In April 2022, Joan Lawrence, wife of valued CATR member Robert G. Lawrence, passed away. Her support for our members in the form of the Robert G. Lawrence Prize, since 1995, and the Robert G. Lawrence Scholarship, since 2016, has contributed funding to a wide array of research projects. Famously, each year she relished receiving thank you letters from recipients of the Lawrence Prize, including in her later years when friends read the letters to her. On behalf of the members of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research, I offer our deepest condolences to Joan Lawrence’s family and friends. CATR is grateful to continue to offer the Robert G. Lawrence Prize and the Robert G. Lawrence Scholarship.
—Robin C. Whittaker, CATR President. Fredericton, NB. November 2022
Joan Lawrence was a steadfast, loyal friend of CATR, and generously supported theatre scholars through the Lawrence Prize for many years after her husband’s death. Her letters to me were a testament of her kind consideration for the lives and careers of those she had never met.