Lindsey Mantoan, the Ronni Lacroute Chair in Theatre Arts and an associate professor at Linfield University, won the 2024 Excellence in Editing Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Mantoan was honored with co-editors Angela Farr Schiller and Matthew Moore for their book, “Troubling Traditions: Canonicity, Performance, and Theater in the US.”
The Edited Works Award recognizes up to three edited projects in the field of theatre or performance that demonstrate complex and critical engagement with dramatic texts, performances, histories, theories, practices, and/or pedagogies.
According to the award committee, “Troubling Traditions” was found “to be timely, urgent, and quite comprehensive in its approach. It brings many perspectives on canonicity and decolonization, and showcases the variety of approaches and theories to working with, revising, and deconstructing the canon.”
The committee also noted the importance of the text to educators. Specifically noted was “the opportunity to reflect on the ethics of what we teach, how we teach, and what we are teaching toward. This book will be an essential collection for teachers and students in coming years.”
Mantoan, also the university’s resident dramaturg, came to Linfield in 2017. She teaches courses on musical theater, theater history, queer theory, contemporary American drama, and political and protest performance. She also directs musicals, plays and readings; is an occasional contributor to CNN.com; and is an intimacy director. While at Linfield, she has directed several mainstage productions, including:
- “The Wolves” (2023).
- “Firebringer” (2022).
- “Heathers the Musical” (2022).
- “She Kills Monsters” (2019).
- An original adaptation of “Trojan Women” (2019).
She is the author of “War as Performance: Conflict in Iraq and Political Theatricality,” published in 2018. In addition to “Troubling Traditions,” Mantoan has co-edited three other publications:
- “The Methuen Drama Book of Trans Plays” in 2021.
- “Vying for the Iron Throne: Essays on Power, Gender, Death, and Performance in HBO’s Game of Thrones” in 2018.
- “Performance in a Militarized Culture” in 2017.
Mantoan is currently co-editing two new anthologies of trans plays, co-chairing the 2024 ASTR conference in Seattle and directing “The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical” at Linfield in April 2025.
