The Department of (PMA) invites Cornell undergraduate and graduate students to submit essays for the Marvin Carlson Award competition each year. The recipient of the 2023 award, which is given to the best student essay in theatre or performance as selected by a PMA faculty committee, is PhD student Oona Cullen (Department of Literatures in English), for the essay “Black Queer Cosmologies, Sonic Geographies, and Embodied Entanglement in Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brother/Sister Plays”
The award includes a cash prize ($250) and certificate, honors CUNY Professor Marvin Carlson (CU PhD' 61). Carlson earned a PhD in Drama and Theatre from Cornell University in 1961, where he also taught for several years. He is currently the Sidney E. Cohn Distinguished Professor of Theatre, Comparative Literature, and Middle Eastern Studies at CUNY's Graduate Centre. Recently, Professor Carlson was elected to the Academy of Arts and Sciences for his accomplishments in academia and the arts.
Honorable Mention: “The Road to Hell/Broadway: Rural Development and Outmigration in Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown,” by PhD student Andy Colpitts (PMA)
