This year’s conference is animated by a theme that resonates in all of us at this turning point in history, “Difficult Dialogues: Theatre and The Art of Engagement.”  The Rocky Mountains, at once beautiful and rugged, serve as a powerful image for theatre in higher education today.  Individually and collectively, we face a mountain range of issues that compel attention--issues so daunting that they are difficult to navigate safely.

ATHE’s rich and storied history is marked by many attempts to face difficult issues. The literature describing this conference asks us to consider “how theatre, theatre artists and scholars engage an audience, on stage, in the classroom and with the written word in an effort to achieve an authentic dialogue.” Read more.

Echo Lake, part of the Denver Mountain Park System, maintained by the City of Denver, with Mount Evans in the background.
Photo by Richard Grant, Denver Metro
Convention & Visitors Bureau.

At this year's conference in Denver, the Electronic Technology Committee will once again be offering a number of exciting sessions on theatre and digital technologies to serve attendees. Read more.

Panelists answer questions at Conference 2007.

ATHE President Steve Peters addresses Governing Council members and Focus Group Representatives during the mid-year meeting in Denver.

This Issue's Featured Photo

I first met Barbara Hodgdon at a small conference on Theatre History at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles. I sat at her table during one of the lunches, and we started up a conversation that remains memorable because she was generous and friendly to a graduate student at sea in Shakespeare Studies. We continued that conversation via email, and have remained on again-off again pen pals ever since. Read more.

Gale Sheaffer and Gail Medford, co-chairs of the Theatre Education Reform Subcommittee of the Advocacy Committee, invite you to participate in the subcommittee’s business meeting in a new town hall format. Read more.