Robert A. Schanke Theatre Research Award
Through a generous donation, Dr. Robert A. Schanke, Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Central College in Iowa, Former Editor of Theatre History Studies, and long-time leader of MATC, has established a theatre research competition among those scholars whose work is accepted for presentation at the Mid-America Theatre Conference, beginning with the March 2005 conference in Kansas City, MO.
The Robert A. Schanke Research Award is given annually to an untenured faculty presenter at the Theatre History Symposium and carries a cash award of $500 as well as consideration for publication in Theatre History Studies, the journal of the Mid-America Theatre Conference. The recipient of the award will be recognized at the MATC Luncheon.
Interested scholars should submit their complete, conference-length paper to the Theatre History Symposium Co-Chairs by February 10, 2024. and note their desire to be considered for the Robert A. Schanke Theatre Research Award. Scholars must have completed their education with a terminal degree (PhD or MFA) within the last ten years in order to be eligible. Submissions will be evaluated based on rigor of research, clarity of writing, relevance and contribution to the field, and publishability.
Complete submissions for the 2024 competition or any questions should be sent to Theatre History Symposium Co-Chairs:
Allison Gibbes, Utah Tech University
Dennis Sloan, DePauw University
Recipients of the Robert A. Schanke Research Award
Ariel Nereson 2023 (winner): “A Manifesto for the Impossible: Collision as Coalition in Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane’s Continuous Replay“
Patrick McKelvey 2023 (honorable mention): “”The Curious Case of Katherine Cornell’s Soporific Spaniel: Toward a Disability History of the (Im)Possible Canine Performance Labor”
Heidi L. Nees, 2022: “Present Perfect Tense: Revolutionizing Dramatic Narratives through Living History at the Oconoluftee Indian Village”
Lindsey Mantoan, 2020: “New Conventions for a New Generation: High School Musicals and the Pivot from Golden Age Broadway Values”
Julie Burrell, 2019: “Reinventing Reconstruction and Scripting Civil Rights in Theodore Ward’s Our Lan’.”
Honorable Mention, 2019: Matthew McMahan “(Re)inventing Race at the Nouveau Cirque: Clown Acts of Foottit and Chocolat”
Michelle Granshaw, 2018: “Inventing the Tramp: The Early Tramp Comic on the Variety Stage.”
Noe Montez, 2017: “Yes We Can? Resisting the Obama Presidency’s Neoliberalist Envisioning of the American Dream in Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity.”
La Donna L. Forsgren, 2016: “For Members Only to #BlackLivesMatter: The Black Revolution on Campus”
Chandra Owenby Hopkins, 2015: “Whispers from a Silent Past: Inspiration and Memory in Natasha Tretheway’s Native Guard”
Jennifer Goodlander, 2014: “Khmer Identities through the Arts after the Killing Fields in a Post-9/11 New York City”
Christin Essin, 2013: “Memory Control: Mythology, Technology, and A Chorus Line”
Naomi Stubbs, 2012: “The Black Void: Absenting Labor in Pleasure Gardens”
Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, 2011: “Companies to Keep: Air Raid Dramas and International Ethical Responsibility in America, 1936-1939”
Beth Osborne, 2010: “Storytelling, Chiggers, and the Bible Belt: The ‘Georgia Experiment’ as the Public Face of the Federal Theatre Project”
Kelly Carolyn Gordon, 2009: “Class Act(resses): How Depression-Era Stage Actresses Utilized Conflicting Cultural Ideals for Women to Fight Economic Crisis in Their Community”
Robert B. Shimko, 2008: “The Miseries of History: Shakespearean Extremity as Cautionary Tale on the Restoration Stage”
Scott Irelan, 2007: “Goon, Warrior, Communitarian, and Mythos: The Lincoln Legend of Dramatic Literature and Live Performance”
Shauna Vey, 2006: “The Master and the Mademoiselle: Gender Secrets in Plain Sight in Non-Text Based Antebellum Performance”
Ellen MacKay, 2005: “Toward a New Theatre History of Dionysus”