Marvin Carlson writes: My two major research interests at the moment remain German and Arabic theatre. I have signed a contract with Iowa for my book on German stage directors of the late twentieth century, now about half written. At the FIRT conference in South Africa in July I was elected the first four-year convenor of the recently established Arabic Theatre working group and I presented a paper there on the Moroccan dramatist Tayeb Sadikki. The collection of North African plays I am editing at the Segal Center is nearly completed and I hope will appear before the end of the year. My essay on Needcompany’s King Lear appeared in a special book devoted to that company published in Belgium. The proceedings of the panel about Rachel Corrie at Barnard, in which I participated, were published in Theater magazine’s summer issue. My contribution to the series “What I Am Reading Now” will appear in Theatre Survey in November. I served as respondent for the first Religion and Theatre pre-conference at the ATHE convention in New Orleans. While in Germany in May I appeared on a panel discussing David Levine’s Bauerntheater project, a project I found so interesting that I will be presenting a paper on it at the Performance Studies International conference in November. A longer version of this paper has been accepted for publication by The Drama Review.

Daniel Gerould writes: I gave a paper, “Fending Off Famine During the Siege of Paris 1870-1871” at the symposium in memory of Alex Szogyi, “Rich Stews: Reading Food And Culture,” sponsored by the Henri Peyre French Institute and the Ph.D. Program in French, at the Graduate Center on October 23. My article, “Playwriting as a Woman: Prosper Mérimée and The Theatre of Clara Gazul,” accompanied by a translation of Heaven and Hell, will appear in PAJ in the December issue.

Besides producing our three journals, the Segal Center publication arm is busy at work finishing up two new books and preparing three future books. Jean Graham-Jones has translated and edited BAiT: Buenos Aires in Translation showcasing the work of four young Argentinean playwrights. The work grew out of a project at PS 122 and an evening at the Segal Theatre. Gad Guterman worked tirelessly as copy-editor. With the help of a generous grant from the Romanian Cultural Institute we also published roMania After 2000: Five New Romanian Plays, which I had the pleasure of editing with Saviana Stanescu. Kevin Byrne and Margaret Araneo were instrumental in completing the book. We are looking forward to the publication of Marvin Carlson’s next book From North Africa which will contain four modern plays from the Maghreb, and we are working with Marion Peter Holt to publish Barcelona Plays and Benet I Jornet: Two Plays. Both books, which are supported by grants from The Ramon Llull Institute, will highlight the work of some of Catalan’s most important playwrights.

Jean Graham-Jones writes: Much of my summer was dedicated to transferring the Theatre Journal editorship and completing my final issue. In early September I officially ended my four-year term and celebrated by spending a short week at Buenos Aires’s International Festival of Theatre, Music, and Dance. The Buenos Aires in Translation collection—of four plays I translated for last year’s festival at Performance Space 122—should be out in early November, thanks in large part to the efforts of the Segal Theatre Center and my assistant Gad Guterman. I’m currently finishing up preparations for next month’s meeting of the American Society for Theatre Research, and as program chair I’m pleased to say that the Graduate Center will be very well represented. I will be on research leave during spring 2008.

Judy Milhous delivered a paper, “Inertia and the ‘Public Stock of Harmless Pleasure’: What Garrick Changed as Co-Manager of Drury Lane, 1747-1758,” at the conference “Samuel Johnson and the Theatre,” held at Pembroke College, Oxford, in June, with Stephen Huff there to cheer her on. The “green” house she is building with Rob and Kit Hume in State College, PA, is embodying Zeno’s Paradox at present, being almost finished, but not quite.
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Patricia E. Herrera, Ph.D.
“Nuyoriquenas in the House: Performing Identity Through Hip Hop, Poetry, and Theatre”
October 2007
David Savran, Chair; Gloria Waldman (Emerita); Jane Bowers (John Jay);
Diana Taylor (NYU); Laura Edmonson (Dartmouth)

Samuel Shanks, Ph.D.
"Crowd Pleasing Moves:  Acting Technique, Social Performance, and the
Popularization of the Nineteenth-Century American Theatre"
February 2008
Marvin Carlson, Chair; Daniel Gerould; David Savran
Bruce McConachie (U of Pittsburgh)

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Jessica Brater is very much enjoying spending her Fall 2007 Graduate Center time in Middle Eastern Drama and Symbolism. She is also enjoying spending her time away from the Graduate Center directing a workshop of a new play by Sybil Kempson at Dixon Place and a production of Aristophanes’ Birds for Target Margin’s Aristophanika at HERE.

Celia Braxton (Level III) writes: I’m pleased to announce that an article I went to Kansas to write (with Dr. Kerry Wilks of Witchita State University), entitled “Play Text and Directorial Decisions in Calderón’s Céfalo y Pocris: A Case Study in Textual Analysis for Production,” will be published in the upcoming edition of Comedia Performance, the Journal of the Association for Hispanic Classical Theatre (AHCT). The article is an expansion of a presentation I did with Dr. Wilks at the AEEA-AHCT Conference at Georgetown University in October 2006, which in turn was initiated after seeing a truly dreadful performance of this burlesca while at the AHCT conference in El Paso the previous March. In addition, though somewhat belatedly, I announce the publication of my article, “‘Home, Sweet Home’: The Drunkard, Domesticity, and the New Theatrical Audience,” in the Winter 2006 edition of the New England Theatre Journal. My name is misspelled in the Table of Contents(!) but it’s okay at the head of the article.

Kevin Byrne (Level III) writes: The proposal for my dissertation, tentatively titled “Greeting Change: US Blackface and Minstrel Performance in the Early 1920s,” was approved by my committee recently, and now the work begins. There is an amazing amount of freedom at this stage in the process, but there are some unique challenges (personal, social, psychical) as well. I’d be happy to share my experiences with anyone, for the price of a fair-trade cup of coffee. I will be participating in the upcoming ASTR conference with a paper about the Zulu Cannibal Giants, a comedy baseball team of the 1930s.

Rick DesRochers and his wife Ashley are having a baby! (due Mid-May)

Frank Episale writes: I passed the first exam early in the semester and am now working on my second exam fields, which are due the same day as this blurb. Taking three seminars and teaching three classes has proved to be a little much, so I’ve run myself a bit ragged but am cautiously optimistic (or grimly determined, or something like that) that there is a light at the end of the semester. I’m also about to propose a panel for the 2008 ATHE conference in Denver which I’m very excited about as long as I can navigate my way across the shifting borders of the various focus groups. That proposal is also due on the same day as this blurb and the second exam fields; hmm... I’ve continued to write reviews and such, but am eager to get the longer-form, more scholarly papers sitting on my desk revised and sent out for publication/rejection/etc.

Zack Fuller is currently teaching two sections of Introduction to Theatre at Baruch College, training future financial wizards to appreciate the performing arts. He is preparing for his second exam by immersing himself in the fields of intercultural performance, U.S. dance in the 1960’s, and Japanese theatre. As a dancer, Zack has performed all over Europe, Japan, and the U.S., and will be performing his acclaimed solo work “Stations of the Headwound” in November at CAVE Arts as part of the 2007 New York Butoh festival.

Gad Guterman continues to prepare for the second exam, which he will be taking in January. He is delighted that his essay, “Reviewing the Rosenbergs: Donald Freed’s Inquest and its Jurors,” will be published in November’s issue of Theatre Survey. He looks forward to the feedback.

Roxane Heinze-Bradshaw (Level III) has been very busy lately, but is very happy to be so. She is teaching a graduate level seminar in Theatrical Criticism for Brooklyn College, which has proven to be an engaging and energetic class. She is also happy to have been selected as a participant in the seminar “Acts of Transfer in Theatre Knowledge” at ASTR this year, and she recently finished a review of In The Heights that will appear in the March 2008 issue of Theatre Journal. Over the summer, she was promoted to Managing Editor at Samuel French, Inc.

Bethany Holmstrom (Level I) managed to survive ancient Greek boot camp this past summer. She will be presenting her first conference paper entitled “Recycling the Refugee: The (Ab)use of Children in Human Rights and Corporate Performance” at an ASTR seminar in November. Along with teaching Drama at the College of Staten Island, she is also translating part of a Symbolist play from Finnish (Arvid Järnefelt’s Kuolema, or Death), trying to see as much theatre as possible, and arranging the DTSA Teas. She encourages everyone to enjoy the products of her stress-coping strategy (i.e., baked goods) at the teas next semester, and thanks all faculty and students who made the teas for the fall semester possible.

Stephen Huff is studying for the second exam but wishing he were still in the UK, where he spent the summer interning and researching in the Theatre Museum archives (with a grant from the Society for Theatre Research), giving a paper in Cardiff (possible conference publication pending), attending a paper by Judy Milhous in Oxford, and seeing lots of theatre in London. Highlights included the English National Opera productions of La Clemenza di Tito and Death in Venice, Handel’s Triumph of Time and Truth at Wilton’s Music Hall, Gorky’s Philistines at the National, Calderón’s Great Theatre of the World, a modern version of the Noh play Nakamitsu that starts out in a male strip club, and Robertson’s Ours in a space about the size of our Green Room. Roly poly pudding, anyone?

Eero Laine recently returned to NY after a yearlong hiatus in his home state, Minnesota (lakes, trees and The Guthrie Theater). He received his Master’s degree from NYU last January and presented a paper on adaptations of Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes at MATC in March. Aside from first year coursework at the GC, Eero is taking a class in quarterstaff and renewing his knife proficiency with the Society of American Fight Directors. He is currently interviewing New York fight choreographers for a conference paper that he hopes someone will accept somewhere.

Elisa Legon advanced to candidacy in September. In the summer, she presented at ATHE’s conference a paper entitled “Performing and Consuming the Oriental in José María Muscari’s Shangay té verde y sushi en 8 escenas.” Awarded a Thomas Marshall Travel Grant from the American Society for Theatre Research for 2007, she will participate in the seminar on “Neoliberalism and Performance in the Global Market,” for which she wrote the paper “Neoliberalism’s Spread: Consumption in Newton Moreno’s The Meal,” at ASTR’s annual conference. She is in the process of writing her dissertation prospectus, tentatively titled “‘Can I Bite Off A Piece Of You?’ Consumption and Devouring in Argentine and Brazilian Theatre.”

In August, Donny Levit married Lisa Phillips in Central Park. Ten days later, he began his second year at the Graduate Center. This past summer, he took part in ATHE. It was a bittersweet jaunt, as Donny spent a portion of his life in New Orleans. This was his first trip back since Katrina. He was able to tour the city’s hardest-hit parts, including the destroyed homes of some of his closest friends. During ATHE, he sat on a panel that served as a strategy workshop on pedagogy resources for Religion and Theatre studies organized by CUNY alum Jill Stevenson. In addition, he gave a paper entitled “‘Throes Me Somethin’, Mistuh’: Legislative Presentationalism and Neoritual Performance in Response to the Mardi Gras Ordinance of the City of New Orleans in 1991.” The paper was part of a panel organized by fellow CUNY colleague Christopher Swift entitled “Intersections of Religion, Performance, and Social Agency.” Currently, he teaches at City College and Marymount Manhattan College. He is developing two new plays: kempt and shevelled, as well as radio cure. Both include original sound scores that Donny is composing for guitar. He performed a small section of the score for radio cure at The Construction Company in September at a benefit for The Dragon’s Egg.

Lindsay Adamson Livingston (Level II) writes: I split my time last summer between France, Italy, and Utah, enjoying theatre in each location. I delivered a paper at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association’s 2007 conference entitled “Naming the Unnamable: Absent Sites of Subjectivity and the Theatrical Frankenstein/Cyborg.” In April 2008, I’ll be giving a paper at the Northeastern Modern Language Association dealing with the phenomenological impact of Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore on audiences. I am also co-planning the Graduate Student Conference, so everyone submit your spectacular papers for consideration!

Milton Loayza (Level III) writes: I am finishing my dissertation on the work of Ricardo Monti and teaching at SUNY Oswego in both the Modern Languages and Communication Studies department. I directed SUNY Oswego students in “Week 50” as part of the National 365 Festival (of Suzan-Lori Parks 365 Plays/Days) and am now headed for Phoenix to participate in the “American Allegories” seminar at the 2007 ASTR conference.

Thomas Meacham (Level III) survived the second exam (which he likens to a medieval ordeal), and yet, he did acquire some new ticks and twitches that complement nicely an already exceedingly nervous disposition. He is now immersed in the world of Thomas Chaundler and Latin epistolary (so it may be too soon to tell when he will next emerge and replenish his vastly depleted reserve of sociality).

Hillary Miller is in her first semester in the program, after having completed an MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU in 2005. She lives in Brooklyn and grew up there, too. She has regrettably little news to report, but can say that she’s quite happy to have traded in pieces of her former life for a seat at the seminar tables of the Grad Center. Her interests as of now include ecocriticism, docudrama, and geography/intersections of spatial studies and theater. She’s excited for when she will have some actual news to share...

Ken Nielsen began working as a CUNY writing fellow at Queens College in September after spending the summer in Denmark successfully renewing his visa—oh international bureaucracy! As the recipient of an American Theatre Research Grant (thanks to the generosity of Graduate Center alumnus Dr. Martin Tackel) he was able to spend a week in London conducting research for his dissertation at the British Library and, more importantly, at the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive at Middlesex University. He also attended the Lyric Hammersmith’s new production of Angels in America about which he has an essay in the forthcoming issue of Western European Stages (if you are interested in the importance of the epilogue of Perestroika you might want to read it). On November 1st the first Danish Theatre Encyclopedia will be published for which he wrote 47 entries; primarily on American theatre, gay theatre, and cross-dressing. He will be participating at the “Intervening at the Intersections of American Identity” seminar at ASTR in Phoenix discussing his paper “Performing American Gay Male Identity in Denmark: Angels in America at the Crossroads of the Cold War, America, and Western Europe.” Besides all this he keeps working on his dissertation!

Kathleen Potts (Level III) is thrilled to have passed her second exam in September and officially advanced to candidacy here in the Graduate Center’s Ph.D. program in Theatre. Recently hired as a Full-Time Lecturer in the Theatre and Speech Department at CUNY’s City College, she is enjoying teaching Playwriting, Theatre History and Introduction to Drama this semester. As Co-Deputy Chair of the department, she is also learning many new administrative skills.

Jason Ramirez (Level III) moderated the sole academic panel at this year’s inaugural TeatroStageFest, entitled “Latino Theatre: Then and Now.” He also served on the Nuyorican Dramaturgy panel at the International Hispanic Theatre Festival in Miami with Lifetime Achievement recipient Miriam Colon Valle. His play Passing Judgment was published in the anthology Teatro Nuyorican y Teatro Puertorriqueno en Nueva York by Ateneo Press. He is the proud co-founder of Dos Alas Theatre (www.dosalas.org).

Kimberly [Pritchard] Ramírez writes: My work is supported this semester by a Centro Caribe/CUNY Caribbean Exchange Grant Award. I have also been selected to join the Playwrights-in-Residence program at Tribeca Performing Arts Center. I am madly composing the zero draft of my dissertation “The Lost Apple Plays: Performing the US-Cuban Pedro Pan Exodus,” finishing reviews for Cuban Studies Journal and TJ, and I will present at ASTR in Phoenix. But most invigorating are the beautiful connections weaving between my personal and professional existences: my research invites expertise from my mother and other members of my Miami-based del Busto family who are Pedro Pan exiles from Cuba, and my wonderful husband and I are off the ground with our exciting new company Dos Alas Theatre ( www.dosalas.org).

Lisa Reinke (Level I) will be presenting a paper on object prejudice in medieval sacred drama at the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, in May 2008. She will also be presenting a paper on bunraku representation in manga at a conference in Kerela, India this January. She has way too many pets that eat lettuce.

Carly Smith recently passed her Italian language exam and is now in the process of putting together book lists for her second exam, which will focus on the history of opera staging, subcultures of taste, and globalization. She presented a paper as part of the Latina/o Debut Panel at ATHE this summer and continues teaching Intro to Acting at Brooklyn College, where she now also teaches Intro to Theatre. Carly’s review of The Vineyard Theatre’s production of Anne Washburn’s The Internationalist will appear in the October issue of Theatre Journal.

This semester, Naomi Stubbs has been learning about the joys of teaching in the American college system at Bronx Community College, studying Japanese Theatre, and preparing for the first exam (which she is taking in January). In addition, she is serving as the Admissions Representative and Incoming Class Liaison Officer on the DTSA, continuing to work on the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, and still working towards that first publication. Last summer, Naomi created a web exhibit focusing on a prompt book of Edwin Booth’s Hamlet—it should be up towards the end of this year, so watch this space….

Christopher Swift is participating in the Allegories seminar at ASTR, continuing his work on processional spatial practices in sixteenth-century Mexican missionary complexes. In preparation for the second exam, Christopher has purchased all published works that have “hybrid,” “performativity,” or “Mignolo” printed on their covers, arranging them in tall stacks around his apartment.

Dan Venning (Level II) passed his first exam at the beginning of August and has begun teaching at Hunter College, where he is currently serving as a TA for three sections of Intro to Theatre. Over the summer, in addition to prepping for the exam, he continued as Associate Dramaturg at California Shakespeare Theater, where he served as Production Dramaturg for Marivaux’s The Triumph of Love. In November, Dan will be participating in the Shakespearean Performance Research Group at ASTR. He recently finished his first quarter-of-a-century (or 2.5% of a millennium), and looks forward to completing the rest of those, as well as his fields and upcoming booklists.

Melissa WS Wong (Level I) is currently filling the gaps in her knowledge of theatre history by reading plays from varied genres, centuries and continents in Prof. Milhous’s class, as well as having her conceptions of borders and boundaries widened in the class of Prof. Graham-Jones’s. Besides working on her term papers, with topics ranging from the performance of torture and identity to the works of Chilean-born artist Alfredo Jaar, Melissa is also reworking papers which investigate the relationship between national identity and the arts in Singapore for the upcoming conferences PSi#13 and ASTR. She is currently member-at-large for the Performance Studies Focus Group at ATHE, and looks forward to organizing the Graduate Student Conference for Spring 2008 with fellow students Dan Venning and Lindsay Livingston. To all graduate students in the department: Please send in your abstracts!

Jennifer Worth (Level III) is spending a few days a week as a Writing Fellow out at York College, developing a series of workshops for senior students in Social Work. The rest of the time she’s working on her dissertation, “‘Real American Entertainment’: Performing National Authenticity in Branson, Missouri.” She defended her proposal in June, wrote the introductory chapter over the summer, and is now focusing on the importance of the hillbilly to Branson’s tourism industry. Her review of the 2007 Theatertreffen will be published in the March 2008 issue of Theatre Journal.

Catherine Young was living in a grain elevator eating a fried bologna sandwich when a breeze off Lake Erie whispered in her ear that she should pack up her family and move to New York City to study theater. She has an M.A. in English from SUNY Buffalo. Her academic interests include feminist theory, dance on film, documentary, and twentieth century performance in the United States.

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Elisa Legon, President

Stephen Huff, First Vice President, editor of The Green Room

Suzi Takahashi, Second Vice President, Booth Award

Daniel Venning, Secretary

Meg Araneo, Treasurer

Robert Davis, Curriculum Committee Representative

Naomi Stubbs, Admissions Committee Representative

Bethany Holmstrom, Tea Coordinator

Ana Martinez, Representative to the DSC

                                                    Contact Stephen Huff at shuffnyc@gmail.com
                           
11/14/2007