Founded in 1988 and edited by Vera Mowry Roberts and Walter Meserve, two of the pioneers of American Theatre Studies, the Journal of American Drama and Theatre has provided a unique forum for historical, theoretical, and literary critical scholarship. In the course of the past fifteen years, however, Theatre Studies (like the humanities more generally) has been transformed. Its object of study has been interrogated and pluralized and its traditional methods have been challenged.

Under my editorship, I hope to bring the journal more closely into conversation with American Studies and Performance Studies by attempting to problematize three key words in the journal's title: "American," "drama," and "theatre." Recent scholarship has alerted us to the fact that the designation, "American," is ambiguous and problematic. Does it refer to the United States, the continent of which it is a part, or the entire hemisphere? The very word, moreover, is the product of an imperial history, a corruption of the name of a sixteenth-century Italian navigator. I believe that scholarship on subjects deemed American should be conscious of the geographical and linguistic ambivalence of the word and the colonial histories that are inscribed in it. We must bear in mind that not all drama that passes for American is written in English. Indeed, some of the most noteworthy American theatre has been performed in Spanish, Italian, Yiddish, German, and many other languages.

Just as problematic is the word, "theatre." Performance Studies has demonstrated the theatricalization of many social behaviors, ceremonies, and practices. Does a Mardi Gras parade, for example, qualify as theatre? Or a political convention? Or a ride at Disney World? Or a public execution? Or a Mary J. Blige concert? Cannot these performances be analyzed using the same tools that one brings to a study of what happens behind and in front of a proscenium arch? Why have these and other popular entertainments-from musical comedy to magic shows-been marginalized within Theatre Studies?

And what of the word, "drama," which precedes "theatre" in the title of the journal? Does this signal a privileging of the literary? Or does it suggest that the literary is simply one among a multitude of theatrical forms? Until recently, academic programs in drama, theatre, and English departments have tended to favor canonical, text-based theatre. But non-text-based performance is every bit as central to what we call American theatre as Long Day's Journey into Night.

Please help us expand the journal's mandate by submitting articles on these and any other subjects that relate to American Theatre Studies. Manuscripts should be prepared in conformity with The Chicago Manual of Style, using footnotes (rather than endnotes). Articles should be submitted as e-mail attachments, using Microsoft Word format. Please note that all correspondence will be conducted by e-mail. Our e-mail address is jadt@gc.cuny.edu. You may also address editorial inquiries to the Editors, JADT/Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10016-4309.

David Savran, Professor of Theatre

We can also be reached by e-mail at: mestc@gc.cuny.edu