PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

As this century draws to a close, I thought it appropriate to bring you all up to date on the events of the proceeding year and our plans for the Mamet Society in 2000. At last year’s business meeting, the Board voted to create a website for the David Mamet Society that would contain past issues of the David Mamet Review (and provide easy access its invaluable reviews and annual bibliography), invite submission to the newsletter by providing contact information for the respective editors and approved format for reviewers, provide a venue for the posting of calls for papers and conferences that would be of interest to our membership, and enhance our visibility (and membership). I am especially grateful to David Sauer’s son and daughter who attended our business meeting and offered expert information. With their help, I am hopeful that the website will be operational in early 2000. I especially invite your input and look forward to hearing from you with suggestions and/or offers to help us keep the website a timely resource.

During the past year, numerous members have inquired about the time-table for the publication of an expanded David Mamet Review. In the last few years Chris Hudgins and I have worked diligently to secure funding for a hardbound annual issue of DMR; however, after long discussions with our editors about the failure of those efforts, we have decided to abandon the idea for the immediate future. We remain committed to publishing our annual newsletter in its present format and encourage your contribution to it. I trust that many of you are as disappointed as we are, but given the academic climate and the proliferation of journals, many of which fail to survive without a long-term commitment from an academic institution or press, we think this decision the only viable one for the moment.

As many of you know, MLA requires that scholarly organizations meet specific criteria to be awarded permanent "Affiliate" status. Given our longevity, annual publication, well attended international conference, and success in presenting six MLA Special Sessions, with larger and larger audiences each year, I am especially hopeful that our request for permanent status will be approved. Since we’ve had no response as yet, it is imperative that we again submit a proposal for a Special Session for the MLA Conference in Washington. I encourage those of you who might be interested in organizing a session to notify Chris or me (hudginsc@nevada.edu or lkane@wisdom.wsc.mass.edu) prior to this year’s session or at the annual meeting.

As always, the work of the David Mamet Society is completed by others. Chris and I are grateful to Steven Price for his U.K. productions compendium, and we offer our thanks to all of the reviewers and contributors to this issue of DMR for your timely and valuable submissions.

The Seventh Annual Meeting of the David Mamet Society at the MLA Convention in Chicago promises to be another stimulating one. Karen Blansfield will chair a Special Session entitled "The Old Neighborhood: Chicago in the Works of David Mamet" which will take place in the McCormick Room, Hyatt Regency, on Tuesday, December 28, from 1:45-3:00 P.M. Profs. David Sauer and Michelle Karen Ephraim, and Martin Buxbaum, who is completing his doctoral work at the University of Vienna, will present, respectively: "David Mamet’s Old Neighborhood: The Postmodernist and Sense of Place"; "Mamet’s Jewish Boys inthe Hood: The Language of Muteness and Masculinity" and "Mamet’s Neighborhood: Selected Stage Plays Interpreted from Abroad." Since we have had such a warm reception to including theater professionals in our previous panels, we are delighted that this year’s special guest, Nan Cibula-Jenkins, a Chicago-based designer who worked on Glengarry Glen Ross and House of Games, will be on hand to speak and take questions from the audience. Based on last year’s turnout of more than 95, I trust you’ll want to mark you calendars for what we hope will once again be a memorable meeting.

As usual, a business meeting for the Board and interested members of the Society will be held at MLA on the day of our Special Session, December 28, at 5:15 P.M., for a discussion of current issues and website design. All members are invited; this year’s meeting will be held in Chris Hudgins’ room at the Hyatt Regency. An announcement will also be made at the Special Session.

A final note. For those attending MLA, Mike Nussbaum’s production of American Buffalo at the American Theater Company (773 929-1031) runs only through December 26. If you haven’t yet finalized your plans, you might want to consider attending this production which promises to be a terrific one.

I look forward to seeing you in Chicago.

LESLIE KANE
Westfield State College