Gallatin School, NYU, New York City, 4 October 2017, 4.30 pm

 In attendance: Cheryl Black, Martha Carpentier, Marla Del Collins, J. Ellen Gainor, Noelia Hernando-Real (President), Ling Jiane, Emeline Jouve (Vice-President), Barbara Ozieblo

Noelia Hernando-Real thanked Sharon Friedman for getting the Society a room in which to hold the meeting. She then thanked Sharon and J. Ellen Gainor for organizing the post-reading panel at the Metropolitan Playhouse; she thanked Judith Barlow for supervising the election process and Doug Powers for his work as Membership and Treasure officer over the past six years; and she thanked Martha Carpentier for her work as vice-president and president over the past twelve years.  Noelia offered Martha a gift in recognition of her contributions on behalf of the society.

Conferences and post-show panels/discussions:  Noelia listed all the events in which the Society has been involved since the last Business meeting:

• August 2013 (ATHE). Session: “Playing with Feminism: Susan Glaspell’s Woman’s Honor as Social Satire of the Sexual Double Standard” (Reading of Woman’s Honor too). Introduction by Barbara Ozieblo, J. Ellen Gainor and Heidi Schmidt. Reading (Cheryl Black, Basia Ozieblo, Ellen Gainor);
• October 2013: World premiere of Springs Eternal at the Orange Tree. Seminar on the Provincetown Players, Glaspell and the theme of war, organized by Noelia Hernando Real. Speakers: Linda Ben-Zvi, J. Ellen Gainor, Barbara Ozieblo, Cheryl Black, Emeline Jouve, Drew Eisenhauer, Sherry Engle, and Noelia Hernando-Real;
• April 2014: First International Conference of the French Modernist Society with ISGS sponsored panel featuring Emeline Jouve, Eisenhauer, Jeff Kennedy, Beth Wynstra, Noelia Hernando-Real;
• October 2014: Susan Glaspell at her alma mater, Drake University, in Davenport Iowa: ISGS members read “Performing Bohemia” and conducted a post-show discussion featuring Jeff Kennedy, Cheryl Black, Martha Carpentier, Barbara Ozieblo, and Noelia Hernando-Real. ISGS members and Drake University faculty met and dined with Dean Schroll, who had originally contacted Martha to organize the event. Drake University named their annual reading series, which Schroll sponsors, in honor of Glaspell: “The Susan Glaspell Writers and Critics Series”;
• February 2015: “L’Acte Inqualifiable ou le Meurtre au Féminine” or “Unspeakable Acts: Murders by Women,” a conference co-organized by Emeline Jouve at l’Université Toulouse Jean-Juarès. Martha Carpentier was invited to present “Women’s Justice: Nemesis and Subversion in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles”;
• March 2015: Sharon Friedman presented on Susan Glaspell for the panel “Visions of Tragedy in American Theatre” at the 39th Comparative Drama Conference, held at Stevenson University in Baltimore, Maryland, chaired and organized by David Palmer;
• July 2015: Provincetown centennial celebration co-organized by the ISGS (Martha Carpentier and Noelia Hernando-Real) and Jeffrey Kennedy from the Eugene O’Neill Society. Thirty people participated at the celebration, which consisted of panels (12 participants), historical tours and performances. The attendees came from the US and Europe. The ISGS and the IEOS organized the events in collaboration with the Provincetown Library, Provincetown Museum and Provincetown Theatre. Tony Kushner participated in a post-show discussion with Linda Ben-Zvi and Jeff Kennedy;
• September 2015: “Hour by Hour Susan Glaspell” at the American Bard Theater Company with discussion by Linda Ben-Zvi;
• November 2015, Alison’s House performed at the Metropolitan Playhouse followed by talk-back by Linda Ben-Zvi;
• November 2015: The Verge performed at the Provincetown Theatre with a panel organized by Linda Ben-Zvi.

The society members stressed the profusion of events and the interconnection between the academic world and the world of culture (theatre venues, museums, etc.) at large. Events are taking place both in the US and in Europe, which shows the international nature of the society.

Publications:

• Martha C. Carpentier and Emeline Jouve (eds): On Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and “A Jury of her Peers”: Centennial Essays, Interviews and Adaptations (McFarland);
• Martha Carpentier, Barbara Ozieblo, Noelia Hernando-Real, Michael Winetsky published chapters in the anthology derived from the 2008 Delphi conference organized by Stockton College: Americans and the Experience of Delphi (2013, eds. Paul Lorenz and David Roessel);
• Noelia Hernando-Real: Voces Contra La Mediocridad: La Vanguardia Teatral De Los Provincetown Players, 1915-1922, the first history of the Provincetown Players written in Spanish, and which also includes the translation into Spanish of eight plays, including Inheritors and The Verge;
• Emeline Jouve, Aurélie Guillain, Laurence Talairach-Vielmas (eds.), Unspeakable Acts : Murders by Women (McFarland); includes essay by Martha Carpentier, “Women’s Justice: Nemesis and Subversion in Susan Glaspell’s Trifles”;
• Other works featuring chapters on Susan Glaspell’s work include: Nina Tessler, Flowers and Towers: Politics of Identity in the Art of the American “New Woman”;Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett; Emeline Jouve: “Du presque-rien au presque-tout : le dévoilement de l’invisible dans Trifles (1916) de Susan Glaspell.”
• Recent entries for the Literary Encyclopedia include:
  • Campagna, Vanessa Marie. “Bernice: A Play in Three Acts”. The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 July 2015;
  • Winetsky, Michael. “Judd Rankin’s Daughter”. The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 August 2014;
  • Engle, Sherry. “The Comic Artist: A Play in Three Acts”. The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 September 2013;
  • Burch, Milbre Elizabeth. “Author Chronology for Susan Keating Glaspell”. The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 April 2013.

Literary Encyclopedia entries on Glaspell’s works that remain to be written:

Noelia stressed the importance to go on with the entries and asked for volunteers to write the remaining entries. List of the entries that are left: Her America, Lifted Masks, The Road to the Temple, Cherished and Shared of All, Free Laughter. Novels: Ambrose Holt, Norma Ashe, Morning is Near Us, The Visioning. Ellen suggested asking Linda Ben-Zvi to do The Road to the Temple; Cheryl agreed to do Ambrose Holt; Martha volunteered to do Norma Ashe and Morning is Near Us, while Drew offered to do Lifted Masks. Noelia suggested involving graduate students in the writing of entries.

Ariel’s Corner:  Emeline Jouve introduced Ariel’s Corner, which is a specific section of the ejournal Miranda, hosted by l’Université Toulouse Jean-Juarès. Emeline is the editor of the theatre articles published in Ariel’s Corner. The aim is not to publish “conventional scholarly articles” but rather interviews, reviews, essays on theatre.  Emeline explained that she tries to promote Glaspell’s work; for this reason she sent a call for contributions through the list last year. Thus far Ariel’s Corner features two contributions on Glaspell and Emeline called for new contributions on Glaspell or the Provincetown Players:

• Denise Doherty Pappas who attended the production of The Verge of the Provincetown Theatre wrote a review which was published in April;
• Noelia Hernando-Real’s interview of the founders of the ISGS, Barbara Ozieblo and Martha Carpentier.

Theses:  Congratulations to Rasha Gazzaz who finished her thesis,  “Suppressed Voices: Women and Class in the Fiction of Susan Glaspell” at the University of Leicester (not a live link, copy and paste into your browser):  https://lra.le.ac.uk/bitstream/2381/36234/1/2015GAZZAZRPhd.pdf)

Awards:  Noelia announced that no one submitted articles for the biannual best published paper, best conference paper, or best translation awards. One of the reasons may be that the members actively publishing are involved in Society governance and there is a conflict of interest.  Solutions to solve the problem were considered: Martha Carpentier suggested reaching out to the contributors to publications related to Glaspell or the Provincetown Players, also encouraging graduate students. Barbara Ozieblo believed that more publicity should be made, but Noelia reminded the members that the awards were advertised through ATDS and on Facebook. Sharon Friedman suggested carrying the awards over, which was seconded and approved.

 Membership:  Noelia listed 56 current members (4 honorary); however, of these 37 have renewed membership and paid dues, and 15 have not paid although she sent personal mails to those who forgot to renew. Martha noted that a core of 40 members has been fairly consistent over the years and is a good number. Members discussed dropping out the people who did not pay their renewals, but eventually decided to keep them on the list.

Facebook/Blog:  Emeline introduced the FB page, launched in January 2015, for which she is the webmaster. Most of the people reached are in the USA (156 in Oct, 2016) and in France (108 – which may be explained by the fact that Emeline is the webmaster). Emeline posts all the news from the Society and encourages members to send her information to post. She invited the members who have not “friended” the page to do so and Martha urged the members to reach out to their friends. Ling Jian suggested reaching out to her students. FB is a means to reach younger people. Martha is still in charge of the blog, which is hosted by Seton Hall University. She explained that FB is a good supplement to the blog to get the latest news.

Discussion on how to foster research on Glaspell and the involvement of young scholars:  Noelia pinpointed the difficulties of getting new or young scholars into the field of Glaspell studies. Ellen Gainor reminded us that MLA has a public series called “Approaches to Teaching,” which she believes would welcome a volume on Glaspell’s works.  Although the process of proposing and editing these volumes is a difficult one, Ellen thinks that it is a good idea to go through with it as it would be a good way of getting new people.  Martha also suggested that we become a sub-group of the MLA—once you are affiliated, you automatically get a panel at every annual MLA conference, which would gives us high visibility and attract new members.

Treasurer’s report:  Noelia reminded us that the ISGS membership and bank balances are healthy, but there have been some delays in transferring control over the funds and membership list to Drew Eisenhauer, the new membership and finances officer, particularly since he lives in France. Drew Eisenhauer and Doug Powers sent the President their report and she read it:  The Paypal account has a balance of $1840-less expenses for the Trifles Celebration (including gift); the bank account balance is $3739.44; there are 55 members listed on the roster, with 14 listed as unpaid and in need of renewal.

Drew would like to ask if core members would consider automatic renewal. The members present considered it a good option, although some pointed out that some people won’t like the idea. Drew will look into this option, as well as coming up with ways to transfer control of the funds to him, including the possibility of banking through Paypal.

National Women’s Hall of Fame:  Noelia announced that our nomination of Glaspell again did not make the cut for the National Women’s Hall of Fame, even though a lengthy application spearheaded by Ellen and prepared by Ellen, Martha, Cheryl, Barbara, and Noelia was again submitted. The application failed for the second time. Noelia will ask for some explanation. The members agreed that the Society should try to apply again.

Future ISGS plans:

• Madrid (Autonoma University), Oct 2016, International theatre seminar: “The Politics of Theatre. Susan Glaspell and the Creation of US Modern Drama” (organizer: Noelia Hernando-Real);
• Toulouse (Jean-Jaurès University), March 2016, American Theatre Project Lab: “(In)Visible Violence: Trifles by Susan Glaspell”;
• Bordeaux (Bordeaux University), SSAWW conference: Roundtable and reading of Fugitive’s Return;
• Galway, EONS Conference: Drew Eisenhauer’s panel on the women of the Provincetown Players.

Noelia asked members for their opinion on what should be done next, whether the Society should attend ALA in 2017 or wait until 2018. The members decided to check where the conferences will be next year (east or west coast) and then decide whether to apply. The question of the commitment with the “Five Drama Societies” at ALA was also raised and the members decided that continuance of this alliance should be investigated. Martha commented that since the governance is now in Europe, more events should be organized in Europe and American Glaspellians will find ways to attend.

Future publications include Emeline Jouve, Susan Glaspell’s Poetics and Politics of Rebellion (University of Iowa Press); Drew Eisenhauer and Jeff Kennedy’s anthology on the Provincetown Players; and Judith Barlow on women in O’Neill for the Eugene O’Neill Review.

Next Business Meeting:  Noelia proposed possible venues where the next ISGS business meeting could be held: Bordeaux in July 2017 seems a good option; Galway also in July 2017 was mentioned. No conclusions were drawn, so the Executive Council will decide where to meet again, depending on potential attendance.