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