The past winter and spring have seen numerous AHCT events and activities, including on-going committee projects and the annual conference in El Paso, in March. The past year also brought the death of our distinguished colleague and mentor, Professor Everett Hesse, who died on August 11, 1996. In several ways, the officers, the board, and the membership of AHCT have sought to express our deep respect for his scholarship and our sincere appreciation for the friendship and support he so generously gave to his fellow comediantes and to AHCT. This support, both material and in spirit, will continue in the form of the "Everett Hesse Memorial Endowment," established this year with a generous, posthumous gift from Everett's estate. Notes on this and other memorial activities follow.
AHCT dues for 1997: Please send membership fees to Anita Stoll/ 2081 Lamberton Road/ Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 (a.stoll@rock.geo.csuohio.edu). If you receive the newsletter via e-mail, you will receive a separate notification of your dues status. If the newsletter comes to you via regular mail, check the mailing label on the envelope for the date when your membership expires: e.g. (thru 3/97). Please note, dues for regular members have been increased to $20 per year, with the additional $5 to be added to the Everett Hesse Memorial Endowment. Other dues categories remain the same; see the note on the last page of the Newsletter for complete information. To simplify your annual dues payment, please feel free to pay for more than one year ahead.
The AHCT Annual Conference, March 5-8, 1997, El Paso, TX. This year's meeting featured some forty scholarly papers on aspects of Golden Age theater, with evening performances of works by Lope, Calderón, and others at the Chamizal National Park. Conference highlights included: Isaac Benabu's production of El médico de su honra, with players from the Professional Theater Training Program, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; AHCT Special guest John Varey who presented the Everett W. Hesse Memorial Lecture, "Town and Country in Spanish theater of the Golden Age"; and a memorial session for Everett Hesse, "Reminiscences: A Celebration of the Life of Everett W. Hesse (with contributions by James A. Parr, Sharon voros, Franklin G. Smith, Donald Dietz, Karl Gregg, and others).
Notes from the Annual Board Meeting, March 5, 1997. At this year's meeting, the board said farewell to retiring member, Karl Gregg, and received newly-elected members Susan Paun de García, David Pasto, and Ángel Sá1nchez, and returning members Donald Dietz, Sharon Voros, Dawn Smith, Valerie Hegstrom, and Catherine Larson. The nominating committee presented and the board unanimously approved reappointment of currentAHCT officers: Don Dietz, President; Catherine Larson, First Vice-President; Anita Stoll, Second Vice-President; Sharon Voros, Treasurer; Robert Johnston, Secretary. Amy Williamsen remains as manager of the AHCT video archives, and Vern Williamsen continues his responsibility for the comedia bulletin board and our www home page.
1. AHCT President, Don Dietz, announced that the association has received a gift of $25,000 from Everett Hesse's estate to establish an "Everett Hesse Memorial Endowment," which will support AHCT activities for Hispanic classical theater production. The fund should provide an annual amount of up to $2,500 to spend as "seed money" for projects proposed through AHCT committees. Approved projects will be assured support, but with the understanding that committees will seek external grant money also. In addition, the board agreed to increase the endowment by seeking donations and by increasing annual dues for regular members from $15 to $20.
2. The board also decided to sponsor publication of a volume in honor of Everett Hesse. It will include papers concerned exclusively with production, with Barbara Mujica and Anita Stoll as editors.
3. AHCT Treasurer, Sharon Voros reported that income for the year (3/96 to 3/97) has matched expenditures, and that the association's account shows a balance of $8,618. (Dues, video fees, and gifts comprise the association's main sources of income). Significant items on the ledger included grant support from the Committee for Cultural Cooperation between Spain's Ministry of Culture and United States Universities to support Isaac Benabu's production of El médico de su honra; and the AHCT conference in Almagro, Spain last summer. Since 1987, AHCT has received a total of $75,000 in grants and contributions, which have helped sponsor numerous translations and productions of Hispanic classical theater.
3. Towards 2000 (Chair, Isaac Benabu): After a successful symposium in Almagro last summer, the committee looks ahead to arranging conferences at other sites. The combination of theater performances with academic proceedings and the inclusion of colleagues interested in play production and in sixteenth and seventeenth-century theater of other national literatures remain as objectives.
4. Liaison with National and Regional Organizations (Chair, Anita Stoll): AHCT has again applied to MLA for allied status. Given AHCT's academic orientation and membership, and after several years of special sessions at MLA meetings, such affiliation seems appropriate. It was suggested that if MLA should again turn us down, we might consider affiliation with the Association of Literary Scholars as an alternative.
5. Translation Committee (Chair, Dawn Smith): During the past year, with a grant from the Committee for Cultural Cooperation, the Translation Committee sponsored Isaac Benabu's very successful production in English of El médico de su honra (The Physician of his Honor). As encouragement to others, Isaac noted that his company knew very little about Calderón initially, but they responded with exceptional interest, enthusiasm, and dedication. In addition, with no cuts, the production took only 23 days. Comedias can be made attractive to modern, English-speaking companies and audiences, and they can be produced within a reasonable time.
The committee welcomes proposals for future productions in translation. For those interested, the AHCT website bibliography, which contains references to Spanish plays in English translation with comments on production, offers a valuable resource.
6. Student Scholarships and Grants (Chair, Barbara Mujica): The committee awarded travel grants of $200 each this year to graduate students Laura Vidler from UC Urvine, and Adabel Díaz Rivera from Georgetown University. Please direct inquiries and applications for 1998 grants to Prof. Barbara Mujica, Georgetown University (mujica@guvax.acc.georgetown.edu).
7. Video Library (Chair, Amy Williamsen): Loans of videotapes have increased dramatically this year; the collection has been inventoried and hopefully orders can be processed smoothly. Requests for tapes should be addressed to Amy Williamsen, by e-mail if possible, at amyw@u.arizona.edu, or at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Modern Languages 545, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721. Video rentals are for a period of thirty days, after which an additional charge will apply. To help rate the usefulness and quality of tapes and to identify problems, an evaluation form will accompany video requests to be filled out by the borrower and returned with the videos. Please let AHCT know of comedia productions so we can obtain copies for the video library.
8. Visual Studies Series (Chair, Valerie Hegstrom): Work continues on the "Pioneers of the Comedia" project, with a 12-minute segment featuring Everett Hesse completed last year. The committee plans to film interviews with other senior comedia scholars, conducted, when possible, with the scholars' former students. They will also explore the feasibility of digitizing the AHCT video collection. The process will replace videotapes which will deteriorate with time, and it offers some potential to improve the quality of light and sound in the recordings.
9. Electronics Project (Vern Williamsen): The AHCT homepage (http://listserv.ccit.arizona.edu/comedia.html) and bulletin board are operating, and notes have arrived from people around world who have used our system. Homepage resources for teaching and research include digitized texts, illustrations, and bibliographies. Thanks to all who've contributed.
Vern also notes that he has the Richard Tyler files from the Center for Golden Age Studies at Nebraska. These include: plot summaries of some 2,800 comedias, including all plays attributed to Lope de Vega by Morley and Bruerton in their Chronology Lope de Vega's Comedias (1940); some 35 to 40 boxes of 3x5 cards containing Golden Age bibliography up to about 1980; and some 60 boxes which Tyler titled "ideas" files. The collection can be made available for research and to persons who might, for example, transcribe the information for a data base; the bibliography in particular would complement the MLA's digitized entries which date from 1980 onward.
10. Grant Proposals (Chair, Catherine Larson): As a routine policy, project organizers should plan to seek external funds to help support AHCT initiatives. We have had good success with the Committee for Cultural Cooperation under their heading of "Dissemination of Spanish Culture." To receive AHCT endorsement, please remember to route applications for external grants through the First-Vice President.
Plans for the 1998 AHCT Annual Conference: The officers and the board have agreed unanimously that we should continue to schedule the annual conference to coincide with the Chamizal Golden Age Theater Festival in El Paso in March. While UTEP has contributed some financial support, as well as space for a computer workshop this year, the flexibility allowed by holding the conference at a separate venue has served us well. To this end, Catherine Larson has accepted the role of "Director" for the 1998 conference. She will coordinate the activities of chairpersons charged with different facets of the operation: program, financial arrangements, hospitality, and so forth. (See the "Call for Papers" below, for additional details).
Chamizal Archive: Don Dietz reported his conversations with Bill Sontag and Paul Roney regarding conditions and access to the extensive materials held in the Chamizal archive. These include thousands of slides, black and white videos of early productions, complete collections of reviews of performances from periodicals on both sides of the border. The materials are intact and have been transferred to vaults in the new center, but they are in need of cataloging. Chamizal officials will collaborate with AHCT to make available the resource and facilitate research. Please pass the word to colleagues and to students.
Please send paper titles and 1-page abstracts to Prof. Denise DiPuccio, Dept. of Romance Languages, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996 (e-mail: dipuccio@utk.edu) by November 1, 1997. Participants may propose papers or entire sessions. Presentations on all topics related to Golden Age theater are welcome, although we especially encourage studies emphasizing the performance of Siglo de Oro dramatic texts. Papers should be 20 minutes long, in Spanish or in English. The program committee would appreciate early notification of specific requests for equipment or preferred day of presentation. Graduate students are encouraged to submit proposals, though we request that you send completed papers rather than abstracts; please send 10-page papers to Prof. Christopher Weimer, Dept. of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078 (e-mail: cbw3@vm1.ucc.okstate.edu) by December 10, 1997. Graduate students whose papers are accepted are eligible to apply for travel support grants (see "Student Scholarships and Grants" above).
Additional Conference Notes: Women Writers of Later Medieval and Early Modern Spain and Colonial Latin America. October 30-November 1, 1997, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Contact: Gwyn E. Campbell, Dept. of Romance Languages, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA 24450. FAX: (540)463-8479; e-mail: campbell.g@wlu.edu.
Dues Categories: A) Individual Membership @ $20 annually [$5 to be applied to the Everett W.Hesse Memorial Endowment]; B) Individual Membership (Retired Members/Students) @ $10 annually; C) Patron Membership @ $25 annually with the privilege of requesting the loan of one video from our archives without charge; D) Sponsor Membership @ $50 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 @ $50 annually with the privileges of D above; and F) Sustaining Membership @ 500.00, 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.
Con un saludo cordial para todos,
Association for Hispanic Classical Theater, Inc.
Most recent update: 03 Aug 2005