The Robert A. Schanke Research Award recognizes excellence in theatre scholarship through an award presented by the Theatre History Symposium of the Mid-America Theatre Conference. In 2005, a gift of $5,000 was made by Professor Robert A. Schanke to establish an award that recognizes research excellence initially presented at the Mid-America Theatre Conference. The Mid-America Theatre Conference has matched Professor Schanke’s gift to establish a $10,000 endowment.
Robert A. Schanke is Professor Emeritus of Theatre at Central College, Iowa. He is author of Ibsen in America: A Century of Change (Scarecrow, 1988), Eva Le Gallienne: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood, 1989), and Shattered Applause: The Lives of Eva Le Gallienne (Southern Illinois, 1992; finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Barnard Hewitt Award). He coedited with Kim Marra Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History (Michigan, 1998) and Staging Desire: Queer Readings of American Theater History (Michigan, 2002). Their final collaboration, with Billy J. Harbin, The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy, appeared in 2005. “That Furious Lesbian”: The Story of Mercedes de Acosta (Southern Illinois, 2003) won the ForeWord magazine Book of the Year award in the best gay and lesbian nonfiction category. He also published Women in Turmoil: Six Plays by Mercedes de Acosta (Southern Illinois, 2003) and Angels in the American Theatre: Patrons, Patronage, and Philanthropy (Southern Illinois, 2007). His most recent book is Queer Theatre and the Legacy of Cal Yeomans (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
He edited Theatre History Studies (1993-2005) and the Theater in the Americas Series for Southern Illinois University Press (2000-2014), and served as Vice-President for Membership, Vice-President for Awards, and Vice-President for Research and Publications for ATHE. He is a member of the National Theatre Conference and the College of Fellows of the American Theatre and also received ATHE’s Excellence in Editing Award. He received the ATHE Career Achievement Award in Educational Theatre (2013) and the ATDS Betty Jean Jones Award for Outstanding Teaching (2014), and he became the Dean of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre (2014).
The Robert A. Schanke Research Award is given annually to an untenured faculty presenter of the Theatre History Symposium and carries a cash award of $500 and publication in Theatre History Studies, the journal of the Mid-America Theatre Conference.
Announcement of the recipient of the Robert A. Schanke Research Award will be made during the all-conference luncheon on Saturday.
Recipients of the Robert A. Schanke Research Award
Ariel Nereson, 2023: “A Manifesto for the Impossible: Collision as Coalition in Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane’s Continuous Replay“
Patrick McKelvey, 2023 (honorable mention): “”The Curious Case of Katherine Cornell’s Soporific Spaniel: Toward a Disability History of the (Im)Possible Canine Performance Labor”
Heidi L. Nees, 2022: “Present Perfect Tense: Revolutionizing Dramatic Narratives through Living History at the Oconaluftee Indian Village”
Lindsey Mantoan, 2020: “New Conventions for a New Generation: High School Musicals and the Pivot from Golden Age Broadway Values”
Julie Burrell, 2019: “Reinventing Reconstruction and Scripting Civil Rights in Theodore Ward’s Our Lan’”
Michelle Granshaw, 2018: “Inventing the Tramp: The Early Tramp Comic on the Variety Stage”
Noe Montez, 2017: “Yes We Can? Resisting the Obama Presidency’s Neoliberalist Envisioning of the American Dream in Kristoffer Diaz’s The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity”
La Donna L. Forsgren, 2016: “For Members Only to #BlackLivesMatter: The Black Revolution on Campus”
Chandra Owenby Hopkins, 2015: “Whispers from a Silent Past: Inspiration and Memory in Natasha Tretheway’s Native Guard”
Jennifer Goodlander, 2014: “Khmer Identities through the Arts after the Killing Fields in a Post-9/11 New York City”
Christin Essin, 2013: “Memory Control: Mythology, Technology, and A Chorus Line”
Naomi Stubbs, 2012: “The Black Void: Absenting Labor in Pleasure Gardens”
Lisa Jackson-Schebetta, 2011: “Companies to Keep: Air Raid Dramas and International Ethical Responsibility in America, 1936-1939”
Beth Osborne, 2010: “Storytelling, Chiggers, and the Bible Belt: The ‘Georgia Experiment’ as the Public Face of the Federal Theatre Project”
Kelly Carolyn Gordon, 2009: “Class Act(resses): How Depression-Era Stage Actresses Utilized Conflicting Cultural Ideals for Women to Fight Economic Crisis in Their Community”
Robert B. Shimko, 2008: “The Miseries of History: Shakespearean Extremity as Cautionary Tale on the Restoration Stage”
Scott Irelan, 2007: “Goon, Warrior, Communitarian, and Mythos: The Lincoln Legend of Dramatic Literature and Live Performance”
Shauna Vey, 2006: “The Master and the Mademoiselle: Gender Secrets in Plain Sight in Non-Text Based Antebellum Performance”
Ellen MacKay, 2005: “Toward a New Theatre History of Dionysus”