pullen for successfully envisioning, organizing and implementing the first ever ATDS First Book Bootcamp!

Donatella, Kirsten, and Heather share with us:

“Thank you for the support from ATDS that made the FirstBook Bootcamp possible! We made progress on books, shared advice, connected authors with editors, and concluded with an important conversation about publishing and equity. We had such wonderful and truly heartwarming responses from participants who reported that the gathering surpassed their expectations, and left them feeling energized, inspired, and appreciated. Let’s once again celebrate our authors (Cindy Bates, Jessica Del Vecchio, Jason Fitzgerald, Chandra Hopkins, Jieun Lee, Shondrika Moss-Bouldin, Grace Overbeke, Jen Shook, Kristyl Tift, Bryan Vandevender, and Isaiah Wooden) and our mentors (Henry Bial, Tracy Davis, La Donna Forsgren, Donatella Galella, Michelle Granshaw, Kareem Khubchandan, Heather Nathans, Kirsten Pullen, and Naomi Stubbs). Booyah!”

ATDS 2020 Award Winner Celebration

Congratulations, again, to our ATDS 2020 Award Winners. At our membership meeting at ATHE, we were able to applaud and celebrate you—we will do so again in 2021 in person (pandemic willing) with our 2021 Award Winners. Thank you for the privilege of considering your work. And a *huge* thank you to committee chairs and members!

Betty Jean Jones Award:  Dr. Brenda Murphy

John  W. Frick Book Award: Dr. Julie Burelle

Vera Mowry Roberts Award: Dr. Maya Cantu

Faculty Travel/Research Award: Dr. Dan Venning

Contingent Faculty Travel/Research Award:  Dr. Danielle Rosvally

Publication Subvention Award: Dr. Dani Snyder-Young

Graduate Student Travel/Research Award: Alexis Riley

Emerging Scholars Award: Steven D. Cullen

Spotlight on New Works Books (ATDS, LIA, BTA)

I had the absolute pleasure of chairing the ATDS-LIA-BTA Spotlight on New Works Panel at ATHE this year. These four inspiring works will soon be featured on our website. I invite you to buy them for your personal libraries. You might also think about inviting your institutional libraries to purchase them as a package:  “These four new works were featured at our field’s national conference, and were selected by the American Theatre and Drama Society; the Latinx, Indigenous and the Americas Focus Group; and Black Theatre Association.”

Encounters on Contested Lands: Indigenous Performances of Sovereignty and Nationhood in Quebec, by Julie Burelle, published by Northwestern University Press, 2019.

Nuyorican Feminist Performance: From the Café to Hip Hop Theater, by Patricia Herrera, published by University of Michigan Press, 2020.

Provocative Eloquence: Theater, Violence, and Antislavery Speech in the Antebellum U.S., by Laura Mielke, published by University of Michigan Press, 2019.

Tarell Alvin McCraney, Theatre, Performance and Collaboration, edited by Sharrell D. Luckett, David Román, and Isaiah Matthew Wooden, published by Northwestern University Press, 2020

ATHE 2020 News

Thank you, again, to Dave Bisaha, our 2020 conference planner.  What a year to be a conference planner.  Dave, you have been grace itself; thank you for your good humor, formidable administrative acumen, and joyful collegiality.

And, a hearty welcome to Bess Rowen, our 2021 conference planner! Bess and I worked together on an ASTR anniversary storyboard a number of years ago and I am thrilled (for all of us!) to work with her in this ATDS capacity.

Amplifying Latinx, Indigenous and Americas histories, in collaboration with LIA

Recognizing that our statement of solidarity holds that the fight for Black life and against anti-Black racism, is intersectional with justice for BIPOC, immigrant and international communities, ATDS will commit $1000 ($500 over the next two years) to working with the Latinx, Indigenous, and the Americas Focus Group  to amplify Indigenous and Latinx histories and perspectives at the next two ATHE conferences.

Gender Inclusive Language—ATDS By-Laws

Thank you to Laura MacDonald and Fonzie Geary for their work editing our by-law language to be gender-inclusive. These changes will be brought to the Governing Body for ratification this fall.

ATDS Reports 2020

Many reports from 2020 will soon be available to access via our website. Check in this fall to read all the updates, from all corners of the organization.

ATDS 2021 Awards

Be on the lookout for our next round of award submissions this fall and spring. We have many awards to support your work—please submit!

ATDS Elections 2021

Thank you to our 2019 and 2020 Nominations Committee members: Megan Sanborn Jones (Chair), Susan Kattwinkel, Stuart Hecht, Andy Gibb, Ginny Anderson, and Heather Nathans.

Welcome to Donatella Gallela, our new Nominations Committee Chair, and to our new committee and continuing committee members, Andy Gibb, Heather Nathans, and Ariel Nereson. 

Donatella writes:

“In December, we will invite nominations for new ATDS representatives. The positions open in 2021 are: Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer/Ass’t Secretary, International Secretary, Graduate Rep, and 3 Board Members. We aim to lift up more BIPOC members, so we especially welcome BIPOC self-nominations and nominations of BIPOC scholar-artist-educators. The nominations committee includes Heather Nathans, Ariel Nereson, and Andy Gibb. Thanks again to Megan Sanborn Jones who led the previous iteration of the committee and left helpful blueprints.”

Getting Involved in ATDS

I hope you find these updates exciting, supportive, and inspiring.  None of this work is possible without our members. 

I invite you to renew your membership, join for the first time, or commit to a lifetime membership. You can also sponsor a membership for a colleague, graduate student, or friend; email membership@atds.org to do that.

We would love to hear from you. Please drop me, our officers, or our Board Members an email.  Tell us what you think of the work we are doing, and let us know how you would like to get involved.

Yours,
Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, MFA, PhD
President, American Theatre and Drama Society

Black Lives Matter Statement of Support

The American Theatre and Drama Society stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement and with the fight for justice and equity in the United States, the American hemisphere, and the world.  

We grieve George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Manuel Ellis, and many, many others. We are enraged by their murders at the hands of police officers. 

We are incensed by the racialized inequity of COVID-19 and its disproportionate toll in Black communities, poor communities, and communities of color. 

The U.S. has long profited from a normalized disposability of Black life; profoundly racialized economic inequity; and modernity’s systemic occlusion of its dependence on coloniality. We maintain that structural and systemic inequity connects the fight for Black life with the fight for lives of color, for lives of the global majority, for the lives of poor, trans, indigenous, immigrant, queer, female, and disabled communities in the U.S. and the world.

As an organization dedicated to the study of theatre, drama, and performance in and of the Americas, our mission demands that we face these oppressions and acknowledge our part in them. 

We pledge our resources to educating ourselves; interrogating, naming, and dismantling our privileges; rooting out anti-Blackness in our field and practices; and amplifying Black voices and voices of color in our scholarship, teaching, administration, and theatre-making. We pledge to articulate actionable tasks. This statement cannot and will not substitute for action. 

We recognize that the American Theatre and Drama Society is a majority white organization. We recognize that Black artists and scholars and neighbors have been doing and living this work for generations and are often called upon to educate their white colleagues. We maintain that it is white responsibility to educate themselves and each other.  

We share the below list to amplify Black voices, and to offer resources, funds, and organizations that we can assist or that can assist us in anti-racism work. This list is neither complete nor exhaustive.

Thank you to ATDS officers and board members for helping write this statement. Thank you to The Bushwick Starr, Tufts Department of Theatre and Performance Studies, and the Theater Department of Skidmore College for sharing resources and language with ATDS.

Resources:

Black Theatre Association

Black Theatre Network

Black Lives Matter

Bail Out Fund links

Black Mama’s Bail Out – National Bail Out

Black Visions Collective

Color of Change

Communities United Against Police Brutality

NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Rachael Cargle – The Great Unlearn

What to Send Up On Your Own

WNYC – Code Switch

Additional ATDS Antiracist and BLM Resources

EDUCATE YOURSELF AND OTHERS

Read, Learn, and Listen to Black Lives Matter Organizers (Movement for Black Lives, M4BL). For years, they have had clear plans, goals and demands for the survival of Black people. Talk about what is happening with family and friends, which are sometimes the hardest conversations to have. 

Black Lives Matter Resources Toolkit 

https://blacklivesmatter.com/resources/

The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale (the Ebook version is FREE)

Black* Transwoman to Black Cis/Transman: An Open Letter/Poem for Trayvon and the Rest of Us

Become a pen-pal with queer Black folks on the inside with Black and Pink Boston.  Attend meetings, learn about prison abolition. 

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. 

May 2020

May 2020

Welcome to the website of the American Theatre and Drama Society.  

I have been thinking about how in the northeast of the Northern hemisphere of the Americas, we experience Spring as a time of growing up and reaching out. We greet the first crocuses or tree buds with smiles, like old friends. This Spring, just as this reaching began, we had to reverse course, draw back, and shelter in our places for the greater good, for public health, for safety. 

Our colleagues, families, and communities, in this hemisphere and beyond, are all living through a new and profoundly disconcerting time. I have been thinking a lot about resources, resistance,­ and resiliency.  I have been thinking about the ways in which my colleagues across disciplines—from actors to historians, performance studies scholars to set designers, dramaturgs to drama therapists—have taught me to think and work with these terms (and so many others) in multiple, thrillingly, multi-faceted ways. I am deeply grateful for the communities I am part of, for those who have permitted me to travel alongside them.  

I hope that you might find an additional community here, with ATDS. It is an offering humble yet sincere. As you click through our pages, I hope you might find an award that could recognize your work, a committee you would like to join, a colleague in our expert list with whom to Zoom, a few new titles for your reading list, or a web-based event to attend.

Right now, ATDS is here to celebrate and support you– as scholars, teachers, and artists —by zoom, email, and phone.   Please join our mailing list. Stay tuned for more information about ATDS’s presence at the virtual ATHE conference this July. And know that we look forward to seeing you in person in the future.  

Dr. Lisa Jackson-Schebetta
President, American Theatre and Drama Society

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