Mark Swetz

Abstract

In Blind Spectatorship: Phenomenology, Dramaturgy and Non-Visual Accessibility, there are three questions being addressed:

• How do the visually disabled engage with live performance?
• What formal conventions address blind spectatorship in contemporary theatre?
• How can a theatre performance be simultaneously accessible and opened to a sighted and non-sighted audience?

The primary motivation for this research is to address a deficiency in current performance practice and scholarship. Its objective is to clearly consider and present the phenomenon of blind spectatorship and identify conclusions that have proven, practical application.

In addition to specialists in the performing arts or disability studies, this study is designed to inform those working in any media or communication field.

Profile

Mark is a specialist in New Work (staging / devising / adapting) and has directed over fifty original works for the stage, video, cyberformance and radio. He most enjoys collaborative performance creation. His research and practical interests include integrating the arts for people with mixed physical and sensorial abilities and making performance accessible to the broadest audience possible.

Mark has taught classes at the Central School of Speech and Drama in the UK, the Berkeley Rep School of Theatre and the Ohio State University in the US, the Universities of Toledo, Cáceres, Guadalajara and Ciudad Real in Spain and at the Beijing First Medical University in China. He is currently the co-artistic director of Compañía Y in Madrid and London.

Mark is the recipient of an AHRC Studentship (2010 – 2012).

Productions

2011 director, InValid, Short Film, UK

2010 director, In the Tunnel, Collisions Festival, UK

2010 director, Foto, Collisions Festival, UK

2010 director, @LondonTog, Short Film, UK

2009 director, Various (cyberperformance), Thoughtfox Theatre, UK

2008 director, The Captive Mind, Development workshops, UK

2008 director, Capitalismo, Development workshops, Spain

2007 director, Something Borrowed, Camden People’s Theatre, UK

2007 director, Su Muerte Subjetiva, St. Andrew’s Crypts, London, UK

2007 director, The Old Hotel, Cyberperformance, Hammersmith, UK

2007 assistant director and producer, 9 days, 3 hours, 20 minutes, Teatro Pradillo, Spain

2006 director and producer, Modernismo, Teatro Pradillo, Spain

2006 director and producer, Koläzh, Circulo de Bellas Artes, Spain

2005 director, Antigone, MeChAnIcS’ Workshops, Spain

2005 director and producer, WM, Logroño Auditorium, Spain

2004 director and producer, Antidoto, Centro de Nuevos Creadores, Spain

2002 assistant director, Cloud 9, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Francisco, USA

2001 director and producer, The Myth of Sisyphus, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, San Francisco, USA

2000 director, Dasvedanya Mama, Shotgun Players / LaVal’s, San Francisco, USA

2000 assistant director, Edward II, American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco, USA

2000 production assistant, Metamorphosis, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, San Francisco, USA