Profile
I am a retired professor of Theatre and Intermedial Performance with an additional specialism in Practice Research. Following part-time actor training at Mountview, I studied Philosophy at the University of Kent; undertook Masters research in Renaissance Theatre at the University of Manchester; and PhD research in TV Drama and postmodern aesthetics at the University of Warwick. I taught arts praxis for many years at Manchester Metropolitan University where I was Professor/Head of Contemporary Arts and, subsequently, Professor of Theatre & TV Drama.
I was appointed to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, in 2010 and became Director of Research, 2011-2015. I have given numerous keynote lectures, particularly on Practice Research but also in Theatre and Intermediality, around the world. My key contribution to the discipline lies in developing, and advocating, valid approaches to research through creative practices. I was a member of RAE/REF national audit panels in 2007 and 2014.
Areas of Expertise
- Practice Research
- Contemporary Theatre practice
- Intermediality & interdisciplinarity
- Shakespeare & Renaissance Theatre
- TV Drama
PhD Supervision
To date, I have supervised 14 PhD thesis to completion and externally examined 20+ in areas including Theatre, Dance, Music, Writing, New Media and Arts Education.
Key Publications
Books
2013. Practice as Research in the Arts (Basingstoke: Palgrave)
2011. Stephen Poliakoff on Stage and Screen (London. Methuen Drama)
2007. State of Play: contemporary “high-end” TV drama (Manchester: Manchester University Press).
Co-Edited Volume
2010. Mapping Intermediality in Performance, co-edited with Sarah Bay-Cheng, Chiel Kattenbelt and Andy Lavender. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP.
Articles
2016. Validating Arts Research: reflections on the UK research audit culture and arts ‘doing-knowing’. Akademisk Kvarter. vol 13, (October), pp.28-46.
2015. ‘Théâtre et nouvelles technologies : environnements de recherche et d’apprentissages dans l’enseignement supérieur’, traduit de l’anglais par Vincent Broqua, in Izabella Pluta et Mireille Losco-Lena (dir.), Théâtre Laboratoires. Recherche-création et technologies dans le théâtre aujourd’hui, Ligeia. Dossiers sur l’art, Nos 137-140, Janvier-Juin, pp. 96-107.
2014. On the Methodology of Practice as Research’ Choros International Dance Journal 3 (Spring), pp. 12–25.
2013. ‘What is at stake in “the Practice as Research initiative”? Peripeti: tidskrift fur dramaturgiske studier. Aarhuus University. Vol 19, May. http://www.peripeti.dk/2013/05/01/peripeti-19.
2013. CREW’s Terra Nova: experiencing modes of immersion in actual-virtual space. Body, Space, Technology.Vol 11. No 2.
2008. After Brecht: the Impact (Effects, Affects,) of Intermedial Theatre’. Intermédialités. No 12 automne. 31-48.
Book Chapters
2019. “Boundary Collisions in HBO-BBC Transnational Coproduction: Rome and Parade’s End” in Hills, Hilmes & Pearson, eds, Transatlantic Television Drama. Oxford: OUP, pp 147-162.
2019. “Is it possible to be both an authentic artist and researcher?” in Quaresma, J, ed, Autenticidade, Polimata E Dissimulacao. AAP/ MAC: Lisboa, pp. 17-36.
2016. ‘The Emergence of ‘Affect’ in Contemporary TV Fictions’ in Garcia, AN, ed, Emotions in Contemporary TV Series Basingstoke and New York. Palgrave Macmillan, pp 26-51.
2015. ‘Théâtre et nouvelles technologies : environnements de recherche et d’apprentissages dans l’enseignement supérieur’, traduit de l’anglais par Vincent Broqua, in Izabella Pluta et Mireille Losco-Lena (dir.), Théâtre Laboratoires. Recherche-création et technologies dans le théâtre aujourd’hui, Ligeia. Dossiers sur l’art, Nos 137-140, Janvier-Juin, pp. 96-107.
2015. ‘Aprés Brecht : l’impact (effets et affets) du théâtre intermédial’ and ‘Élaboration d’un modèle du théâtre intermédial : un cadre d’analyse des effets’ in Larrue, J-M ed, Theatre et intermedialite. Villeneuve d’Ascq. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion. pp.79-100 and pp 151-169.
2013. ‘Entwicklung der Geschichte vom Fernsehspiel zur Hypermedia TV Narrative: Contemporary Serial Culture: Quality TV Series in a New Media Environment’ in Eichner, Susanne, Mikos, Lothar & Winter, Rainer, eds. Transnationale Serienkultur: Theorie, Äesthetik, Naration und Rezeption neuer Fernsehen.Wiesbaden, Springer FachMedien. 21-44.
External Practice
My most recent practice is as an associate dramaturg with the Belgian company CREW on the “Hamlet Encounters” project with public research Iterations at Shakespeare Festival, Gdansk (Aug, 2017), KVS Brussels (May 2018) and IFTR, Belgrade (July, 2018) and a production of Hamlet’s Lunacy at KVS Brussels, April, 2019
Register of Interest
I hold a life-long Emeritus Professorship at Manchester Metropolitan University and have served as an occasional consultant to a number of universities in the UK and abroad.