MORGANTOWN , W.Va.Jay Malarcher, associate professor of theatre and dramaturge in the West Virginia University College of Creative Arts, has been awarded a Fulbright lectureship at the University of Zagreb in Croatia for the 2009-2010 academic year.
Dr. Malarcher will teach several classes on American performance history, includingAmerican Comedy as Cultural Mirror.He is the first faculty member in the College of Creative Arts to be awarded a Fulbright grant.
One of the most prestigious and competitive awards any faculty member may earn, the Fulbright Program is sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Under a cooperative agreement with the bureau, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars assists in the administration of the Fulbright Scholar Program for faculty and professionals.
Established in 1946, the programs purpose is to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and other countries. Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential in their fields.
Malarcher has been a faculty member in the WVU Division of Theatre and Dance since 1999, where he supervises the Bachelor of Arts program in theatre studies and serves as the divisions dramaturge, a position that includes production research and new play development. Malarcher also represents the CCA in the WVU Faculty Senate.
His research interests focus primarily on the genre of comedy and he has published and presented extensively on comedy from Aristophanes to the present. His book,The Classically American Comedy of Larry Gelbart,was published by Scarecrow Press in 2003.
He is the outgoing editor of Theatre Symposium, the scholarly journal of the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and remains on its editorial board.
At WVU and elsewhere, he has worked as dramaturge on many productions, including the 2006 world premiere of Larry Gelbarts post-Katrina satireFloodgate,which was produced in New Orleans as a benefit for artists affected by the hurricane.
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At WVU , he has directed several mainstage productions, includingDancing at Lughnasa,The Idiots Karamazov,andThe Philadelphia Story.