Jessica Bowles, BA

Jessica Bowles has worked as a set and costume designer for theatre at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic, amongst others, and, more recently, as a creative producer on projects in the UK and Europe. As an educator, She designed and wrote the BA (Hons) Theatre Practice course, introducing a number of areas to Higher Education never before available at degree level, including puppetry and circus.

In her role as Head of the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre, Jessica develops partnerships between theatre training and its industries, and produces international conferences and symposia for Central, including Theatre Materials (2008), Theatre Noise (2009) and Theatre Applications (2010).

Her work is about creating and promoting innovative live and virtual teaching and learning models for performance training, mostly celebrating the interdisciplinary nature of performance-making.

She is a passionate advocate for the art form of puppetry and, with colleagues Cariad Astles and Penny Francis, she staged the first International Student Puppetry Festival at Central in 2007. This is now a regular event for aspiring puppetry professionals.

Jessica is currently working on a knowledge transfer project with the Bartlett School of Architecture to develop proposals for a sustainable touring theatre. She has recently been appointed the UK Commissioner for the International Organisation of Scenographers and Theatre Architects and is the Artistic Leader for Scenofest 2011.

Research areas

> Puppetry and Object manipulation
> Creative Producing
> Intersections with Scenography and Architecture

External memberships

> OISTAT
> Board Member of the Puppet Centre

PhD supervision

Supervision offered in the areas of scenographic pedagogies.

Publications

Conferences curated:
2009 Theatre Noise, Central School of Speech & Drama

2009 Ethics and Employability - Association of Courses in Theatre Design/CETT at University of Aberystwyth

2008 Theatre Materials/Material Theatres, Central School of Speech & Drama

Conference papers:
2009 ‘Desire Lines: An Examination of Scenographic Pedagogies’, ATHE New York

2008 'Negotiating Scenography - Design Processes in Devised Performance', ATHE Denver

2008 'The Social Life of Objects' Scenography Working Group TAPRA, Leeds

Productions

2006 Creative Producer, Deep End (site-specific performance), Marshall Street Baths, London dir.Gerry Pilgrim