ATHE's Journey of Change and Redefinition
By Karen Berman
Delivered at the ATHE Chicago Anniversary Conference 2006
Governing Council, Focus Group Representatives, Past Presidents, Members, distinguished Guests including representatives from so many of the prestigious theatre-related organizations, thank you for coming to Chicago where we began to celebrate this milestone with us as ATHE continues our journey of change and redefinition. I am reminded of Moises Kaufman's challenge to us to create new forms. As ATHE becomes the architect of its change, it seems appropriate to quote Rem Koolhaas, Pulitzer Prize-Winning architect and author: "There is no plateau of resting or stabilization. Once you are interested in how things evolve, you have a kind of never-ending perspective, because it means you are interested in articulating the evolution, and therefore the potential change, the potential redefinition."
With special thanks to Nancy Erickson [1], Shaun Sewell and our Logo Committee members Melanie Blood, Jeannie Woods [2], and John Ore, we have chosen this moment of our ATHE Anniversary to redefine and reinvest in our identity as an organization of 1,700 members with a new face on our logo and a new commitment to service on our brand new Website. In this moment of redefinition and identity, we look forward to continuing to re-examine those issues of utmost importance to us.
Our Accomplishments
When I stood in front of you last year, I talked about the value of pursuing collaboration as a way to engage creativity, build bridges, and advocate for theatre. In that vein, I am pleased to update you all on ATHE's accomplishments. We are working toward a 2009 Joint Conference with AATE [3]. We are working with ASTR [4]on the National Research Council [5] and asked them to join in on our Leadership Institute [6], which has expanded to offer programming for past graduates. Our Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching [7](MERLOT) Editorial and Review Task Forces have been approved. We have just held a Summit of theatre-related organizations which resulted in a signed agreement to pursue a campaign to advocate for theatre as a coalition. I have signed a College Board's [8] Advisory Committee on the Arts Position Paper that encourages an Advanced Placement Theatre History exam for high school seniors. Our Advocacy [9] Theatre Education Reform Subcommittee is working toward criteria for that exam. I am working with AATE on a Public Service Announcement Campaign with TNT network to promote drama. We are a Partner in an Americans for the Arts Public Service Campaign to promote arts-in-education.
Our Governing Council [10] members and Focus Group [11] Representatives, many of whom were dropped off by bus in front of my house for dinner during our midyear meeting, have been sponsoring amazing things: Karen Finley's performance at a pre-conference through an ATHE grant to WTP [12], Performance Studies [13], and LGBT [14]; the Performance Studies officers' midyear meeting at the PSi conference; Dramaturgy's [15] collaborations with LMDA [16]; VASTA's [17] 20th Anniversary and electronic newsletter, the new VASTA Fellows Program; and the Acting Program's [18] new Player's Journal.
ATHE showed its commitment to the larger community by unanimously voting to approve the Domestic Partner Benefits Position Paper [19] created by Chair Jen Danby and LGBT [20] and overseen by Advocacy Vice President Deborah Martin [21], which was sent to Deans and Chairs across the country to promote diversity and fairness. Deborah Martin and I attended Arts Advocacy Day events in Washington and lobbied for more arts funding with letters and personal appeals, including meetings with Americans for the Arts President Bob Lynch.
Our Committee on Conferences, led by Chair Judith Sebesta, has introduced inexpensive housing for graduate students, created a how-to manual for Conference Planners, and identified lower-cost venues as alternatives to traditional hotels for conferences. This "Year of the Graduate Student" was defined by the Graduate Symposium attended by 60 graduate students.
Our Past Has Prepared the Way for Change
As we contemplate our future identity, we seized the moment of this anniversary to archive our past. Our thanks go to Past Presidents Kurt Daw, the late Marvin Sims, Donna Aronson, Jill Dolan, Mark Heckler, Carole Brandt, Gil Lazier, Jim Symons, Harold Nichols, and Beverley Byers-Pevitts upon whose shoulders ATHE has thrived. My sincere thanks to Vice President for the Chicago Conference Michael Ellison, and his Committee including Michael Wright, David Kaye, Ramon Rivera-Servera, Frank Trezza, Lionel Walsh, Sara Romersberger, Zack Bloomfield, and Theresa Kasparick-Postellon who helped us to build a timeline of our history, and to the Ad Hoc Anniversary Subcommittee including Michael Ellison, Beverley Byers-Pevitts, Jim Symons, and Laurie Mufson who helped us to shape an anniversary video. I think you all will enjoy later in this meeting the video on ATHE's storied history, put together by Bonnie Nelson Schwartz, the award-winning producer for Broadway, film and stage, with huge thanks to Administrative Director Nancy Erickson - our new Steven Spielberg. Thanks also to our Focus Group Reps, the Governing Council, Shaun Sewell, Nominating Committee Chair Steve Peters and his committee.
I'm very excited about the things in store at this conference: our Plenary on Hot-Button Issues of Theatre Saturday at 2:15PM including Suzan-Lori Parks, Nina Ozlu from Americans for the Arts, Incoming Black Theatre Network President Sandra Shannon and others.
Redefining the Field
In pursuit of future goals and redefining our field, I believe it is imperative that ATHE write a Position Paper on the Treatment of Adjuncts within the universities, as well as prepare an update on our Position Paper on Tenure and Promotion. Theatre departments traditionally battle between theory versus practice, often do not know how to handle creative work in the Tenure process, and allow internal competitiveness to undermine our strength as a discipline on campus. ATHE must model collaboration - the essence of theater - by preparing position papers which help university administrations to honor all theatre faculty members and their departments. There is also the question as to whether the scholarship of teaching and learning and pedagogy suffer in the wake of tenure requirements for publishing. ATHE must begin the process of finding external funding to keep our conference costs down. ATHE must write a Position Paper on the need for in-service training on campuses for faculty and especially those in leadership positions. Our own Leadership Institute [22] does this, in part, but universities must take on this responsibility as well. We will join together in New Orleans July 26-29, 2007 to redefine theatre through understanding theatre and performance as a regenerative force.
In light of our goals for redefinition, Gerda Lerner says: "Those of us engaged in this enterprise of redefinition face the three-fold challenge of correctly defining, of deconstructing existing theory, and of constructing a new paradigm."Constructing new paradigms, Communing, Collaborating, Exploring the world. Changing the world.
Redefining our place in the world. It's what theater and ATHE are all about.
Happy 20th Anniversary, everyone!