Don B. Wilmeth research files for the Cambridge Guide to the American Theatre (Ms.2008.004)

Biographical note

Don B. Wilmeth, since 2003 Asa Messer Professor Emeritus, Professor of Theatre, Speech and Dance Emeritus and Professor of English Emeritus, is one of the pre-eminent scholars of theater in America. His entire career has been focused on theater, most especially theater in the United States, starting with his dissertation "A History of the Margo Jones Theatre" (1964), and continuing through his introduction to the Brown faculty as Associate Director of Theatre (1967) and his appointment as Asa Messer Professor (1998). He has been a member of the company at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (1960), a staff director of the Corral Playhouse in New Mexico (1965-1967), a founding director of Brown Summer Theatre (1970) and part of the faculty of the Trinity Rep/Brown University consortium which offered an MFA in acting and directing (2002).

He has taught, among many others, courses in the Development of the American Theatre and graduate seminars in American theater. His biography is to be found in Notable Names in American Theatre and Marquis Who's Who in Entertainment among many other less theatrical biographical dictionaries. Among the many awards he has received is the Barnard Hewitt Award for Excellence in Theatre History (1981). He was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Theatre Association (1985), and was the recipient of an award for national contribution in theater by the New England Theatre Conference (1998) and one for distinguished service from the Theatre Library Association (2004). He has been on the Dissertation Award Committee of the American Theatre Association (1982-1984), president of the American Society for Theatre Research (1991-1994), on the executive board of the American Theatre and Drama Society ((1995-1999) and Dean of the College of Fellows of American Theatre (1996-1998).

He has written or edited more than 25 books with topics ranging for American tent circuses to the argot of American popular entertainment and contributed chapters and articles to many more books and journals. This experience both practical and intellectual along with a crisp writing style made him a logical choice for the co-editorship of The Cambridge Guide to the American Theatre.