Sad News

[Marlis Schweitzer]

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing our dear 
colleague, Professor Lisa Wolford Wylam. Lisa died suddenly on Oct. 9 
while visiting family in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Lisa was a passionate and widely respected scholar, best known for her 
extensive involvement with the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas 
Richards as well as her ethnographic work with Guillermo Gómez-Peña and 
his company, La Pocha Nostra. Her publications include /Grotowski's 
Objective Drama Research /(University Press of Mississippi 1996) and 
/The Grotowski Sourcebook /(Routledge 1997), co-edited with Richard 
Schechner. In 2008, she co-edited with Mario Biagini and Antonio 
Attisani /Doorways: Performing as a Vehicle at the Workcenter of Jerzy 
Grotowski and Thomas Richards/ (Seagull Press) and coedited with Kris 
Salata a special issue of /TDR /that examines Grotowski's lingering 
influence on artists and scholars around the world. This scholarship was 
informed by her extensive experience as a dramaturg---including work 
with La Pocha Nostra and Cleveland's Theatre Labyrinth---and 
longstanding commitments to devised theatre. Lisa was a founding Vice 
President of Performance Studies international (PSi) and served as 
Program Chair for the 2010 PSi conference held in Toronto.

In the Department of Theatre at York University where she began as 
Associate Professor in 2006, and in her previous position at Bowling 
Green State University, Lisa was a beloved teacher and a strong advocate 
for students and junior faculty. She brought to her classes tremendous 
critical insight, warmth, and humour, and instilled in her students a 
passion for merging theory with practice. She worked closely with 
graduate students as Director of the MA/PhD Program in Theatre Studies, 
and helped to create a challenging and forward thinking environment for 
advanced study. This past summer, she was instrumental in bringing Mario 
Biagini from the Workcenter of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards to 
York for an intensive Summer Institute. For all that she brought to the 
Department of Theatre and the Faculty of Fine Arts, she will be sorely 
missed.

Lisa is survived by her loving husband, John Wylam. A memorial for Lisa 
will be held at York University later this fall.

_____________________________

Marlis Schweitzer & Laura Levin
Department of Theatre,
York University

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