Felicia Hardison Londré, Curators’ Professor of Theatre (B.A., French, with High Honors, University of Montana, 1962; Fulbright study, Université de Caen, 1962-63; M.A., Romance Languages, University of Washington, Seattle, 1964; Ph.D., Speech/Theatre, University of Wisconsin, 1969). Affiliate faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies. Taught seminar on American Women Playwrights at Hosei University, Tokyo, 1993; also offered the seminar during my semester as Women’s Chair in Humanistic Studies at Marquette University, Milwaukee, 1995. The Enchanted Years of the Stage: Kansas City at the Crossroads of American Theater, 1870-1930 (University of Missouri Press, 2007; winner of the Theatre Library Association's George Freedley Memorial Award) includes substantial coverage of women stars and company managers; indeed, Sarah Bernhardt gets the longest narrative of any historical figure in the book. “Much Ado about Shakespeare on Midwestern Frontier Stages” (The Geske Lectures, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2005) is mostly about the actresses who played Beatrice. “Stanislavski’s Champion: Sonia Moore and Her Crusade to Save the American Theatre,” in Theatre History Studies (2004; also winner of the 2003 National Amy and Eric Burger Essays in Theatre Competition). “Megan Terry,” in Speaking on Stage: Interviews with Contemporary American Playwrights, ed. by Philip C. Kolin and Colby Kullman (University of Alabama Press, 1996). “Money Without Glory: Turn-of-the-Century America’s Women Playwrights,” in The American Stage: Social and Economic Issues from the Colonial Period to the Present, ed. by Ron Engle and Tice Miller (Cambridge University Press, 1993).

My research on French, Russian, Spanish, and American theatre history of the 19th and 20th centuries always includes attention to the contributions of women, especially playwrights. My long-term projects include going as far back as the 18th century in France to discover the interrelationships of Olympe de Gouges, Mme Montansier, Marie Antoinette, and possibly also including Vigée LeBrun. However, my current research is focused on French and American theatre artists' involvement in the Great War, and this will encompass major contributions by Sarah Bernhardt, Elsie Janis, and Rachel Crothers.  My office, which I use as a center for collecting material on local and regional theatre history, is named the Patricia McIlrath Center for Mid-American Theatre, to honor the memory of the founder and longtime artistic director of Missouri Repertory Theatre.