AHCT FOUNDERS’ PRIZES: CALL FOR NOMINATIONS 2023

EXTENDED DEADLINE: Dec 1, 2022

The Vern Williamsen Comedia Book Prize is awarded every three years to the outstanding scholarly book published by a current member of the Association during the previous three years. Monographs, edited volumes, critical editions and anthologies related to the Comedia are eligible for the prize; monographs emphasizing the performance of Hispanic classical theater are especially encouraged. The prize, which consists of a certificate and recognition on the AHCT website and conference program, will be announced at the association’s annual board meeting and, if applicable, presented at the AHCT symposium. Books published between 2020 and 2022 are eligible for this award cycle.

To enter a book into the competition, authors or publishers should send either one digital copy or three print copies, along with confirmation of the author’s membership in the AHCT, to rbayliss@ku.edu (in the case of digital submissions) or to AHCT Vern Williamsen Book Prize, Attn: Robert Bayliss, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, University of Kansas, 2650 Wescoe Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045 (for print submissions). Entries may be sent at any time but must be received by 1 December of 2022 to be considered for the current award cycle. Membership may be established at the time of submission.

Publishers may enter more than one title, but no work may be entered in more than one AHCT competition. Shipping labels or enclosures should indicate the names of the prizes for which the books are competing. For further information, contact Robert Bayliss at rbayliss@ku.edu.

The Donald Dietz Comedia Prize in Service to AHCT is awarded every three years to an individual who has made significant contributions to the furthering of AHCT’s mission. This prize, which is intended to encourage and recognize Hispanic classical theater performance advocacy and service to the Association and consists of a certificate and recognition on the AHCT website and conference program, will be announced at the association’s annual board meeting and, if applicable, presented at the AHCT symposium.

To nominate a deserving individual, send a letter of nomination and confirmation of the individual’s membership in the AHCT to rbayliss@ku.edu with the subject line “AHCT Service Prize” or by regular mail to Rob Bayliss, Department of Spanish & Portuguese, University of Kansas, 2650 Wescoe Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045. Entries may be sent at any time but must be received by 1 December of 2022 in order to be considered for the current award cycle. Membership may be established at the time of submission. For further information, contact Robert Bayliss at rbayliss@ku.edu.

2022 AHCT Founders’ Prize Winners:

The Franklin Smith Comedia Translation Prize received two strong nominations, but the committee unanimously selected The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs, translated by the UCLA Working Group on the Comedia in Translation and Performance, for this year’s prize. This translation of Ana Caro’s Valor, agravio, y mujer was published in 2021 by Juan de la Cuesta. The evaluators praised this two-actor production “for the extraordinary fluency and wit of the translation, the delightful quality of the play, and the contribution to the canon of bringing Ana Caro to light so accessibly.”

As is customary for the Matthew Stroud Comedia Article Prize, there were a number of worthy nominations. This year’s prize is awarded to Erin Cowling for her article “Representing the Unrepresentable: A One-Man Retelling of Cervantes’s Entremeses,” which was published in eHumanista/Cervantes in 2020. The article examines the one-man performance of three cervantine interludes produced by EFE TRES Teatro (Mexico) with the title El merolico, a reference to the Mexican cultural stereotype of a traveling salesman. In this production, the Merolico delivers a recasting of El viejo celoso, La cueva de Salamanca, and El retablo de las maravillas that, as Cowling argues, calls attention to the very contemporary problem of “fake news” and its baroque undertones. The evaluators praised the article’s engagement with both the long tradition of scholarship on Cervantes’s entremeses and the recent work of William Eggington that theorizes connections between the philosophical preoccupations of the early modern baroque and our arguably dystopian age of digital communications and social media.

2021 AHCT Founders’ Prizes Winners:

The Walker Reid Comedia Production Prize: Teatro Inverso’s Rosaura

The David Gitlitz Comedia Prize in Pedagogy and Mentorship:
Winner: Glenda Y. Nieto-Cuebas, Ohio Wesleyan University
Nominees: Erin Cowling, MacEwan University; Kerry Wilks, Wichita State University;
Jason Yancey, Grand Valley State University

2020 AHCT Founder’s Prize Winners:

The Vern Williamsen Comedia Book Prize: Yolanda Gamboa and Bonnie Gasior, co-editors of Making Sense of the Senses: Current Approaches in Spanish Comedia Criticism (2017).

The Donald Dietz Comedia Prize in Service to the AHCT: Lynn Vidler, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Approved by the AHCT board 3/30, 2016