Andrew B. Harris, left, signs copies of his book The Performing Set: The Broadway Designs of William and Jean Eckart during the final day of USITT's 2007 Annual Conference & Stage Expo. Now is the time to nominate a book for the 2008 award.

Photo/Casey Kearns

Martha Marking
USITT Golden Pen Committee

All USITT members are eligible to nominate books for the USITT Golden Pen Award, which honors an outstanding publication in the field of design and production for the performing arts. Nominations for the 2008 Golden Pen Award are being accepted until June 15, 2007 .

Books are eligible for a three-year period from the date of publication. Nominations do not automatically carry over from one year to the next, but it is possible for a book to be nominated more than once. Members can easily nominate a book by using the form here. Or, with member number in hand, simply visit www.usitt.org, click on Major Activities, then the Awards link and follow it to the Golden Pen link.

Anyone with questions about this process may contact a member of the Golden Pen subcommittee of USITT's Publications Committee: Martha Marking, markngma@appstate.edu; Mike Monsos, michael.monsos@umontana.edu; Rich Dunham rdunham@arches.uga.edu; or Lance Brockman, brock001@tc.umn.edu.

The nominated work should make a significant contribution to the field of theatre design and technology as an outstanding example of one or more of:

• scholarly research and critical thinking;
• presentation of the work and methodology of exceptional practitioners of theatrical arts and/or crafts; or
• description of the methods, skills, and technology involved in creating works of theatre and/or crafts.

In the application, nominators should address how the specific book fulfills one or more of these criteria.

Among previous Golden Pen Award recipients are: 2007, Andrew B. Harris, The Performing Set: The Broadway Designs of William and Jean Eckart; 2006, Gordana Popovic Vasic and Irina Subotic, Miodrag Tabacki: A Design Monograph; 2005, Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked; and 2004, Mark Cotta Vaz and Craig Barron, The Invisible Art and Rosamary Ingham and Liz Covey, The Costumer Technician's Handbook. A complete list of all USITT Golden Pen winners can be found here.

The Publications Committee forwards its recommendations of potential award winners to the full Board of Directors. Books that receive the USITT Golden Pen Award are added to the USITT Bookstore, where members receive a discount on purchases. Award recipients are invited to the USITT Awards Banquet as well as to the Annual Conference & Stage Expo where members can have their purchased copy of the books personally inscribed by the author.

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