This is huge news for me! I am super excited to announce that Tort Marcello has been nominated for the 2023 Book Award of Polish Society for Theatre Research (Polskie Towarzystwo Badań Teatralnych – PTBT).
PTBT is the only association in Poland that aims at stimulating and popularizing Polish research about theatre and performance, both in contemporary and historical perspectives.
How PTBT awards the book prize? It is a truly grassroots process, quite complicated, but I will try to break it down for you:
Stage 1:
In the early Spring the PTBT Executive Board opens the call for nominations. Every member of PTBT (even those folks who has “forgot” to pay their membership…for years…) can nominate one or two publications for the award via email. Any book concerning theatre and/or performance published in the previous year is eligible.
The five books that receive the most votes are nominated for the award. This is what has just happened!
Stage 2
Next, every PTBT member can vote again – but this time they can vote only for one from the five nominated books (via email).
The book that received the most votes wins the award.
The Award Ceremony takes place always in the Theatre Institute in Warsaw, usually on April 23, to celebrate the establishment of the Society as well as Shakespeare’s birthday! (It is also the World Book and Copyright Day). It just so happens that it is also my daughter’s birthday so every year I face the clash of my family and professional life…
As you see, PTBT members do not vote anonymously, but their votes are known only to the Executive Board. The exception are members who present the nominated books during the Award Ceremony – obviously, they present the book they voted for.
My history with the PTBT Book Award…
… dates back to 2017 when my book Glamour, kobiecość, widowisko (Glamour, Femininity, Performance), based on my doctoral research, was nominated for the 2016 PTBT Book Award.
In 2019 a research team “Hypatia” led from 2012 by Joanna Krakowska got the 2018 PTBT Book Award for a series of three books documenting women’s theatre work in the twentieth-century Poland. I had an honour to be part of this team – and we are still rolling!
Books nominated for the 2023 PTBT Book Award
Perhaps you wonder what other books made to the final five out of 58 books published in the field in the previous year? I must confess, it is a bit intimidating company!
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