introduction to bruce Kirle Memorial Panel debut papers in music–theatre–dance

In 2007, the distinguished scholar of musical theatre Bruce Kirle died unexpectedly. In tribute to his contribution to this field of scholarship, the music–theatre–dance focus group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) established a competition for new scholars researching in the field. This is now the fourth season in which three prize-winning entries to this competition have been presented both as conference papers (at the 2012 ATHE Conference in Washington, DC) and as written articles in Studies in Musical Theatre. Elizabeth Wollman, respondent to the papers at the ATHE Conference, introduces them in this short preamble.