We dedicate this issue of Comedia Performance to Amy Williamsen, whose untimely passing last summer in a drowning accident off the coast of North Carolina has left our members heartbroken. Amy brightened our meetings with her exuberant enthusiasm and took our organization in new directions with her fierce devotion to women’s writing.
At a time when the maternal presence in the comedia was largely overlooked, Amy was one of the first to highlight the mother figure in plays by Lope and Mira de Amescua. And who can forget that raucous meeting in El Paso when Amy and others highlighted the contributions of dramaturgas and urged the group to neglect them no longer? The zeal of Amy and her supporters inspired countless scholars to explore the works of women playwrights. Engendering the Early Modern Stage: Women Playwrights of the Spanish Empire (1999), the groundbreaking anthology edited by Valerie Hegstrom and Amy...
