THIRD INTERNATIONAL THORNTON WILDER CONFERENCE
DRAFT SCHEDULE
Wednesday, July 11
6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Opening Night Reception at Keene State College (transportation to Keene from Peterborough and back will be available)
Thursday, July 12
1) 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Life of Wilder 1. Sarah B. Dorsey, University of North Carolina, Greensboro: “Louise Talma and Thornton Wilder: A Match Made at MacDowell” 2. Sergei Troubetzkoy, Independent Scholar: “Dorothy and Professor Wilder: From University of Chicago Student to Lifelong Friend” 3. Ann Caldwell, Independent Scholar: “Wilder in the West” Chair: Jackson R. Bryer, University of Maryland
10:00 a.m.-10:15 Break
2) 10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Our Town I 1. Stuart J. Hecht, Boston College: “Celebrating Our Town at 50: My Post-Modern Production…That Worked!” 2. Al Dabiri, University of Missouri: “New Faces in Our Town: Building Community Through Participatory Theatre” 3. Jamall Calloway, Brown University: “„That‟s What It Was to Be Alive‟: The Significance of Seconds in Thornton Wilder‟s Theology” Chair: Park Bucker, University of South Carolina, Sumter
3) 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. The Bridge of San Luis Rey 1. Andre Bolt, Fort Hays State University: “You, Me, and God: An Address to the Reader in The Bridge of San Luis Rey” 2. Tim Clarke, University of Ottawa: “Spanning Eternity: The Dynamic Eternalism of The Bridge of San Luis Rey” 3. Shoshana Greenberg, Independent Scholar: “New Audiences: Bringing Thornton Wilder Into New Spaces” Chair: Puckie Thomas, Independent Scholar
12:15 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Lunch
4) 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. A Report from the Wilder Collection at Yale’s Beinecke Library Melissa Barton, Curator, Prose & Drama, Yale Collection of American Literature Monika Lehman, Project Archivist for the Wilder Family Papers
5) 3:15 p.m.-4:15 p.m. The Skin of Our Teeth 1. Park Bucker, University of South Carolina, Sumter: “The Call of Cain: The Thematic and Structural Relationship Between Wilder‟s The Skin of Our Teeth and Albee‟s A Delicate Balance” 2. Stephen Rojcewicz, Independent Scholar: “George Antrobus: Genius in a Name”
3. Bonnie Georgette Hamlett, Salem College: “The Evolution of Thornton Wilder‟s Stage Manager: Sabina in The Skin of Our Teeth” Chair: Matthew Maguire, Fordham University
6) 4:15 p.m.-5:15 p.m. Wilder as Scholar 1. Mary English, Montclair State University: “Wilder on Greek Tragedy” 2. Ronald J. Quirk, Quinnipiac University: “Thornton Wilder‟s Study of Lope de Vega: New Materials” 3. Joseph P. Cermatori, Skidmore College: “Wilder‟s Anachronic Modernism: Tradition and the Transfiguration of the Commonplace” Chair: Edyta Oczkowicz, Salem College
5:30 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Dinner
8:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. “Christmas in July”––A Reading of The Long Christmas Dinner followed by a discussion of “Wilder and the One-Act Play,” moderated by Carl Forsman, founding Artistic Director of the Keen Company and former dean of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts School of Drama
Friday, July 13
7) 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Lesser-known Wilder 1. Lincoln Konkle, The College of New Jersey: “Rivers Under the Earth: Wilder‟s Psychoanalytic Primer for the Stage” 2. Edyta K. Oczkowicz, Salem College: “Young Wilder‟s Journals: The Case of Writing The Acolyte” 3. Thierry Dubost, Université de Caen Normandie: “In Signing Not to Sign: A Budding Playwright at Work on A Doll’s House” Chair: Terryl W. Hallquist, Vanderbilt University
10:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m. Break
8) 10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Our Town II 1. Nancy Bunge, Michigan State University, “Friedrich Nietzsche Explains Why Our Town Works.” 2. Jan Balakian, Kean University: “Who‟s Depressed in Our Town?” 3. Howard Wolf, SUNY, Buffalo: “The Concept of „Home‟ in Our Town, Homecoming, and Other Plays” Chair: Gabriel Nathan, Independent Scholar
9) 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Special Session: “Whither Wilder?” A Discussion of some of the perennial questions that bedevil Wilder studies: Where does Wilder fit in? Does it matter? Christopher Benfey, Mt. Holyoke College Carl Forsman, North Carolina School of the Arts Marc Robinson, Yale University Tappan Wilder
12:30 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Special Session: The State of the Wilder World (Lunch will be provided) Barbara Hogenson, Literary Agent for the Wilder Estate David Kimple, Samuel French Rosey Strub, Manager, The Wilder Family, LLC Abbie Van Nostrand, Samuel French
2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Tours: A visit to Wilder’s studio at the MacDowell Colony and a guided walking tour of Wilder-related sites in Peterborough
6:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. Dinner
8:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. Peterborough Players, The Skin of Our Teeth (transportation to and from the theatre to and from both Keene and Peterborough will be provided)
Saturday, July 14
10) 9:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Teaching Our Town 1. David L. Ruis, University of Kansas: “An American Town: Grover‟s Corners in the 21st-century Classroom” 2. Patrick Ganz, Portsmouth High School: “Teaching Our Town in a New Hampshire High School” 3. Ashley Raven, Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School: “Our Town in the Middle School Classroom” Chair: Lincoln Konkle, The College of New Jersey
10:00 a.m.-10:15 a.m. Break
11) 10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Novels 1. Lewis Livesay, St. Peter‟s University: “Reflexivity in Wilder‟s Theophilus North” 2. Elizabeth Manwell, Kalamazoo College: “Teaching The Ides of March in the 21st Century” Chair: Sarah Littlefield, Salve Regina University
12) 11:15 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Wilder’s Film, Farce, and One Acts 1. Danny Alexander, Johnson County Community College: “Shadows of Doubt: Thornton Wilder and the Creation of Alfred Hitchcock‟s American Gothic” 2. Lloyd Sy, University of Virginia: “The Matchmaker and Thornton Wilder‟s Notion of the Farce” 3. Jacob Gallagher-Ross, University of Toronto Mississauga: “Brightness Is Seeing in a New Way: Thornton Wilder, John Dewey, Experience, and The Roots of the American Avant-Garde” Chair: Rosey Strub, The Wilder Family, LLC
12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Lunch
13) 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Special Session: A Reading of Sections from Master Wilder and the Cabala Jim Knable's creative adaptation Master Wilder and the Cabala imagines Thornton Wilder's artistic process as he struggled to complete his first novel while teaching and running a student house at Lawrenceville Prep School. His students and his visiting parents become the characters in The Cabala and Wilder confronts his own identity as he actively works towards finding his original voice as a writer. The play is currently being developed at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Jim Knable is a produced and published playwright, based in Brooklyn, NY.
3:00 p.m.-3:15 p.m. Break
14) 3:15 p.m.-4:15 p.m. Adapting Wilder 1. Terryl W. Hallquist, Vanderbilt University: “„It Kept Me in Martinis‟: Reflections on a Musical Adaptation of Our Town For Live TV” 2. Jill Scharff, Independent Scholar: “Theophilus North, the Play” 3. Sunny Knable, The Garden Players: “From Playlet to Pocket Opera” Chair: Dianna Pickens, University of Naples, Federico II
15) 4:15 p.m.-5:15 p.m. Panel: “Acting Wilder”: Professional Actors in a Long-Term Relationship with Wilder James McMenamin: George in the David Cromer production of Our Town Wendy Rich Stetson: Has played both Emily and Mrs. Webb Chair: Laurie McCants, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble
6:30 p.m.-10:00 p.m. Closing Banquet: Presentation of the Wilder Prize