Finalists
for
The George Freedley Memorial Award
(for an outstanding book in theatre or another area of live performance)
The list of finalists for the Association's Awards includes every title which appeared among a juror's first five choices during the final voting process as well as every title mentioned by more than one juror in the final balloting period.
These books truly represent the best of the best, and the Theatre Library Association congratulates their authors and thanks their publishers for submitting them for consideration for this year's awards.
The Theatre Library Association invites publishers, if they choose, to promote any of these distinguished works as a FINALIST for the award(s) indicated among those books which were not recipients of the Freedley, TLA, or Special Jury Prize honors.
2008
Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern by Jayna Brown; Duke University Press (FREEDLEY AWARD)
Children and Theatre in Victorian Britain by Anne Varty; Palgrave-Macmillan
The Making of Theatrical Reputations: Studies from the Modern London Theatre by Yael Zarhy-Levo; University of Iowa Press
2007
Bernard Shaw and China:
Cross-Cultural Encounters; by Kay Li; University Press of Florida
The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern
Drama; edited by Gabrielle H. Cody and Evert Sprinchorn;
Columbia University Press
The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas
City at the Crossroads of American Theater, 1870-1930; by Felicia Hardison
Londrè; University of Missouri Press (FREEDLEY AWARD)
How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today;
by Simon Goldhill; University of Chicago Press
The Man Who Was Rip Van Winkle:
Joseph Jefferson and Nineteenth-Century American Theatre;
by Benjamin McCarter; Yale University Press
Oklahoma: The Making of an American
Musical; by Tim Carter; Yale University Press
Performing Loss: Rebuilding Community
Through Theater and Writing; by Jodi Kanter; Southern Illinois
University Press
2006
The American Musical and the
Performance of Personal Identity; by Raymond Knapp; Princeton
University Press
Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular
Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910; by Daphne A.
Brooks; Duke University Press
Glamour Addiction: Inside the
American Ballroom Dance Industry; by Juliet McMains; Wesleyan
University Press
Jerome Kern; by Stephen
Banfield; Yale University Press
Lady in the Dark:
Biography of a Musical; by
bruce d. mcclung; Oxford University Press (SPECIAL JURY PRIZE)
The Last "Darky": Bert Williams,
Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora; by Louis
Chude-Sokei; Duke University Press
The Masks of Anthony and Cleopatra; by Marvin Rosenberg; University of
Delaware Press (FREEDLEY
AWARD)
The Megamusical; by Jessica Sternfeld; Indiana University Press
The Performing Set: The Broadway
Designs of William and Jean Eckart; by Andrew B. Harris;
University of North Texas Press
The Provincetown Players and the
Culture of Modernity; by Brenda Murphy; Cambridge University
Press
The Shakespeare Wars: Clashing
Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups; by Ron Rosenbaum
The Stagecraft and Performance of
Roman Comedy; by C. W. Marshall; Cambridge University Press
Stardust Lost: The Triumph, Tragedy,
and Mishugas of the Yiddish Theatre in America; by Stefan
Kanfer; Alfred A. Knopf
Strange Duets: Impresarios and
Actresses in the American Theatre, 1865-1914; by Kim Marra;
University of Iowa Press
The Victorian Clown; by Jacky
Bratton and Ann Featherstone; Cambridge University Press
Wagner
and the Art of Theatre; by Patrick Carnegy; Yale University
Press (SPECIAL JURY PRIZE)
2005
Buffalo Bill’s America: William Cody and the Wild West Show; by
Louis S. Warren; Alfred A. Knopf
Before the Parade Passes By: Gower Champion and the Glorious
American Musical; by John Anthony Gilvey; St. Martin’s Press
Charlotte: Being a True Account of An Actress’s Flamboyant
Adventures in Eighteenth-Century London’s Wild and Wicked Theatrical
World; by Kathryn Shevelow; Henry Holt and Company (FREEDLEY
AWARD)
The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and
the Beginnings of Superstardom in America; by Larry McMurtry; Simon
& Schuster
Elia Kazan: A Biography; by Richard Schickel; HarperCollins
Eugene O’Neill’s Last Plays: Separating Art from Autobiography;
by Doris Alexander; University of Georgia Press
Irving Berlin’s Show Business: Broadway—Hollywood—America;
by David Leopold; Harry N. Abrams
The Most American Thing in America: Circuit Chautauqua as
Performance; by Charlotte M. Canning; University of Iowa Press
Olivier; by Terry Coleman; Henry Holt and Company
Puppetry: A World History; by Eileen Blumenthal; Harry N.
Abrams
Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama; by Carol Ockman and
Kenneth E. Silver; Yale University Press
Susan Glaspell: Her Life and Times; by Linda Ben-Zvi; Oxford
University Press (SPECIAL JURY PRIZE)
Theaters; by Craig Morrison; W.W. Norton & Company
Theatres of Independence: Drama, Theory, and Urban Performance
in India Since 1947; by Apana Bhargava Dharwadker; University of
Iowa Press
Uncle Tom Mania: Slavery, Minstrelsy, and Transatlantic Cultural
in the 1850s; by Sarah Meer; University of Georgia Press
A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599; by James
Shapiro; HarperCollins
2004
Acts of Courage: Vaclav Havel's Life in the Theater; by
Carol Rocamora; Smith and Kraus
The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity; by
Raymond Knapp; Princeton University Press
Becoming Something: The Story of Canada Lee; by Mona Z.
Smith; Faber & Faber/Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time;
by Ken Bloom and Frank Vlastnik; Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers
(SPECIAL JURY PRIZE)
Broadway: The American Musical; by Michael Kantor and
Laurence Maslon; Bulfinch Press
Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African
American Culture; by Thomas F. DeFrantz; Oxford University Press
Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance by
Deborah Jowitt; Simon & Schuster
Professional Savages: Captive Lives and Western Spectacle;
by Roslyn Poignant; Yale University Press
Shakespeare After All; by Marjorie Barber; Pantheon Books
Shakespeare's Songbook; by Ross W. Duffin; W. W. Norton &
Company
Sidney Howard and Clare Eames: American Theater's Perfect
Couple of the 1920s; by Arthur Gewirtz; McFarland
Striptease: The Untold History of the Girlie Show; by
Rachel Shteir; Oxford University Press (FREEDLEY AWARD)
Summer Stock!: An American Theatrical Phenomenon; by
Martha Schmoyer LoMonaco; Palgrave
Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare; by
Stephen Greenblatt; W. W. Norton & Company
Women, Modernism, and Performance; by Penny Farfan; Cambridge
University Press
2003
Arthur Miller: His Life and Work; by Martin Gottfried; Da
Capo Press
The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool; by
Brenda Dixon Gottschild; Palgrave
Censorship of the American Theatre in the Twentieth Century; by
John Houchin; Cambridge University Press
Eleonora Duse: A Biography; Helen Sheehy; Alfred A. Knopf
Everything Was Possible: The Birth of the Musical "Follies";
by Ted Chapin; Alfred A. Knopf (SPECIAL JURY PRIZE)
The Girl Who Fell Down: A Biography of Joan McCracken; by
Lisa Jo Sagolla; Northeastern University Press
A History of African American Theatre; by Errol G. Hill and
James V. Hatch; Cambridge University Press (FREEDLEY AWARD)
Imagining Shakespeare; by Stephen Orgel; Palgrave
Kenneth Tynan: A Life; by Dominic Shellard; Yale
Universtiy Press
No Fixed Points: Dance in the Twentieth Century; by Nancy
Reynolds and Malcolm McCormick; Yale University Press
Notes on Directing: The Classic Guide to the Director's Craft;
by Frank Hauser and Russell Reich; RCR Creative Press
Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of
American Celebrity; by Renee M. Sentilles; Cambridge University
Press
Sondheim on Music: Minor Details and Major Decisions; by
Mark Eden Horowitz; Scarecrow Press
White People Do Not Know How to Behave at Entertainments Designed
for Ladies and Gentlemen of Colour: William Brown's African and
American Theater; by Marvin McAllister; University of North
Carolina Press
2002
Acting the Right Part: Political Theater and Popular Drama in
Contemporary China; by Xiaomei Chen; University of Hawaii
Press
A Beautiful Pageant: African American Theater, Drama, and
Performance in the Harlem Renaissance, 1910-1927; by David Krasner;
Palgrave
Black Theater: Ritual Performance in the African Diaspora;
edited by Paul Carter Harrison and others; Temple University Press
The Circus Age: Culture and Society Under the American Big Top;
by Janet M. Davis; University of North Carolina Press
Death by Drama and Other Medieval Urban Legends; by Jody Enders;
University of Chicago Press
Kurt Weill on Stage: From Berlin to Broadway; by Foster
Hirsch; Alfred A. Knopf
The Moliere Encyclopedia; edited by James F. Gaines; Greenwood
Publishing Group
On the Edge of Your Seat: Popular Theater and Film in Early
Twentieth-Century American Art; edited by Patricia McDonnell; Yale
University Press
Ridiculous!: The Theatrical Life and Times of Charles Ludlam;
by David Kaufman; Applause Theatre & Cinema Books (FREEDLEY AWARD)
The Staging of Drama in the Medieval Church; by Dunbar H. Ogden;
University of Delaware Press/Associated University Presses (HONORABLE
MENTION AWARD)
Tom Stoppard: A Life; by Ira Nadel; Palgrave
Voices of the Puppet Masters: The Wayang Golek Theater of
Indonesia; by Mimi Herbert with Nur S.Rahardjo; University of
Hawaii Press
2001
Dance with Demons: The Life of Jerome Robbins; by Greg
Lawrence; G. P. Putnam's Sons
Dario Fo & France Rame: Artful Laughter; by Ron
Jenkins; Aperture (Honorable Mention Award)
Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart; by Steven Bach; Alfred
A. Knopf
Drama, Play, and Game: English Festive Culture in the Medieval
and Early Modern Period; by Lawrence M. Clopper: University
of Chicago Press
The Generation of Plays: Yoruba Popular Life in Theater;
by Karin Barber; Indiana University Press
Hamlet and the Baker's Son: My Life in Theatre and Politics;
by Augusto Boal; Routledge
Harlequin Unmasked: The Commedia dell' Arte and Porcelain
Sculpture; by Meredith Chilton; Yale University Press (FREEDLEY
AWARD)
The Kid Coney Island: Fred Thompson and the Rise of American
Amusements; by Woody Register; Oxford University Press
Mielziner: Master of Modern Stage Design; by Mary C.
Henderson; Watson-Guptill Publications
Reflecting the Audience: London Theatregoing,1840-1880; by
Jim Davis and Victor Emeljanow; University of Iowa Press
A Triptych from the Russian Theatre: An Artistic Biography of
the Komissarzhevsky Family; by Victor Borovsky; University of Iowa
Press
2000
Anna Held and the Birth of Ziegfeld's Broadway; by Eve Golden;
University Press of Kentucky
Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas
Brothers; by Constance Valis Hill; Oxford University Press (also a
TLA Award Finalist)
Buffalo Bill's Wild West: Celebrity, Memory, and Popular
History by Joy S. Kasson; Hill & Wang
The Changing Room; Sex, Drag and Theatre; by Laurence
Senelick; Routledge (HONORABLE MENTION AWARD)
The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde; edited by Merlin Holland
and Rupert-Hart Davis; Henry Holt
The Economics of the British Stage, 1800-1914; by Tracy C.
Davis; Cambridge University Press (FREEDLEY AWARD)
From the Greek Mimes to Marcel Marceau and Beyond...; by Annette
Lust; Scarecrow Press
George Jean Nathan and the Making of Modern American Drama Criticism;
by Thomas F. Connolly; Fairleigh Dickinson University Press/Associated
University press
Ghost Light: A Memoir; by Frank Rich; Random House
Illegitimate Theatre in London, 177-1840; by Jane Moody;
Cambridge University Press
Joseph Jefferson: Dean of the American Theatre; by Arthur
Bloom; Frederic C. Beil Publisher
Kurt Weill: A Life in Pictures and Documents; by David
Farneth with Elmar Juchem and Dave Stein; Overlook Press
Moliere: A Theatrical Life; by Virginia Scott; Cambridge
University press
The Moscow State Yiddish Theater: Jewish Culture on the Soviet
Stage; by Jeffrey Veidlinger; Indiana University Press
O'Neill: Life with Monte Cristo; by Arthur and Barbara
Gelb; Applause Books
Oz Before the Rainbow: L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard on
Stage and Screen to 1939; by Mark Evan Swartz; Johns Hopkins
University
For further information, contact: Kenneth Schlesinger
