TASP NEWSLETTERTHE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF PLAY

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 1 WINTER 1987

Annual Meeting in Montreal,March 26 To 28; Be There

"Program chair Jay Mechling is putting thefinishing touches on arrangements for theTASP annual meetings to be held inMontreal, Quebec in conjunction with thePopular Culture Association. TASPsessions will begin on the morning ofThursday, March 26 and will conclude by5 p.m. on Saturday, March 28. A wine andcheese reception will he held on Wednes-day evening for those who arrive early.

As usual, the sessions will cover a varietyof topics related to play, games, recreationand leisure. Appropriately for meetingsbeing held in Montreal, there will be severalsessions featuring research on urban tra-ditions and festivals. Other sessions dealwith everything from animal play to the studyof toys and games.

Headquarters for the conference is LeChateau Champlain, 1 Place du Canada,Montreal, Quebec H3B 4C9. Rates are$90 Canadian for single rooms, $105Canadian for doubles. (The current rate ofexchange is 72 cents on the dollar). Whenmaking travel plans to Montreal, keep inmind that there are two airports: Dorval isclose to the city center, while Mirabel is

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IN THIS ISSUE:

Montreal meetings 1TASP journaL 2Editor's view 2Play Print... 3Play Things 4

Schechner To Deliver KeynoteAddress In Montreal

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I .A highlight of the Montreal meetings shouldbe the keynote address to be delivered byRichard Schechner, Professor of Perfor-mance Studies at New york University andauthor of the recent book Between Theatreand Anthropology (University of Pennsyl-vania Press, 1985). The topic of the ad-dress will be "Play and the PerformativeGenres." TASP keynote addresses in thepast have been delivered by such diversescholars as Sir Edmund Leach, RobertColes, and Gershon Legmon, and Pro-fessor Schechner may be counted upon toprovide us with still another perspective onthe study of play. He has experience as atheatre director, and he has worked withanthropologists in playscripting ethno-graphic texts. In addition to delivering thekeynote address, Professor Schechnerwill direct a performance of "Clothes,"using our own members as his dramatispersonae. One can only anticipate withdelight the acting talents of Sutton-Smith, Mechling, Blanchard, Manning,et al..

Montreal Meeting...

much more distant from the city center.Registration for the conference is $25, and

pre-registration is strongly encouraged.Send your registration fee to TASP Trea-surer Garry Chick, Children's ResearchCenter, University of Illinois, Champaign,IL 61820.

Registration through TASP also allowsone to participate in the PCA sessionswhich cover an increadible variety of topicsfrom AIDS in society, to literature, massmedia, outdoor recreation, and pets.

TASP To Publish JournalBeginning In 1988;Chick Appointed Editor

President Frank Manning and othermembers of the Editorial Board have beenin negotiation over the past six months withRainer Martens of Human Kinetics Pressconcerning publication of a new journal. Asthose negotiations are nearly complete, itseems safe to announce with confidencethat the TASP journal, to be entitiled Play& Culture, will be published by HumanKinetics Press with Volume 1, Number 1scheduled for publication in early 1988.Garry Chick has been appointed editor ofthe journal. Garry is in the process of settingup an editorial board in consultation with theTASP Council and Human Kinetics Press.He promises to supply us with a progressreport at the Montreal meetings.

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TAASP Becomes TASP

The TAASP Council has voted to changethe name of our organization to TheAssociation for the Study ofPlay (TASP). The new name reflects moreaccurately the multi-discipli-nary nature of our membership.Council members feel the new namewill present a broader base for theorganization as we launch our journal.(See related story this page.)

Hilliard Takes On Role OfNewsletter Editor

In 1985, TASP Newsletter Editor AnneMarie Guilmette only somewhat facetiouslyexpressed concern over whether theNewsletter would be published in 1986. In1986 she expressed great joy in the fact thatthe Newsletter would not be publishedunder her editorship and reported that DanHilliard had been named to a three yearterm as editor. In recent monthssome of you may have looked longingly inyour mailboxes and wondered if theNewsletter would make it to Volume 13under Hilliard's editorship. Well, Volume13, Number 1 is finally before you, and bothits appearance and content are quitedifferent from the volumes that preceded it. Iwill not bother you with an explanation ofthe delays, but I do feel the need to assureyou that a regular schedule of Newsletterproduction can and will be established. Ialso want to take this opportunity, before theMontreal meetings, to express my opinion

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PLAV PRINT: Books and Materials for Play Scholars

TASP Proceedings Volume 10Now In Print

Cultural Dimensions of Play, Games, andSport, edited by Bernard Mergen, is thelatest edition of TASP proceedingsavailable from Human Kinetics Press. Itcontains nineteen contributions, rangingfrom studies of children's play to travel toathletics, and including Bernard DeKoven'skeynote address on video games.

TASP Annuals In Production

Beginning in 1985, TASP replacedpublished proceedings of its annualmeeting with an annual publication, invitingsubmissions from those doing research inthe field of play, regardless of whether theresearch was presented at the annualmeetings. Two volumes in this series arenow in the publication process. The 1985

. TASP annual, Playful Meaning, MeaningfulPlay, edited by Gary Alan Fine will bereleased soon, having passed the galleyproofs stage. The 1986 Annual, edited byFrank Manning, is also well along. Submis-sions were reviewed and contributionsselected during the summer. Both volumeswill be published by Human Kinetics Press.Watch for publication announcements.

Catalog of Canadian LeisureResearch

In keeping with a tradition established atpast Canadian Congresses, a Catalogue ofCanadian Research from 1984 to 1986 isbeing compiled. If you have done researchwhich should be included, contact Dr. T. L.

Burton, Department of Recreation andLeisure Studies, The University of Alberta,Edmonton, Canada T6G 2H9.

New Book On Children's Play

Gordon and Breach has recently publisheda set of articles on children's play originallyappearing in the journal Early ChildDevelopment and Care. The anthologyentitled Children's Play: Research Develop-ments and Practical Applications is editedby Peter K. Smith of the University ofSheffield. It includes articles on exploratoryplay, symbolic play, and play therapy, aswell as many others.

Books From The Continent

Brian Sutton-Smith has brought to myattention two interesting books on play fromEuropean sources. The first, TraditionalGames and Children Today, is edited byIvan Ivic and published by the University ofBelgrade in Yugoslavia. Brian reports thatthis book is the first attempt by the WorldOrganization for Early Chidhood Educationto review the issues that exist in trying toform a canon of world games. The bookincludes materials from the Flemish folkgame file and examples of games fromJapan, Finland, and Africa.

The second, Spele Weerom, is a bookleton children's games containing handsomeillustrations and edited by Erik De Vroedeand Bart Eelborde; it is published inBelgium by Uitgeverij Pelckmans, DeNederlandsche Bokhandel, Kapelse-straat 222, 2080 Kapellen.

PLAY THINGS: ProfessionalActivitiesin PlayStudy

Indiana University Conference

Joyce Hendrixson, Department of Anthro-pology, Indiana University at Indianapolis isserving as program chair for the conference"Sports and Leisure in Culture," to be heldMarch 5-7 at the Hilton on the Circle Hotelin Indianapolis. The program features HarryEdwards, Arthur Ashe, Anya PetersonRoyce, Richard Lapchick and our ownKendall Blanchard, Garry Chick, FrankManning, and Brian Sutton-Smith, amongothers. Registration is $25. Interestedpersons may contact Professor Hendrixsonat (317) 274-2152.

Canadian Congress on LeisureResearch

The Fifth Canadian Congress on LeisureResearch will be held May 20-23 at Dal-housie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.Included will be a special student programon May 19-20. Keynote speakers for thisinternational Congress will be Ken Robertsof the University of Liverpool, Theo Beckersof the University of Wageningen, TheNetherlands, and Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyiof the University of Chicago. John C.Pooley is serving as chair of the organizingcommittee. He can be reached through theDivision'of Leisure Studies, Dalhousie Uni-versity, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 3J5,phone (902) 424-2152. If interested in thestudent program, contact Ken Bagnell at thesame address and phone number.

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Illinois Seeks CulturalKinesiologist

The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana is seeking applications for a tenuretrack position at the rank of Assistant Pro-fessor for a person with primary interest inthe socio-cultural area of movement studies.The position entails both teaching andresearch. Applicants should have trainingin the socio-cultural analysis of physicalactivity in both primitive and advancedsocieties; the Ph. D. is required. Applica-tions must be received by February 15,1987. Applications, including resume andnames of three references, should be sentto: John W. Loy, Department of PhysicalEducation, University of Illinois atChampaign-Urbana, 129A Freer Hall, 906S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana IL 61801.Professor Loy's phone is (217) 333-1083.

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WHIM Conference In April

Those who remember fondly last year'sTASP conference in Tempe, Arizona inconjunction with WHIM (World Humor andIrony Membership) will be interested toknow that WHIM will be holding anotherconference on the Arizona State campus,this one April 1-5, 1987 on the topic "Humor--The World's Common Language." If youdare spend April Fool's Day with thesepranksters, head straight from Montreal tothe Arizona sun. Registration is $25. Forprogram information contact Don Nilsen,English Department, Arizona State Univer-sity, Tempe, AZ 85287.

Sport In The Third World

Sociologist Eric A. Wagner, who has studiedsport in Cuba and Central America, isediting a book on sport in the Third World.He is seeking contributions on sport inAfrica and Asia. The book will containchapters on sport in individual nations;chapters should contain material on thehistory of sport, organization, levels of parti-cipation, and international competition. Ifinterested in contributing to this work,please contact Professor Wagner, Depart-ment of Sociology and Anthropology, OhioUniversity, Athens, OH 45701.

Editor's Views...

of the role of the Newsletter and its Editor inour organization. Before doing that,however, I want to pay a brief tribute to AnneMarie Guilmette for her service to theorganization, the degree of which I did notfully appreciate until I tried to take on the jobmyself.

In recent years, with the growth of interestin play studies but in the absence of ajournal devoted to the subject, our Newslet-ter has served a dual role. It has served asa newsletter but also as a quasi-journal,containing not only organization news butalso scholarly pieces ranging from bookreviews to full length articles. As a result ournewsletter was more lengthy than most.The job of the editor was to get before ourmembers a great deal of material that couldnot be included in our proceedings orannuals. This the editor was asked to dowith limited budget and staff. If we look backat the quantity and quality of materials con-veyed to us in the Newsletter overthe past few years, I think we must

conclude that Anne Marie served us aboveand beyond the call of duty. Thank you,Anne Marie, for a job well done. Thanksalso to Kendall Blanchard, who has handledthe printing and mailing tasks.

I referred earlier to the changes in bothsubstance and appearance in this issue.The change in substance is in partaccidental -- in the change of editorship, fewpeople knew to send me contributions, andnot knowing exactly what to expect, I did notsolicit any. However, the change is also inpart intentional and reflects my view of whatthe Newsletter should become as we movetoward the publication of a journal in 1988.Eventually, it should become a newsletter inthe more conventional sense. It should beprinted in a style that is easy to read; itshould be brief but should give the reader acomplete and clear picture of TASPactivities; its focus should be on materialsthat would not appear in the journal. Thisvolume represents a transition, however,and I hope to have some more scholarlyand less "newsy" content in the remainingissues this year. In the long run, I hope todevelop a newsletter that will containconcise information in four areas: 1) TASPbusiness and activities, especially ourannual meeting, 2) publications in the fieldof play studies, 3) activities in related fieldssuch as recreation and leisure, and 4)reports on the researches and activities ofTASP members. The latter would rarely befully developed scholarly articles, but mightbe reports on work in progress, requests forcommunications, or letters responding to theworks of others. I would also like to reporton teaching innovations, consultingactivities, and coverage of members by themass media.

The current issue is an attempt to move inthe direction described above. My intentionis certainly not to substitute form forsubstance. I hope readers will find the newnewsletter attractive and enjoyable to read.

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Editor's Views...

I must admit that I have no formal traningin either journalism or graphic design. I didstudy architecture for two years as anundergrad, but my instructors helped me todecide that my talents must lie elsewhere. Iwill be talking with as many TASP membersas possible during the Montreal meetings,both to solicit material for future issues of theNewsletter and to get your suggestionsabout format. I welcome all manner ofcomments, from content to typeface to color-ofpaper.

Finally I must say that there is thepossibility that we will lose in this editorialchange some of the humor that has been ahallmark of the organization. Anne Marie'sown sparkling wit contributed greatly to the

The Association for theStudy of Play

P.O. Box 6375Georgetown, TX 78626

. .

Donald Lytle

8 Sunland Drive

Chico, CA 96926

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quality of the Newsletter in the past, as didthe humor of Frank Manning, KendallBlanchard, Brian Sutton-Smith, and others.I'm afraid I'm not much of a bard; my ownexperience with poetry is limited to dirtylimericks composed after rugby matches. Ihope I may feel free to call on various of youto lend a touch of levity from time to time.

Please feel free to contact me at any timewith contributions or suggestions; addressand phone are listed below:

'~i

Dan Hilliard, TASP Newsletter EditorDepartment of SociologySouthwestern UniversityGeorgetown, TX 78626(512) 863-1392

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