Announcing a TLA Panel Discussion: Women in Film
After taking a year-long hiatus, Theatre Library Association is proud to present the TLA Book Awards this Fall for performing arts books published in 2013. Keeping the performing arts libraries community engaged with the performing arts scholarship community is one of our most cherished mandates at Theatre Library Association. And we on the Book Awards Committee strive to strengthen this connection. In Spring of 2013, the Committee, consisting of myself and Co-chairs Tiffany Nixon and Linda Miles, began the process leading up to the presentation on the George Freedley and Richard Wall Awards scheduled for Friday, October 17, 2014.
As we set the wheels in motion for soliciting and reviewing the year’s important publications, we consulted with the TLA Board of Directors and President Nancy Friedland about the final product of this journey. Taking a year off from the Book Awards has allowed TLA to rethink our annual Fall Event and given us an opportunity to present the awards, as well as hosting a panel discussion the same evening. We hope this discussion will forge valuable connections between theatre librarians and scholars.
Looking over the 2013 books submissions, one clear trend in scholarship emerged to Tiffany, as she noticed how many of the submissions for the Wall Award focused on the topic of women and their role in the film industry, and the early years of the film industry in particular. We were inspired to put together a discussion of this theme by biographies of actresses like Dorothy Lee, Maureen O’Hara, Ann Dvorak, Sandy Dennis, Mary Wickes; and books such as Marina Dalquist’s Exploring Perilous Pauline (Pearl White and the Serial Film Craze) and Hilary Hallett’s Go West, Young Women!: The Rise of Early Hollywood.
TLA President Nancy Friedland is Librarian for Media, Film Studies and Performing Arts, She served on an advisory group for the Columbia’s Women Film Pioneers Project, which made her a natural to moderate this panel. She has put together a fantastic lineup featuring three speakers: Kathryn Hearst who teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, specializing in gender, race, sexuality, and class in film and media; Mark Newton, who is the Production Manager for Columbia’s Center for Digital Research and Scholarship; and filmmaker Bette Gordon, who recently premiered her film Handsome Harry at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
Please join us for the presentation of TLA’s Awards and this dynamic panel discussion on Friday, October 17 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The Business Meeting begins at 5:30 PM, the Awards Ceremony at 6:00 PM, and the Panel Discussion at 7:00 PM. Reservations are required for the panel discussion, doors open at 6:45 PM.
Learn more about the 2014 Annual Business Meeting, Awards Ceremony, and Panel Discussion »
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For additional information, please email: tlabookawards@gmail.com
Diana Bertolini
The New York Public Library