1. President’s report
The Business Meeting took place at the June 2022 American Drama and Theatre Conference at Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and online. In attendance in Madrid: Noelia Hernando-Real, Nieves Alberola Crespo, Linda Ben-Zvi, Basia Ozieblo, Alex Roe, Drew Eisenhauer, Emeline Jouve
In attendance online: Ellen Gainor, Jeff Kennedy, Martha Carpentier
A. Acknowledgement
Thank you to Noelia Hernando-Real for her organization of the 6th International Conference on American Drama and Theater and for having arranged the logistics for this meeting.
Thanks to Noelia Hernando-Real as past president of the ISGS and to Cheryl Black as past EC members.
Thanks to Kirsten Shepherd-Barr and Jeff Kennedy for volunteering to join the Executive Committee.
Thanks to Judy Barlow for once again supervising the recent ISGS election process which resulted in the election or re-election of Emeline Jouve as President, Martha Carpentier as Vice President, Drew Eisenhauer as Membership and Finance Officer.
The president reported on the large number of activities engaged in by society members on behalf of the art and legacy of Susan Glaspell.
B. Partnerships + Panels organized by the ISGS
Federal Theatre Project (1935-1939): context & enjeux, Toulouse Jean-Jaurès University (France), Oct. 2019.The ISGS was a financial partner and presented a Provincetown panel.
Sixth International American Theatre and Drama conference, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), June, 2022. The ISGS was a financial partner and presented a Provincetown panel as well as hosted a reception.
Eleventh International Conference on Eugene O’Neill, Suffolk University (USA), July 2022. The ISGS was a financial partner and presented a Provincetown panel as well as contributing to a wine and cheese event.
C. Conferences papers or post-show discussions presented
CONFERENCE PAPERS
Alberola Crespo, Nieves. “Susan Glaspell y los Provincetown Players”, El humor y el espectáculo en la sociedad actual, Universitat Jaume I de Castelló. Spain. Campus de Castelló, Castellón (Spain), 7 March 2022.
Alberola Crespo, Nieves. “Itinerarios emocionales en la obra de Susan Glaspell (1915-1918),”
Emociones y humor en la sociedad actual, Sagunto, Universitat Jaume I (Spain), 13 May 2022.
Eisenhauer, Drew, “Glaspell: Bending (Breaking) Genres on the Air and in Hollywood,” 6th International Conference on American Drama and Theater, MIRAFLORES DE LA SIERRA (Spain), 1 June 2022.
Hernando Real, Noelia. “The Provincetown Players and the Federal Theatre: The Essay Susan Glaspell Never Wrote.” International Federal Theatre Conference. University of Toulouse- Jean Jaurés (France), 17th October 2019.
Jouve, Emeline. Pour une herméneutique de l’insignifiant : interprétation et émancipation dans Trifles (1916) de Susan Glaspell. Gest lecture, CLIMAS Research Group, Bordeaux Montaigne University, 10th December 2021.
POST-SHOW PANELS/DISCUSSIONS
Friedam, S. The Outside, Metropolitan (Virtual) Playhouse, Online, 06/02/2021- 10/02/2021
Kennedy, J. “Trifles, a Feminist Drama,” Newberry Library, virtual presentation with Susan Glaspell scholar Martha Carpentier, May 13, 2021. Followed presentations with question and answer session moderated by Liesl Olsen.
Kennedy, J. “Performing the Heart of the Nation: The Provincetown Playhouse,” Greenwich Village Preservation Society, virtual presentation, April 12, 2021. Followed presentation with question and answer session moderated by Ariel Kates.
Ben-Zvi, .L. Trifles, Metropolitan (Virtual) Playhouse, Online Reading, 08/05/2021 – 12/05/2021
D. Publications
BOOKS
Gainor, J. Ellen, (ed). Literature in Context: Susan Glaspell. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Fall 2022.
Hernando-Real, Noelia. Rosas en la arena. Los relatos de Susan Glaspell. Valencia: Publicaciones Universitat de Vàlencia, 2022.
Kennedy, Jeffery. Staging America: The Artistic Legacy of the Provincetown Players. University of Alabama Press, Fall 2022.
Noe, Marcia. Three Midwestern Playwrights: How Floyd Dell, George Cram Cook, and Susan Glaspell Transformed American Theatre. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2022.
ARTICLES
Cox, James H., and Alexander Pettit. “Indigeneity and Immigration in Susan Glaspell’s
Inheritors.” Comparative Drama, vol. 53, no. 3, 2019, pp. 31‒58.
Hernando-Real, Noelia. “Susan Glaspell.” Oxford Bibliographies in American Literature. Ed. Jackson Bryer. New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming.
Hernando-Real, Noelia. “Suicide Across the Waves: On the Feminist Possibilities of Dramatic Suicide in Plays by Susan Glaspell, Marsha Norman and Naomi Wallace.” Suicide in Modern Literature Social Causes, Existential Reasons, and Prevention Strategies. Ed. Josefa Ros Velasco. Springer, 2021.
Hernando-Real, Noelia. “On the Page and on the Stage: The Influence of H. D. Thoreau on Susan Glaspell’s Works”. “To live deep and suck all the marrow of life.” The Legacy of Henry David Thoreau. Eds. Eulalia Piñero and Laura Arce. Delaware: Vernon Press, 2020. 25-38.
Hernando-Real, Noelia. “How to Teach Susan Glaspell’s Trifles.” How to Teach a Play: Exercises for the College Classroom. Eds. Miriam Chirico and Kelly Younger. London: Bloomsbury, 2020. 139-141.
Jouve, Emeline. « ‘Murderous Hug’: 1922 et la tragédie des Provincetown Players, » in 1922 et son esprit, Elise Brault-Dreux (ed.), Paris : Sorbonne Université Presses, 2022.
E. Productions
Alex Roe, Producer, Suppressed Desires, Metropolitan (Virtual) Playhouse, Online Reading, 16/05/2020 – 20/05/2020
Alex Roe, Producer and Director, The People, Metropolitan (Virtual) Playhouse, Online Reading, 18/07/2020 – 22/07/2020
Alex Roe, Producer, Woman’s Honor, Metropolitan (Virtual) Playhouse, Online Reading, 26/09/2020 – 30/09/2020
Alex Roe, Producer, The Outside, Metropolitan (Virtual) Playhouse, Online Reading, 06/02/2021- 10/02/2021
Alex Roe, Producer, Trifles, Metropolitan (Virtual) Playhouse, Online Reading, 08/05/2021 – 12/05/2021
Burch Milbre, Sometimes I Sing (inspired by Susan Glaspell’s Trifles), Live 2021 United Solo Theatre Festival, 10/21/21.
Pléyade Trampantojo Players, El honor de una mujer, Susan Glaspell (Woman´s Honor by Susan Glaspell), Teatro Raval, Castellón (Spain), 30/04/2022-1/05/2022.
F. Facebook
ISGS FB page was launched in January 2015. Emeline is the FB “webmaster”: she has been updating the page for the past years with feeds about performances and news from the society: members are invited to share with her info/news they would like to advertise on FB
= Total Page followers: 297
2. Vice President and Finance and Membership Officer Report
We have been working for over a year trying to organize our membership renewal process, bank account, and PayPal account in order to make funds available internationally for receipt as well as payout. It has not been easy but we do finally have a workable system:
A. Bank account:
Since previous Membership and Finance Officer Doug Powers established it, our bank account is with M&T Bank, which is an East Coast US bank with branches in various states. We have removed Doug and now Drew is the only person on the account. However, it is a business account and as CEO, Drew created an employee account for Martha to give her access to everything in case he were to be incapacitated. However, to get Martha or anyone else legally on the account, Drew must physically meet the person at any M&T branch. Drew and Martha continue to hope they will be able to make this happen someday soon. In the meantime, we regard the M&T account as the ISGS “savings account”. But in general, PayPal is our active online account for receipt of dues and payout of funds in the U.S. and internationally.
B. Paypal:
We had many difficulties trying to set up an international business account in Paypal for ISGS, particularly one that would directly receive membership dues from the ISGS web site. Dues payment links from the ISGS web site now go directly into this account and we can pay out from this account, both in Europe and in the U.S.
C. Non-profit status:
We have verified that we are set up in the U.S. as an incorporated non-profit society. Martha has the official IRS confirmation letter.
D. Membership
Updated membership list: After a long membership renewal drive, which included repeated appeals to the group as well as to individual members, our membership is now at 30, with 5 honorary members among those. Eleven long-term members are as yet unrenewed. It has been decided that we will reach out for them as If anyone would like to reach out personally to any on this list, please do so. we would be sorry to lose these friends.
Lifetime Members: In addition to our first Lifetime Member, J. Ellen Gainor, we welcome three new Lifetime Members: Marcia Noe, Carol DeBoer Langworthy, and Milbre Burch. Thank you!
E. Website:
With Martha’s retirement from Seton Hall University, which hosts the ISGS web site, we were worried that we might have to purchase a provider and create a new site. However, good news is that Seton Hall will continue to host this site. Martha urges members to send her information to update the website.
F. Emendations to By-Laws
Article VII: Grants and Awards, Section 2 were discussed. Noelia argued that keeping the awards for best published paper and best conference paper would be in the best interests of the Society and everyone agreed. However, Martha suggested removing the word “biannual” from the current By-Law. Others felt it should stay and a proposal to emend as “The Society will review submissions to award biannual prizes. . .” was made. It was agreed that the language of this By-Law will be revised by Emeline and Martha and submitted via email for voting.
Emendations to Article VII: Grants and Awards, Section 3 (translations awards) were discussed. Ellen proposed changing the language from “prize” to “subvention”. There was general agreement to this idea, but Noelia proposed revising the language of the whole section and it was agreed that Ellen, Noelia, and Emeline will draft a revision of this By-Law and submit via email for voting.
All of these By-Laws revisions must be voted on first by the EC and if approved, submitted to the Membership for voting. Then the By-Laws must be updated accordingly on the website.
Revisions accepted after on-line votes (June, 28th, 2022)
G. Future Plans:
Discussion about our continuing collaboration with the Eugene O’Neill Society: Emeline announced that she had conferred with current President of EONS Katie Johnson. It was proposed and agreed that presidents of sister drama societies should be made honorary members of each other’s societies for the duration of their presidencies. How this would be implemented was not discussed however we decided to start with the E. O’Neill Society.
Under the topic of working together with other dramatists societies, Martha reminded everyone and Basia agreed that in previous years we had formed the “Five Dramatists Society” with the EONS, Thornton Wilder Society, and Edward Albee Society, but this never went anywhere. Should we revive this joint venture for future panel and conference proposals? The venue was discussed. Although previously the Five Dramatists Society had taken place at ALA, Jeff suggested that it had been difficult to get Alfred Bendixen (President of ALA) to cooperate on joint panel times, etc. He suggested that CDC might be a better venue for future joint plans. It was agreed that Emeline would reach out to the other society presidents and get their input about going forward with the “Five Dramatists Society” idea and which venue would be best.
Emeline discussed the December 2023 ISGS 20-year anniversary celebration. While Oxford may still be a possibility, Emeline is willing to host the event in Toulouse: two events could be hosted. Possibly we could use the event in Toulouse as a way to draw the other Five Dramatists Societies into a joint relationship. Specifics of this event were not discussed but need to be. Also, we neglected to discuss the stalled special Glaspell issue of the Eugene O’Neill Review.
Ellen announced that her upcoming panel, “Glaspell Panel Provincetown Players,” at the EONS conference at Suffolk University, Boston, will feature three speakers, including Drew Eisenhauer and Marcia Noe, but they need a third paper. ISGS will present a reading of the one-act Glaspell wrote for the centenary of landing on Plymouth Rock and roundtable a discussion of Ellen’s book featuring contributors. Drew might present from his chapter of new research on Glaspell.
Emeline suggested we develop on a flyer to hand-out at conferences. Martha has flyers from the past that she will update and send to Ellen and Emie and Jeff for revision/approval.