MARRA-2
Curriculum Vitae
KIM MARRA
(Updated 11/13)
Business Address
Department of Theatre Arts
University of Iowa
107 Theatre Bldg.
Iowa City, IA 52242-1705
Phone: (319) 353 2402
E-mail:
EDUCATIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL HISTORY
Higher Education
Ph.D. University of WisconsinMadison, Theatre and Drama, 1990
M.A. Brown University, American Civilization, 1983
B.A. Dartmouth College, magna cum laude, Drama, with Highest Distinction, 1981
Professional and Academic Positions
Professor, Theatre Arts and American Studies (75:25), University of Iowa, 2011-
Chair, Department of American Studies, University of Iowa, 2008-11
Professor, American Studies and Theatre Arts (75:25), University of Iowa, 2008-11
Professor, Theatre Arts and American Studies (75:25), University of Iowa, 2007-2008
Associate Professor, Theatre Arts and American Studies (75:25), University of Iowa, 2000-2007
Associate Professor, Theatre Arts Department, University of Iowa, 1996-2000.
Assistant Professor, Theatre Arts Department, University of Iowa, 1990-1996.
Adjunct Faculty, College of St Francis, Joliet, Illinois, summer 1990.
Honors and Awards
Outstanding Article Award, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2013
Honorable Mention, Oscar G. Brockett Essay Prize, American Society for Theatre Research, 2013
Elected Member, College of Fellows of the American Theatre, Kennedy Center, Washington, DC,
2010
Elected Member, National Theatre Conference, Players Club, New York City, 2009
Joe A. Callaway Prize for the best book on drama or theatre, presented by New York University’s
Department of English, 2008, $9,000.00.
Author of the Year, University of Iowa Press, 2006
Saturday Scholars Lecture, “Broadway Starmaking at the Turn of the Last Century,” College of
Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Iowa, 9 October 2004.
Faculty Commencement Speaker, Theatre Arts Department, University of Iowa, Spring 2002
Liberal Arts Dean’s Scholar, University of Iowa, 1999-2001
Collegiate Teaching Award, University of Iowa, 1999
Faculty Commencement Speaker, College of Liberal Arts, University of Iowa, Spring 1999
Faculty Commencement Speaker, Theatre Arts Department, University of Iowa, Spring 1994
Phi Beta Kappa, 1981
Memberships and Offices
American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), 1990-present
Secretary (2005-2008), Executive Committee (1994-1997, 1998-2001, 2005-2008), Publications Committee (1994-1995), Nominating Committee (1999-2001, Chair 2000-2001), Marshall/Keller Travel Awards Committee (2002-2005, Chair 2004-2005); Liaison to ATHE (1997-1998); ad hoc ACLS Travel Award Committee (1994-1995).
American Studies Association, 2008-present
Committee on American Studies Programs and Centers (2009-2011)
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), 1990-present
Research and Publications Committee (1998-2000), Conference Committee (1996-1998),
Professional Development Committee of the Leadership Identification and Development Task Force (Chair, 1999-2001), Nominating Committee of the Theatre History Focus Group (1994-1995), Executive Board of the Theatre History Focus Group (19931994).
American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS), 1993-present
Executive Board (2004-2007), Secretary (19931997), Membership Secretary (19921993); ad hoc Committee to Evaluate Proposal for Archiving Activities of Regional Theatres (1991-1994).
MARRA - 23
College of Fellows of the American Theatre
Board of Directors, 2012-2014
Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies (INCS), 2004-present
Executive Board (2007-2010)
International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), 2005-present
Mid-American American Studies Association, 2008-present
Executive Board as U of Iowa Faculty Representative (2008-2011); MAASA Representative to
ASA (2009-2011)
Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), 1990-present
Conference Planning Task Force (1995-1996), CoChair, Theatre History Symposium (1994).
Performance Studies International (PSi), 2007-present
Professional Development
CIC DEO Seminar, 2009
ATHE Leadership Institute, 2006
SCHOLARSHIP
Refereed Publications
Books
Strange Duets: Impresarios and Actresses in the American Theatre, 18651914. Studies
in Theatre History and Culture Series. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. 2006. 378 pp.
Winner of the Joe A. Callaway Prize for 2008 for the best book on drama or theatre, presented by New York University’s Department of English
***The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures of the American Stage in the Pre-Stonewall Era, co-edited with Robert A. Schanke and Billy J. Harbin. University of Michigan Press, 2005. 440 pp. (***=Equal editorial contribution)
***Staging Desire: Queer Readings of American Theater History, anthology of essays co-edited with Robert A. Schanke. University of Michigan Press, 2002. 416 pp.
***Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History, anthology of essays coedited with Robert A. Schanke. University of Michigan Press, 1998. 352 pp.
Performance Piece
Horseback Views: A Queer Hippological Performance, in Animal Acts: Performing Species Now, eds. Una Chaudhuri and Holly Hughes. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, forthcoming.
Articles
“Massive Bodies in Mortal Performance: War Horse and the Staging of Anglo-American Equine Experience in Combat,” essay contracted for Performing Animality: Animals in Performance Practices, eds. Lourdes Orozco and Jennifer Parker-Starbuck, Palgrave. Completed and submitted to editors; under review.
“Circus Echoes: Dancing the Human/Equine Relationship under the Millennial Bigtop,” essay contracted for the Oxford Handbook of Theatre and Dance, ed. Nadine George-Graves. Completed and submitted to editor; under review.
“Saddle Sensations: Female Equestrian Prowess at the National Horse Show in Madison Square Garden, 1883-1920,” essay for Showing Off, Showing Up: The Political and Aesthetic Economies of Heightened Performance, edited by Laurie Frederik, Catherine Schuler, and Kim Marra, completed essay and volume under review at Northwestern University Press.
“Riding, Scarring, Knowing: A Queerly Embodied Performance Historiography,” Theatre Journal 64:4 (December 2012): 489-511. Winner of the 2013 ATHE Outstanding Article Award and Honorable Mention for the Oscar G. Brockett Essay Prize, American Society for Theatre Research.
“Equestrian Drama,” The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Romantic Literature, edited by Frederick
Burwick, Nancy M. Goslee and Diane Long Hoeveler. Chichester, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2012. (5000 w).
“Lesbian Scholar/Gay Subject: Turn-of-the-Century Inversions,” Theatre Topics (September 2003): 235-246.
“Clyde Fitch’s Too Wilde Love,” in Staging Desire: Queer Readings of Theater History, eds. Robert A. Schanke and Kim Marra. 23-54. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002.
“Taming America as Actress: Augustin Daly, Ada Rehan, and the Discourse of Imperial Frontier Conquest,” in Performing America: Cultural Nationalism in American Theatre, ed. J. Ellen Gainor and Jeffrey Mason. 52-72. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
“A Lesbian Marriage of Cultural Consequence: Elisabeth Marbury and Elsie de Wolfe, 1886-1933,” Theatre Annual: A Journal of Performance Studies 47 (Fall 1994): 71-96. Revised for reprinting in Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History, ed. Robert A. Schanke and Kim Marra. 104-128. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998.
“Marginal Experience/Mainstream Vision in the Theatrical Career of Zelda [Paldi] Sears (18731935).” In Staging Difference: Cultural Pluralism in American Theatre and Drama, ed. Marc Maufort, 75-85. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1995.
“Clyde Fitch, 18651909.” In American Playwrights, 18801945: A Research and Production Sourcebook, ed. William Demastes. 80-90. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc., 1995.
“Elsie de Wolfe circa 1901: The Dynamics of Prescriptive Feminine Performance in American Theater and Society.” Theatre Survey 35 (May 1994): 100-120.
“Ma Rainey and the Boyz: Gender Ideology in August Wilson’s Broadway Canon.” In August Wilson: A Casebook, ed. Marilyn Elkins, 123-60. New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1994 cloth, 1999 paperback.
“Clara Bloodgood (18701907), Exemplary Subject of Broadway Gender Tyranny.” ATQ: Journal of 19thCentury American Literature and Culture 7 (September 1993): 193216.
*Kim Marra and Barbara Clayton, “Phallocracy and Phallic Caricature: ReViewing the Iconography of Greek Comedy,” Theatre Survey 34 (May 1993): 117. (*=primary author)
“‘The Sisterhood of Sweetness and Light’: Gender Production in American Acting Styles and Theatre Historiography,” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 7 (Spring 1993): 193201.
“Clyde Fitch, Transvestite MetteurenScene of the Feminine,” New England Theatre Journal 3 (1992): 1537.
Shorter Entries for Reference Works
The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures of the American Stage in the Pre-Stonewall Era, edited by Robert A. Schanke, Kim Marra, and Billy J. Harbin. University of Michigan Press, 2005: Maude Adams (2000w), Clyde Fitch (2000w); Elisabeth Marbury (1500w).
Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, ed. Dennis Kennedy, Oxford University Press, 2003: Fanny Davenport (100w), Marie Dressler (250w), Anne Hartley Gilbert (100w), May Irwin (100w), Clara Morris (100w), Empire Theatre (100w), Madison Square Theatre (150w), pornography and performance (2000w).
Jewish Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, eds. Paula Hyman and Deborah Dash Moore. Vol. I, pp. 387-88. New York: Routledge, 1997. Rose Eytinge (650w).
Book Reviews
Peta Tait, Wild and Dangerous Performances: Animals, Emotions, Circus (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave MacMillan, 2011), Theatre Journal 65 (October 2013): 433-4.
Marlis Schweitzer, When Broadway Was the Runway: Theater, Fashion, and American Culture (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), Theatre Survey 53:1 (April 2012): 131-2.
Kirsten Pullen, Actresses and Whores (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), Theatre Journal 59 (May 2007): 320-321.
Katie N. Johnson, Sisters in Sin: Brothel Drama in America, 1900-1920 (CUP, 2006), Modern Drama L (Summer 2007): 294-296.
Patricia Marks. Sarah Bernhardt’s First American Theatrical Tour, 1880-1881. New York: MacFarland, 2003. Renee M. Sentilles. Performing Menken: Adah Isaacs Menken and the Birth of American Celebrity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Theatre Survey (May 2005): 139-142.
Alisa Solomon and Framji Minwalla, eds. The Queerest Art: Essays on Lesbian and Gay Theater. New York: New York University Press, 2002. TDR 183 (Fall 2004): 188-190.
Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby, eds. The Cambridge History of American Theatre.Volume II: 1870-1945. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Theatre Journal 52 (October 2000): 428-429.
Don B. Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby, eds. The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Volume I: Beginnings to 1870. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Journal of American History (March 2000): 1772-1773.
Faye E. Dudden. Women in the American Theatre: Actresses and Audiences, 1790-1870. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Theatre Survey 36 (May 1995): 125-127.
MARRA - 23
Gay Gibson Cima, Performing Women: Female Characters, Male Playwrights, and the Modern Stage. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993. Theatre Research International 20 (Summer 1995): 173-175.
Laurence Senelick, ed. Gender in Performance: The Presentation of Difference in the Performing Arts. Hanover and London: University Press of New England, 1992. TDR: Journal of Performance Studies 38 (Spring 1994): 171-175.
Veronica Makowski. Susan Glaspell’s Century of American Women. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. New England Theatre Journal 5 (1994): 115-117.
Published Reviews of Scholarship
Strange Duets: Impresarios and Actresses in the American Theatre, 1865-1914 (2006)
Review by Jocelyn L. Buckner, American Studies 50 (Spring/Summer 2009): 171-172.
Review by Stacy Wolf, Theatre Research International 33 (2008): 207-208.
Review by Lesley Ferris, Theatre Survey 49.1 (May 2008): 146-148.
Review by Rosemarie K. Bank, Theatre History Studies 28 (2008): 191-195.
Review by Eileen Curley, Theatre Journal 60.1 (2007): 155-156.
Review by Edward Slavishak, H-SHGAPE, H-Net Reviews, August, 2007. URL:
http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=43321195415253.
Review by Nina C. Ayoub, “Nota Bene,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 23 February
2007, A 14.
Staging Desire: Queer Readings of American Theater History (2002)
Review by Theresa Smalec, The Drama Review 48 (Winter 2004): 192-195.
Review by Dan Watermeier, Theatre Survey 44 (Fall 2003): 299-301. 1200w.
Review by Stephen J. Bottoms, “Inferred Alternatives,” Theater 33 (2003): 102-105. 1800w.
Review by David Van Leer. Journal of American History 90 (December 2003): 1086. 600w.
Review by Jeff Turner, Theatre Journal 35 (October 2003): 567-568. 1200w.
Review by Robert Vorlicky. Theatre History Studies 23 (2003): 109-113. 2900w.
Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History
(1998)
Review by Harley Erdman, Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film 29 (June 2002): 91-95.
Review by John Franceschina, Theatre Survey 40 (Nov. 1999): 98-100. 1000w.
Review by Elizabeth Reitz Mullenix, Theatre History Studies 19 (June 1999): 189-191. 2000w.
“Broadway Outings,” Review by Eric Secoy, Harvard Gay and Lesbian Review 6 (Summer 1999): 66. 750w.
Review by J. W. Lafler, Choice 36 (April 1999): 387. 220w.
“Gossip as History,” Review by Carolyn Gage, Lambda Book Report (March 1999): 20-22. 900w.
Works in Progress
“Fashioning the Thoroughbred Ideal: Show Women and Show Horses on American Stages, 1865-1930,” book project
Showing Off, Showing Up: The Political and Aesthetic Economies of Heightened Performance, collection of essays co-edited with Laurie Frederik and Catherine Schuler, Northwestern University Press, under review.
Performance
Horseback Views: A Queer Hippological Performance, 75-minute autobiographical solo piece directed by Meredith Alexander
“Animal Acts: Beasts of the Northern Wild Posthuman Performances and Provocations,”
Symposium and Performance Festival to capture video segments to accompany the forthcoming volume Animal Acts: Performing Species Today, eds. Una Chaudhuri and Holly Hughes (University of Michigan Press), University of Michigan, March 21-23, 2013 (15-minute excerpt)
Standing Heat, a series of performances about animals curated by Holly Hughes,
Links Hall, Chicago, May 18-19, 2012
Performing Ethnicities through Sport Symposium, University of Iowa, April 1-3, 2011
Performance Studies International Conference (PSi), Toronto, June 9-13, 2010.
Summer Institute in Performance Studies, Northwestern University, July 2009.
Grants
External
NEH Travel to Collections Grant, 199293, $750.00
Internal
Obermann Working Group “Intergenre: Crossing the Creative/Scholarly Divide,” 2013-2014,
Co-Directed with Lisa Heineman, $1000.
Obermann Working Group “Intergenre: Crossing the Creative/Scholarly Divide,” 2012-2013,
Co-Directed with Kristine Munoz, $1000.
Obermann Working Group “Intergenre: Crossing the Creative/Scholarly Divide,” 2011-2012,
Co-Directed with Lisa Heineman, $2000.
Career Development Award, Fall 2011
Obermann Fellow in Residence, Fall 2011
Book Subvention, Vice President for Research, 2006, $2,000.00
Career Development Award, Spring 2006
Obermann Scholar, Spring 2006, $500.00
Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Semester, Fall 2005 (one course release, plus $1500.00)
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Summer Fellowship, 2003, $7,000.00
Summer Stipend, Center for Teaching, Writing Instruction in Large Classes: Workshop 2002,
$5,750.00 plus benefits
New Interdisciplinary Course Seed Grant, 2001, $2,500.00
Liberal Arts Dean’s Scholar Award, 1999-2001, $10,000.00
Semester Assignment, Spring 2000
AHI Summer Grant, 1999, $5,000.00