The Canadian Association for Theatre Research/Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale (CATR/ACRT) has announced York University Professor Cynthia Zimmerman as the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022.
Zimmerman is a professor at Glendon Campus in the English Department. She has devoted her professorial career to scholarship and teaching in the field of Canadian drama, as well as teaching courses in modern and contemporary drama for the Glendon English Program and for York’s Graduate Program in English.
Especially noted is her pioneering work supporting and promoting Canadian plays and playwrights. She is considered a leading scholar on the topic of women on the Canadian stage, and is widely published through her work on manuscripts, plays and scholarly articles.
Since the early 1980s, she has been instrumental in growing the field and cultivating an appreciative theatre audience for Canadian work through her publishing, mentoring and teaching. In the citation by the CATR it is stated that Zimmerman has had a “magnificent career” and was conferred this honour “in recognition of [her] significant and sustained contributions to theatre and the performing arts in Canada.”
“I am pleased enormously to have been acknowledged in this way,” says Zimmerman. “I find it truly gratifying to have my work appreciated by my colleagues.”
She is the recipient of several grants and fellowships, and has also served many roles outside of York, including vice-president of CATR, and widespread involvement in community theatre in Toronto, the Edlerhostel program and the Literature and Psychology Group.
The 2022 Scholarly Awards and Associateships aim to celebrate extraordinary recent publications and scholarship, and to celebrate the contributions of influential theatre and performance scholars, educators and creators.