GRANGE, William M. 1947-

(William Marshall Grange)

PERSONAL: Born January 8, 1947, in Cincinnati, OH; son of James Michael (a pastor) and Roberta Ferne (Smith) Grange; married Sabrina Maxwell (divorced June 15, 1985); married Willa Light Bradford, November 18, 1987; children: (first marriage) Leah Holt; (second marriage) George Haydon. Ethnicity: "English/Dutch/German." Education: University of Toledo, B.A., 1970; Columbia University, M.F.A., 1972; Indiana University—Bloomington, Ph.D., 1981. Politics: Republican. Religion: Methodist. Hobbies and other interests: Playing the piano, woodworking.

ADDRESSES: Office—207 Temple, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE 68588-0201.

CAREER: Writer. Florida Southern College, Lakeland, assistant professor, 1981–86; Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, associate professor, 1986–96; University of Nebraska, Lincoln, began as associate professor, became professor, 1996–. University of Cologne, guest professor, 2000–01. Professional actor, appearing with Nebraska Repertory Theatre and at Alabama Shakespeare Festival and other venues.

MEMBER: Actors' Equity Association, American Society for Theatre Research, DeVilbiss High School Alumni Association, Masons.

AWARDS, HONORS: Senior Fulbright scholar, 2000–01, 2004; Mellon Prize, University of Texas, 2003; fellow of German Academic Exchange Service, 2002.

WRITINGS:

Partnership in the German Theatre, Peter Lang (New York, NY), 1991.

Comedy in the Weimar Republic, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

Historical Dictionary of the German Theater, Scarecrow Press (Lanham, MD), 2005.

Hitler Laughing, University Press of America (Lanham, MD), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Brecht Unbound, University of Delaware Press (East Brunswick, NJ), 1995; and Twentieth Century German Theatre and Drama, Peter Lang (New York, NY), 2004.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Comedy under the Kaisers: Popular Entertainment in Germany, 1871–1918.

SIDELIGHTS: William M. Grange once told CA: "My writing is scholarly; it deals with subjects of which precious few general readers are even remotely aware. For example, my current project on comedy in the Wilhelmine period: most people respond to it by commenting" Who was Wilhelmine?

"I write about scholarly questions to which nobody else seems to have an answer, or even pretends to want an answer. Such questions fascinate me, especially those that pertain to culture and cultural activity. Why? Cultural activity, such as theater, music, and film, tells us who we are, and in many instances we discover in the process how different we are from each other. Yet we also make the paradoxical discovery in the process of how alike we all are. A theater performance, a film showing, or a musical concert incorporates everyone attending, however briefly, into a small community. We often experience something transcendent, immanent, or even mystical in the process.

"The inspiration to make scholarly examinations of such communal experiences comes from my experience of congregational singing and church attendance as a child. There is no difference, Norman Vincent Peale once said, between a church congregation and a meeting of members at the local Moose hall, since both groups are composed of sinners. The congregation, however, is usually trying to do something about sin. Audiences at cultural events resemble congregations, although their attendance normally has no confessional or expiational motive. Yet the sharing of a somewhat mystical experience has a civilizing effect on those in attendance, a consequence that increases in benefit as civilizations proceed into a new century and a new millennium."