Dear AHCT Member:
Late-summer's greetings from the Officers and Board of AHCT. This issue of the Newsletter contains highlights from the annual AHCT Conference in El Paso in March; a report from the AHCT conference, "Nuevas Direcciones en el Estudio de la Comedia/Beyond 2000: New Directions in Comedia Studies," which was held in Almagro, Spain, in July; the call for papers for next year's annual conference in El Paso; and additional details about AHCT programs and activities.
Dues Reminder: The AHCT budget depends almost entirely on members' dues, which support the annual conference, the video library, the Comedia Bulletin Board, the AHCT web site, the biannual newsletter, the Everett Hesse Endowment, and other services. If you have been a member of AHCT during the past three years, by now you should have received a hard copy of the Newsletter via US mail. Please check the mailing label for your current dues status and use the enclosed form to renew your membership. If you have not been a member of AHCT please consider joining.
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The Year-2000 AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium, El Paso, TX, March 9-11.
This year's conference commemorated the fourth centenary of the birth of Calderón de la Barca. The program included some fifty papers by AHCT members on scholarly topics related to Calderón and to the comedia. Dakin Matthews of the Antaeus Company of Los Angeles and Hugh Richmond, Shakespeare scholar and Professor Emeritus of the University of California Berkeley, gave a plenary session on "Placing Golden Age Plays in the American Theater Repertoire; and Ricard Salvat (President of AIET, Barcelona), César Olivares (Universidad de Murcia), José-Luis Ibáñez (UNAM), Barbara Mujica (Georgetown University), and Isaac Benabu (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) gave a roundtable session on "Directing the Comedia." The symposium coincided with the Siglo de Oro Festival at the Chamizal National Monument, which included performances of Calderón's Mañana será otro día by the Drama Department of the University of Puerto Rico, La Celestina by Teatro y Danza de la UNAM, El burlador de Sevilla by AIET & Universidad de Barcelona; and The Liar or Truth Can't be Trusted (Dakin Matthews's translation of La verdad sospechosa) by Antaeus Company of Los Angeles. AHCT's Barbara Mujica, Georgetown University, served as a discussant for the festival's roundtable sessions, along with Jorge Urritia of the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid. Those who attended may agree that the program for this year's Siglo de Oro Festival was one of the best in the Festival's history.
Board Elections: Don Dietz, Anita Stoll, Catherine Larson, Susan Paun de García, David Pasto, Sharon Voros, and Angel Sánchez were reelected for three-year terms. Bob Blue, University of Kansas, and Mindy Badía, University of Arkansas, were elected as new members.
Treasurer's Report: AHCT ended 1999 with assets totaling $38,366. The Everett W. Hesse Fund comprised $27,894 of this, with the remainder in the AHCT operating account. Grant monies of $5,000 from the Program for Cultural Cooperation between the Spanish Ministry of Education and US Universities were used to support productions in translation. The Everett Hesse fund grew by some $1,300, thanks to contributions from dues, interest, and donations.
Election of Officers: The Board reelected the current officers for one-year terms: Don Dietz, President; Catherine Larson, Vice-President, Anita Stoll, Second Vice-President; Robert Johnston, Secretary; and Sharon Voros, Treasurer.
Video Library: The AHCT collection now contains videotapes of some 150 Chamizal performances, interviews, lectures, and conference events. Among tapes available, members will find the series "Pioneers of Comedia Studies," which includes taped interviews with Everett Hesse, Francisco Ruiz Ramón and José María Ruano de la Haza, Vern Williamsen, Shirley B. Whittaker, John E. Varey, Donald T. Dietz, and Frank Casa. The complete catalog may be viewed on the AHCT web page, <../>. Orders and inquiries may be sent by e-mail to the AHCT Video Library assistant, Mr. Manuel Gómez at <gomezm@u.arizona.edu>.
Videotape Preservation Project: To assure preservation of the video collection, Gwyn Campbell of Washington and Lee University has led an initiative to transfer materials to CD-ROM format with the help of computer facilities at her university.
Awards: AHCT's Walter Reid Award for a production in translation was given to Dakin Matthews and the Antaeus Company for The Liar or Truth Can't Be Trusted, which played in the Chamizal Theater on Saturday, March 11. Julie Gagnon-Riopel from McGill University received this year's Everett Hesse Student Scholarship travel award for her paper titled: "El cambio de la fortuna en El duque de Viseo y en Saber del mal y del bien."
After a successful conference in Almagro in July, 1996, AHCT's Committee Beyond 2000 organized another gathering in Almagro in July 2000. This year's format alternated between traditional sessions with scholarly papers and "mesa redonda" sessions with open discussion of specific topics and themes with panels of directors, actors, and scholars. Topics for the mesas redondas included: "Calderón en Italia y en la música," "La puesta en escena de los clásicos," "La comedia desde la escena y desde el auditorio: la lectura en el mundo académico y en el teatro," "Teatro y propaganda ideológica : autos sacramentales al servicio de la monarquía (1599-1639)." Guests invited for these panels included: Cesar Oliva Olivares (U. de Murcia), Guillermo Heras, Juan Antonio Hormigón (RESAD), Antonio Tordera (U. de Valencia), Fernando Urdiales (Teatro Corsario, Valladolid), Alan K. Paterson (U. of Saint Andrews), Concha Argente del Castillo (U. de Granada), Rafael González Cañal (U. de Castilla-La Mancha), Carmen Pinillos (U. de Navarra). Workshop sessions included actors from the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico (Nuria Gallardo, Carlos Alvarez) and AIET-U. de Barcelona (Laura Sancho, Iván Campillo) who discussed their roles in productions of La vida es sueño (Almagro, July 2000) and El burlador de Sevilla (Chamizal, March 2000). The conference coincided with the XXIII Festival de Teatro Clásico de Almagro, and participants attend productions of Calderón's Las mañanas de abril y mayo and La vida es sueño by Producciones Andrea D'Odorico and the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico, and of El Arcipreste, a solo performance based on El corbacho, by Rafael Álvarez, El Brujo.
AHCT extends special thanks to Luciano García Lorenzo, Director of the Festival de Teatro Clásico de Almagro, for his generous collaboration with arrangements for the conference. These included use of the charming Palacio del Conde de Valdeparaíso for conference sessions, tickets for Festival productions, and a bounteous closing reception. Thanks also to the AHCT Committee Beyond 2000, for their very successful efforts (Isaac Benabu, Chair, and Susan Paun de García, Donald Larson, Barbara Mujica, Sharon Voros, Anita Stoll, and Dawn Smith).
Call for Papers: AHCT's annual Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium will be held March 8-10, 2001, in El Paso, Texas. AHCT particularly welcomes studies on the performance of Siglo de Oro dramatic texts, though presentations on all topics related to comedia studies are appropriate. Papers should be 20 minutes long, in Spanish or in English. College and university faculty should send paper titles with 1-page abstracts and/or proposals for special sessions to Prof. Denise DiPuccio, Dept. of Foreign Languages & literatures, University of North Carolina, 601 S. College Rd., Wilmington, NC 28403-3297 (e-mail: <dipucciod@uncwil.edu>). Persons interested in participating in sessions following a new format with the focus on discussion rather than the actual reading of papers should so indicate with their submissions. For these sessions papers will be read beforehand by attendees, presenters will summarize their arguments briefly, and the session will be devoted to open discussion between presenters and the audience.
Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals, though we request that you send complete, 10-page papers rather than abstracts; please send two copies of your paper to Prof. Christopher Weimer, Dept of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Oklahoma State Univ., Stillwater, OK 74078 by December 1, 2000. (E-mail address for questions, <CBWeimer@aol.com>, but please do not submit papers electronically). Graduate students whose papers are accepted will be considered for AHCT's Everett W. Hesse travel support grant.
The conference will take place at the Camino Real Hotel in El Paso, Texas. Reservations may be made by phone at 1-800-769-4300 or (915) 534-3099, Monday through Friday 8 a.m.- 6 p.m. MST. The deadline to make reservations is February 4, 2000. Participants should mention the AHCT Conference and request the group rate of $69.00 plus tax per night (single or double), which will apply Tuesday, March 6, through Sunday, March 10. To register for the conference, please send your name, affiliation, address, telephone, e-mail address, and a check for $80 (graduate students $25, undergraduates $15) to: Prof. Anita Stoll, Second Vice-President AHCT, 2081 Lamberton Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118 by February 15, 2000. (There will be an additional late fee of $10.00 after this date.) Registration covers conference attendance, the AHCT Conference Banquet, transportation to Chamizal for theatrical performances, and refreshments in the Association's hospitality room after the plays. Conference participants are also asked to join AHCT; membership fees and information appear at the end of this newsletter. Please make checks payable to AHCT and indicate in the bottom left-hand corner of your check whether payment is for dues, conference registration, or both.
As in past years the Symposium coincides with the Golden Age Spanish Theater Festival sponsored by the US Park Service at the Chamizal National Memorial. The tentative March program for the Festival includes productions of La dama duende by Universidad de Guadalajara, Arcipreste-Corbacho by Producciones El Brujo, La vida es sueño by Teatro Corsario, and works still to be announced by Universidad de Murcia and Repertorio Español.
Additional Notes: El texto puesto en escena: Estudios sobre la comedia en honor a Everett W. Hesse, ed. Barbara Mujica and Anita Stoll, London: Tamesis, 2000, ISBN 1 855 66 064 4, a volume in honor of one of AHCT's most distinguished supporters, has now been published.
Millenium Donors: Contributions from the following list of "Millennium Donors" have reached a combined total of more than $700:
AHCT
P.O. Box 28226
Tempe, AZ 85282.
Your contribution will be
deeply appreciated.
With best wishes for the fall,
Bob Johnston
AHCT Recording Secretary
Department of Modern
Languages
Box 6004
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ
86011-6004
e-mail: <robert.johnston@nau.edu>
Association for Hispanic Classical Theater, Inc.
Most recent update: 03 Aug 2005