Kenyon Fund Provides All-Access Ticket to the Best Books on Theater and Performing Arts
Thanks to the generous support of the Herbert A. Kenyon and Bessie W. Kenyon Fund, groundbreaking theater books will be made available open access in 2025.
A love of theater was the through-line of Herbert Kenyon's distinguished career at the University of Michigan, culminating in the directorship of the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater at the University. With his wife Bessie, Professor Kenyon supported the careers of hundreds of student actors and directors, at the same time as publishing distinguished articles and books on Romance languages - especially Spanish.
As well as supporting University of Michigan Library acquisitions of books on drama the Herbert A. Kenyon and Bessie W. Kenyon Fund is supporting open access publication of six important books in 2025.
The following titles will appear in The Herbert A. and Bessie W. Kenyon Dramatic Library:
- Theater, War, and Memory in Crisis
- Acting the Part
- Readying the Revolution
- Enveloping Worlds
- Speaking Our Selves
- Shipping Out: Race and Performance at Sea
Through the Kenyons' bequest, anyone with an internet connection can enjoy the best books on theater performance for free - extending the impact of their love of dramatic arts far beyond the confines of Ann Arbor or the walls of wealthier libraries.
In expressing gratitude to the Kenyon Fund, Dr. Sara Jo Cohen, Editorial Director of University of Michigan Press, noted that "this funding has allowed us to support the work of scholars who don’t otherwise have access to funding, including contingent faculty and faculty at small colleges. Many of these books have a strong political message that we can now get out to even more readers. I’m particularly excited that we’re able to publish Speaking Our Selves, a collection of new plays by African women playwrights, open access so that those plays can be available to readers everywhere."