AHCT Newsletter
Dear
AHCT Colleague:
End-of-summer’s greetings from AHCT. This issue of the newsletter
includes reports on the March 2002 conference, the annual meeting of the AHCT
board of directors, and other activities of the association. Entries on the AHCT web page, on
next-year’s annual conference in March 2003, and on the Teatro Cervantes of
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
AHCT
Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium,
This
year’s conference involved some 17 sessions with over 40 scholarly
presentations on an array of topics related to the Spanish comedia. Plenary speakers, Juan Sanz Ballesteros and Miguel Angel
Coso Marín,
professional scenographers from
Notes from the Board of Directors Meeting, March 6, and the
General Meeting,
Elections: The current officers were selected to serve
again during the coming year: Don Dietz, President; Anita Stoll, First
Vice-President; Susan Paun de García,
Second Vice-President; Bob Johnston, Secretary; Sharon Voros,
Treasurer. Bob Johnston was
reelected to the board.
Recognition for Service: The board expressed their appreciation
to Denise DiPuccio for her generous and effective
service on the AHCT board and as Conference Program Chair the over past several
years. She has stepped down from
both roles this year.
Treasurer’s
Report: AHCT
opened the year (on 2/28,01) with $14,486 in liquid
funds, and closed the year (on
The
Production in Translation Committee
announced their new web page designed for persons interested in Spanish
Classical theater in English translation. The site includes information on
translations of plays, bibliographies in English, details about specific
performances, and links to other resources useful to directors and actors in
the
Work
continues on the Preservation of the
AHCT Videotape Collection. Some
40 videotapes of
The
Visual Studies Committee (Don
Larson, Chair) reports that videotaped interviews with Francisco Ruiz
Ramón and J. M. Ruano de la Haza are forthcoming.
The Committee also has taped plenary and round table conference sessions
with good result, including David Pasto’s and
Dennis Raftner’s plenary sessions last
year. These are available on
loan also from the AHCT video library.
Student Scholarships: Graduate student Ivan Fernández Peláez from
Video Library: Requests for videotape loans continue at
a steady rate. Amy Williamsen reported that
Grant Proposals submitted by AHCT this year
have resulted in an award of $2,000 from the Spanish Ministry’s Committee
for Cultural Cooperation in support of the Antaeus
Company’s production of The Proof of the Promise at the 2002 Chamizal Festival.
Committee chair Catherine Larson noted that AHCT has enjoyed a good
relationship with the Spanish Ministry and very good success with grant
proposals. Please remember that
submissions in the name of AHCT should be routed through this committee.
AHCT Web Page and Comedia Bulletin Board: After many years of service, AHCT founding
member Vern Williamsen has stepped down from the
roles of AHCT webmaster and manager of the Comedia
Bulletin Board. At their March 6, meeting, on behalf of all AHCT members, the
board of directors voted unanimously their heartfelt appreciation and thanks
for Vern’s contributions to the association and to comedia
studies.
AHCT
board member Matthew Stroud has agreed to assume responsibility for the web
page and the bulletin board. This
has entailed moving the site of operation from
The
Comedia Bulletin Board now operates as a
“moderated list,” which allows screening for “spam” and
other inappropriate mail. Recipients of the old list have been added to the new one,
if you are currently receiving bulletin board messages, you are already
subscribed. To unsubscribe
follow the directions at: http://www.comedias.org/list.html,
or write to Matt at: mstroud@trinity.edu.
Please
note these new electronic addresses:
·
The URL for the AHCT web
page is now: http://www.comedias.org/.
·
Messages for the
Comedia Bulletin Board should be sent to: comedia@trinity.edu.
Revisions to
AHCT By-Laws: At the March 6, meeting the
board also considered recommendations for revisions to the AHCT By-Laws from an
ad hoc committee chaired by board member Gwyn
Campbell. The by-laws were
written in 1984 and had been revised only once, in 1986. The board approved changes of wording
throughout the document in favor of gender-neutral language and to achieve
better conformity between stated policies and procedures and actual practice as
it has emerged over time. At its
annual meeting in March 2003, the board will consider additional revisions
related to the nomination and election of officers and board members.
***
AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium, March
2003: Next
year’s AHCT Spanish Golden Age Theater Symposium will take place
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. 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,
Please
note: Professor Angel Sánchez is organizing a special session on
performances at the 2002 Siglo de Oro
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,
Hotel Reservations: The AHCT Spanish Golden Age
Theater Symposium will take place at the Hilton Camino Real Hotel (formerly
Camino Real Hotel) in
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 $20 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,
Call for Volunteers:
1. The AHCT provides transportation to the
performances at the
2. The El
Paso Times publishes reviews of Chamizal Festival
performances. The staff of the
Conference Up-Dates: Please check the AHCT website at www.comedias.org
for conference updates. The
conference program will be posted on http://www.denison.edu/~garcia/2003proghtml. For additional questions about the
conference, please contact the AHCT Conference Director, Professor Sharon D. Voros, Language Studies Department,
***
The Antaeus Company Performs Alarcón
In
On the Thursday preceding the weekend performances, theater
faculty and students from the Valley of the Sun’s universities, junior
colleges and selected high schools received invitations to a Seminar/Workshop
on Performing Classical Drama in English on the Contemporary American Stage
sponsored by AHCT. Director Anne McNaughton and players from The Antaeus
Company presented dramatized readings comparing scenes from Shakespeare and the
comedias.
Dr. Susan Paun de García
also prepared and presented a power point presentation on the opportunities and
resources AHCT makes available to directors and producers interested in
performing Golden Age plays. Anyone
who wishes to organize similar activities in their locale should contact Susan Paun de Garcia (from Don Dietz, AHCT President).
Tirso’s Don Juan on Stage at ASU: Professor Oscar Giner
will direct his English translation of Tirso’s‚
El Burlador de Sevilla on
the main stage of the Galvin Theater at
Video Recording
on the
Journal on Comedia Performance: AHCT board member, Barbara Mujica, of
La dama duende at BYU: In April, after
extensive research and with the guidance of AHCT faculty member Dale Pratt,
students at
Performance in Translation
Out-Reach: In July, board member David Pasto represented AHCT at the annual conference of the
Association for Theater in Higher Education in
***
The Teatro
Cervantes de Alcalá de Henares: AHCT members who attended the March
conference will recall Juan Sanz and Miguel Angel Coso’s plenary session, the second half of which
dealt with their discovery of the Teatro Cervantes in
Alcalá and their work for the rehabilitation
of the building as a viable theatrical space. You may also recall that their efforts
on this project had been frustrated during the past three years by a
combination of personalities and politics in the municipal government of Alcalá.
The history of the Teatro Cervantes and of Sanz and Coso’s work for
its restoration is too lengthy to summarize here. References appear below for members who
would like more detail on both of these topics. I can, however, offer an up-date on the
restoration project and Sanz and Coso’s
involvement. In July and August I
visited Alcalá and the Teatro
Cervantes, and I spoke with Sanz and Coso at some length.
The following summarizes what I learned.
Three
years after being pushed to the sidelines by local politics, Sanz and Coso have now been asked
to return to the Teatro Cervantes project. The Consejería
de las Artes of the Comunidad de Madrid has assumed authority and provided
funds, and the Ayuntamiento of Alcalá
will now participate in a collaborative role. After discussion with the Comunidad, Sanz and Coso began work in May 2002 to finalize the rehabilitation
of the theater. By November
of 2002, they will complete work necessary to open the building to the public
as a historical and cultural monument.
Among other things, they hope to recover as much as possible the spatial
atmosphere and the “encanto” of the
original theater. This will
involve reversing some modifications carried out under the aegis of the Ayuntamiento during the past three years. In their workshop I saw turned
banisters, stanchions, and flooring for the balcony of the corral stage,
along with other fixtures, including hand-built templates to reproduce the
ornate, oil lamps which lined the theater during the nineteenth century. Their plan also involves generation of a
thirty-minute live performance, to be repeated at regular intervals for
visitors, explaining the history of the Teatro
Cervantes and the production of theater there over the past four centuries.
Between
January and May 2003, they will oversee the final phase of the project. In addition to the installation of heat
and air conditioning, this will involve preparing an archeological display from
their original excavation of the building.
It will include such items as coins, ceramics, jewelry, and structural
remnants of the various phases of the theater.
The
original vision for the Teatro Cervantes, formulated
with the collaboration of comedia scholar John
Varey and others, involved the creation of a cultural
center with multiple functions. It
would serve as a working theater and also as a museum to preserve and display
the various periods of the theater’s life. In addition, it would accommodate
workshops, conferences, and other activities on a scale appropriate to its
significance as a world-class cultural monument. It remains to be seen whether or
not the future of the Teatro Cervantes will fulfill
this potential. Steps underway this year to complete the rehabilitation of the building seem
to offer promise. This past summer
it served as the venue for a handful of productions in a local theater festival
sponsored by the Comunidad de Madrid and the Ayuntamiento de Alcalá. On the other hand, until now it has
seemed that theater scholars from abroad have displayed the greatest
appreciation for its value and significance. In addition, with municipal
elections slated for May 2003, the political pendulum may well reverse the
progress recently made. There
remains as well the preparation of a full inventory and analysis of the
original excavation of the building.
Sanz and Coso are
the persons who could do this, though the project would require substantial
grant support.
Initial
contact between AHCT and the Teatro Cervantes took
place in 1996 when a group of members visited the theater after the
association’s conference in Almagro. At that time, some members also
wrote letters to the municipal government of Alcalá
in support of Sanz and Coso’s
role in the restoration project.
The plenary session in March renewed this contact and hopefully opens
the way to continuing collaboration between AHCT and Sanz
and Coso and the Teatro Cervantes.
Details
about the discovery and the history of the Teatro
Cervantes appear in: Miguel Angel Coso Marín, Mercedes Higuera Sánchez-Pardo y Juan Sanz Ballesteros, El Teatro
Cervantes de Alcalá de Henares:
1602-1866. Estudio y documentos.
***
Contributions to AHCT: Donations to the AHCT Everett Hesse Endowment and the Millennium Fund have now reached
nearly $2,000. To contribute,
simply send a check to: AHCT,
***
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., 3/01 = dues paid through
March 2001). 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 @ $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.
Please send dues to: Prof. Anita Stoll, Second Vice-President AHCT,
With best wishes for the coming academic year, and
Un cordial saludo,
Bob Johnston
AHCT Recording Secretary
Department of Modern
Languages
Northern
e-mail: <robert.johnston@nau.edu>