AHCT Newsletter
August 2003

Dear AHCT Colleague:

End-of-summer's greetings from the officers and board members of AHCT.
In this issue of the newsletter you will find notes from the annual
conference in March 2003, including the AHCT board and general meetings,
along with the call for papers and information for next year's
conference. Please remember to check the mailing label on this
newsletter for your dues status. To renew your membership follow the
instructions on the enclosed dues notice.

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 two 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, or if you have let your
membership expire, please consider joining. Dues information appears
at the end of the newsletter.

AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium, El Paso, TX, March 6-8, 2003.

This year's conference featured 25 sessions with over 70 scholarly
papers on an array of topics related to the comedia. Program
Coordinator Sharon Voros reported over one hundred registered
participants. Highlights included a roundtable session organized by
Angel Sánchez of Arizona State University on "Recent Performances at the
Chamizal Siglo de Oro Theater Festival." Participants included:
Barbara Mujica (Georgetown University), Robert Lauer (University of
Oklahoma), Sharon Voros (United States Naval Academy), and Isaac Benabu
(Hebrew University). A second roundtable session, moderated by Valerie
Hegstrom of Brigham Young University, focused on the performance in
English of María de Zayas's Friendship Betrayed at this year's Chamizal
Festival. Participants included the production's director, David Pasto,
and members of the cast from Oklahoma City University, and Catherine
Larson (Indiana University), whose translation they performed.
Conference participants also attended plays at the Chamizal National
Memorial's annual Siglo de Oro Drama Festival. These included, in
addition to the Oklahoma City production of Zayas's Friendship Betrayed,
Lope de Vega's La moza del cántaro performed by the Escuela Nacional de
Arte Teatral (México, D.F.), directed by Ignacio Escórcega, and
Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla's Abre el ojo, by Producciones Inconstantes
(Madrid, Spain), directed by Emilio del Valle.

From the Board of Directors Meeting and the General Meeting, March 2003:
2004 Conference: Angel Sánchez will assume the role of Program
Coordinator for the 2004 AHCT conference. Don Larson will continue as
program chair. On behalf of all AHCT members, the officers unanimously
recognized Sharon Voros's generous and very effective service as
coordinator of the past three annual conferences.
Board Elections: Board members Mindy Badía, Bob Blue, Donald Dietz,
David Pasto, Susan Paun de García, Angel Sanchez, Anita Stoll and Sharon
Voros were re-elected. New members William Forbes (University of New
Hampshire), Bonnie Gasior (California State University, Long Beach) and
Dale Pratt (Brigham Young University) were welcomed. The current slate
of officers were approved to serve again during the coming year.
Treasurer's Report: AHCT Treasurer, Sharon Voros, reported that the
association is in good financial health, with funds received matching or
exceeding expenditures. To keep a more detailed account of AHCT
financial activity, the board elected to begin recording voluntary,
in-kind contributions made by members. Board member William Forbes will
coordinate record keeping.
Video Archive Preservation: The board again recognized Gwyn Campbell
for her work to preserve the AHCT videotape collection in digital
format. Mr. Dick Knitter, Lab Director at Washington and Lee
University, also received a vote of thanks for his generous support of
the project. A list of plays available to date in CD format appears as
an appendix to the e-mail version of the December 2002, newsletter on
file at the AHCT website.
Graduate Student Award: This year's AHCT Everett W. Hesse Travel
Support Grant was awarded to Amy Austin , of Emory University, for her
paper: "Autorreferencialidad corporal en el entremés, La casa holgona,
de Pedro Calderón de la Barca."
Production in Translation Awards: AHCT's Production in Translation
Committee gave monetary awards this year in support of Catherine
Larson's translation of María de Zayas's Friendship Betrayed and in
support of Oklahoma City University's production of the play at the
Chamizal Festival. The committee invites applications for production in
translation awards; for information on how to submit a proposal, please
consult the AHCT web page.
Comedia Outreach: To further AHCT goals of promoting productions of
Golden Age plays, the board created a new committee titled, "From Page
to Stage: Getting the Comedia into Production." Matthew Stroud, Isaac
Benabu, and Susan Paun de García will lead this initiative.
Video Library: The AHCT video archive has seen continued lending
activity for members' teaching and research. Students from University of
Rhode Island have completed their video, "Vamos al Chamizal," with AHCT
support. A copy will be made available to members in the video archive.
Requests for tapes should be directed to Sergio Martínez:
semartin@u.arizona.edu, with a cc. to Amy Williamsen: amyw@u.arizona.edu.
AHCT Web Page and Comedia Bulletin Board: The URL for the AHCT website
is: http://www.comedias.org/. To join the moderated discussion group,
select the link at the website. Members are strongly encouraged to help prepare
additional plays for the site. Please include a list of named male and
female characters to help directors considering plays for production.
Contact Matthew Stroud at: comedia@trinity.edu, for more details.
Revisions to AHCT By-Laws: After thoughtful discussion, the board
finalized amendments to the AHCT By-Laws. Revisions remove obsolete
details and favor gender-neutral language. A copy of the final,
revised version will be made available at the AHCT website.
New AHCT Sponsored Journal: Comedia Performance: In response to a
proposal from Barbara Mujica of Georgetown University, the board decided
to provide financial support to establish a scholarly journal, titled
Comedia Performance. Funding will come from the accrued interest in
the Hesse endowment together with monies generated by a $10 increase in
AHCT membership dues. AHCT membership will include subscription to the
journal. In addition to scholarly articles on topics related to the
performance of Spanish Classical theater from the seventeenth century to
the present, Comedia Performance will include theater reviews and
interviews with directors. It will be issued yearly as a bound paper
publication. Please help support this effort by submitting for
consideration your research on the comedia and performance. Direct
inquiries and submissions to: Professor Barbara Mujica, Editor, Comedia
Performance, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Box 571039,
Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. 20057-1039. Submissions may
be sent on disk via US mail, or as e-mail attachments to: mujica@georgetown.edu.

***

AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium, March 2004: Next year's AHCT
Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium will take place March 4-6, 2004, in
El Paso, Texas. As in past years the Symposium will coincide with the
Golden Age Spanish Theater Festival sponsored by the US Park Service at
the Chamizal National Memorial. As they become available, details of
the Festival program will appear on the Comedia Bulletin Board, in the
December newsletter, and on the AHCT web page.
Call for Papers: AHCT encourages studies on all aspects of
performance of Siglo de Oro dramatic texts, though proposals on other
topics related to Spanish Golden Age theater are welcome. Papers should
be 20 minutes in length, in Spanish or in English. Please indicate a
preferred day for your presentation and your anticipated equipment
needs. College and university faculty should send paper titles with
1-page abstracts and/or proposals for special sessions to: Prof. Donald
R. Larson, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Cunz Hall 266, The Ohio
State University, Columbus, OH 43210-1229. Tel.: (614) 292-2414. FAX:
(614) 292 7726. E-mail: larson.3@osu.edu. Submissions may be sent by
regular mail, by FAX, or as an e-mail attachment in Word. FAX
transmissions should include a cover sheet addressed to Prof. Larson.
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is December 1, 2003.
Graduate students are encouraged to submit completed papers. Send two
copies of your complete ten-page paper to: Professor Christopher
Weimer, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Oklahoma State
University, Stillwater, OK 74078. Professor Weimer's e-mail,
CBWeimer@aol.com, should be used to request information and ask
questions only; please do not send submissions electronically. Graduate
students whose papers are accepted will be considered for the AHCT
Everett W. Hesse Travel Support Grant. The deadline for the submission
of completed papers is December 1, 2003.
Hotel Reservations: The AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium
will take place at the Camino Real Hotel in El Paso, Texas. Sessions
begin Thursday morning, March 4, and end Saturday afternoon, March 6,
2004. Again, please indicate a preferred day for your presentation.
Hotel reservations may be made by phone at 1-800-769-4300 or
1-915-534-3099, Monday through Friday, 8 am. to 5 pm. (MST). The
deadline for the conference room rate is February 3, 2004. Participants
must mention the AHCT Conference (Association for Hispanic Classical
Theater) and request the group rate of $89 for a single or double (plus
tax)
Conference Registration: You must be a member of AHCT to register for
the conference. If you are not currently a member, please send
membership dues of $30 along with your conference registration fee. To
register for the conference, send you name, affiliation, address,
telephone, and e-mail address, with a check for $90 (faculty) or $30
(students) to: Professor Anita K. Stoll, First Vice-President, AHCT,
2081 Lamberton Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118. (E-mail:
a.stoll@sims.csuohio.edu. Please send registration and membership dues
by February 8, 2004; there will be a late fee of an additional $10 for
registration after that date. Checks should be payable to AHCT.
Please send separate checks for dues and registration, and please
indicate at the bottom left-hand corner of your check whether the
payment is for dues or conference registration. Registration includes
conference attendance, the AHCT Annual Banquet in the Dome Room in the
Camino Real, transportation to and from the Chamizal National Memorial
each evening for the Siglo de Oro Spanish Drama Festival, coffee and
refreshments during the conference, and refreshments in the Hospitality
Room after the theater performances.
Conference Up-Dates: Please check the AHCT website at
<www.comedias.org> for conference updates.
For additional questions about the conference, please contact the AHCT
Conference Director, Professor Angel Sánchez, Department of Languages &
Literatures, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287. Tel. (480) 965-
4576. E-mail: angel.sanchez@asu.edu.
***


Contributions to AHCT: Donations to the AHCT Everett Hesse Endowment
and the Millennium Fund have now surpassed $2,000. To contribute,
simply send a check to: AHCT, P.O. Box 28226 Tempe, AZ 85282. Your
support is deeply appreciated.

AHCT Dues Information: The mailing label on the newsletter will verify
your dues status. The date by your name shows the end of the period for
which membership has been paid (e.g., 3/03 = dues paid through March
2003, time to renew). To keep your membership current and to help us
keep our records accurate, please send dues and report corrections or
changes in your address and affiliation to Anita Stoll (address below).
To simplify payment, please feel free to pay for more than one year ahead.
Dues Categories: A) Individual Membership @ $30 annually [$5 to be
applied to the Everett W. Hesse Memorial Endowment]; B) Individual
Membership (Retired Members/Students) @ $20 annually; C) Patron
Membership @ $35 annually with the privilege of requesting the loan of
one video from our archives without charge; D) Sponsor Membership @ $60
annually with the privilege of requesting the loan of two videos from
our archives without charge and the invitation to attend and participate
in the annual meeting of the Board; E) Institutional Membership @ $60
annually with the privileges of D above; and F) Sustaining Membership @
510.00, payable one time only, with the privileges of requesting the
loan of two videos from our archives annually without charge and the
invitation to attend and participate in the annual meeting of the board.
Please send dues to: Prof. Anita Stoll, Second Vice-President AHCT, 2081
Lamberton Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118
(<a.stoll@sims.csuohio.edu>). (Checks to: Association for Hispanic
Classical Theater).

With best wishes for the coming academic year, and

Un cordial saludo,

Bob Johnston
AHCT Recording Secretary
Department of Modern Languages
Box 6004
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-6004
E-mail: robert.johnston@nau.edu