Reimagining Performance Network
About
This network was funded from 2021 to 2023.
The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped the contemporary performance landscape, creating new spaces for conversation between performers and performance researchers. At this moment of change, the Reimagining Performance Network worked to build invaluable networks of support, debate and knowledge exchange between researchers and practitioners across a broad range of disciplines. We explored pressing new questions in the theatre and other creative fields, looking to both historical and contemporary performance practice to help confront the challenges and opportunities facing us.
Key among the Reimagining Performance Network’s questions were:
- What new avenues does ‘performance-as-research’ practice offer traditional theatre scholarship and the theatre industry? What might be gained by fostering new - performance-as-research practices?
- How have minority identities been served or excluded from various forms of performance practice? And what new opportunities present themselves in our contemporary moment?
- If performance has historically offered us a cultural and political ‘meeting place’, what do these forms of encounter and tentative community look like today? And what might they look like in the future? What do terms like “liveness”, “ephemerality” and “the archive” mean in today’s performance moment?
Our events brought theatre researchers and practitioners into close working and discursive contact, in order to explore these questions together.
This network started in MT2021 and for the first year was convened by Dr Hannah Simpson, JRF in Theatre and Performance. After Hannah moved to Edinburgh University, the network continued - please see people tab for key contacts.
People
Events
Past Events
It’s True, It’s True, It’s True: Verbatim Theatre, Staging Sexual Assault, and Female Representation in the Arts (October 2021)
Breach Theatre Company in conversation with Dr Sos Eltis and Dr Hannah Simpson
It’s True, It’s True, It’s True interweaves history, myth, satire and contemporary insight to ask: how much has really changed?
Conversation with director and co-writer Billy Barrett and co-writer and actor Ellice Stevens about the making of this multi-award-winning verbatim theatre piece.
Dr Hannah Simpson is the Rosemary Pountney Junior Research Fellow in Theatre and Performance at St Anne’s College, University of Oxford.
Dr Sos Eltis is Associate Professor and Tutorial Fellow in English at Brasenose College, University of Oxford.
Blue/Orange - Post-show panel discussion (November 2021)
Post-show discussion with Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr and members of the company and creative team.
Blue/Orange - A Royal & Derngate Northampton, Theatre Royal Bath Productions, and Oxford Playhouse co-production
By Joe Penhall
Directed by James Dacre
Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play (2001)
Directed by James Dacre
Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play (2001)
Staging Wild: Non-Human Subjectivity in Performance (December 2021)
“Where are the feminist utopian, collaborative, risky imaginings and actions for earthlings in a mortal, damaged, human-heavy world?”
Adele E Clarke & Donna Haraway, Making Kin Not Population: Reconceiving Generations
How can we de-centre human subjectivity as the solitary focus of live performance and account for the multiplicity of non-human experience on Earth?
An online workshop with Jordan Tannahill, playwright, director, and author. The workshop was a collective working-through of disparate ideas, in collaboration with participants, of theories and approaches one might take within their practice to explore the idea of non-human subjectivity in performance.
Mike Bartlett: A Conversation (December 2021)
An event organised by The Old Fire Station.
A post-show panel explored the theatre and television work of Mike Bartlett, one of Oxford’s most highly regarded resident playwrights. Beginning with discussion of the world premiere on Mrs Delgado at the Oxford Fire Station, we moved on to discuss Bartlett’s deft engagement with classical literature, queer relationships, the climate crisis and the Royal family, and his work with institutions including the Royal Court, the Old Vic, the National Theatre, and the Old Fire Station.
Panel
Dr Hannah Simpson – the Rosemary Pountney Junior Research Fellow in Theatre at St Anne’s College, Oxford
Dr Hannah Greenstreet – a researcher, theatre critic and playwright based in Oxford.
Marcus Bell – a DPhil scholar in contemporary and classical tragedy at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and a dancer and choreographer.
Dr Hannah Simpson – the Rosemary Pountney Junior Research Fellow in Theatre at St Anne’s College, Oxford
Dr Hannah Greenstreet – a researcher, theatre critic and playwright based in Oxford.
Marcus Bell – a DPhil scholar in contemporary and classical tragedy at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and a dancer and choreographer.
Black British Theatre Today: A Roundtable (February 2022)
A Reimagining Performance Network event. A roundtable to discuss the following questions:
- What are the most exciting new developments in contemporary Black British theatre and scholarship? What new opportunities have appeared?
- What are the challenges that face Black British theatre-makers and scholars today?
- How far have other identity markers such as gender, sexual orientation and class shaped the development of Black British theatre?
- What has new historical and archival research revealed about Black British theatre? And how might we best engage with Black British theatre history to inform and support contemporary practice?
- How can current research in Black British theatre support contemporary industry practice? And what can theatre-makers and scholars learn from each other?
Winsome Pinnock, playwright.
- Adjoa Andoh, actor, writer, director, producer, and Cameron Mackintosh Visiting Professor of Contemporary Theatre, St Catherine’s College.
- Lynette Goddard, Professor of Black Theatre and Performance at Royal Holloway, and author.
- David Gilbert, New Work Projects at Talawa Theatre, and freelance director and theatre maker.
- Deirdre Osborne, Reader in English Literature and Drama, co-founder of the Black British Literature MA (Goldsmiths).
- Nicola Abram, Lecturer in Literature in English at Reading University, and author.
- Nadine Deller, PhD scholar at Royal Central and the National Theatre, and the creator and co-host of That Black Theatre Podcast.
The Ancient Greek Play in Universities: Classics and the Contemporary Moment (February 2022)
A panel event where the speakers reflected on their experiences of directing, producing, and archiving both virtual and in-person performances that have re-thought the University Greek play, as a site of contested public performance, in the contemporary moment.
Speakers:
- Professor Fiona Macintosh
- Dr Giovanna Di Martino
- Alison Middleton
- Dr David Bullen
- Chaired by Marcus Bell
So You Want to Work in Theatre? (March 2022)
A careers advice panel that brought together an exciting range of established and early-career professionals working in local and national theatre to offer tips and reflections for anyone considering a career in theatre and performance, and particularly in the fields on directing and producing.
Speakers:
Ria Parry, co-artistic director of The North Wall, Oxford
Ellie Keel, executive producer at Ellie Keel Productions and founder of The Women’s Prize for Playwrighting
Jessie Anand, independent theatre and opera producer
John Haidar, theatre director
My Name is Laura Kieler: A Work-in-Progress discussion with Breach Theatre (May 2022)
A Reimagining Performance Network event
An event showcasing the TORCH-funded collaboration between Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr and the acclaimed Breach Theatre to develop a new play based on Laura Kieler, the young writer whose life story Ibsen used for his iconic feminist play A Doll’s House. Ellice Stevens and Billy Barrett of Breach talked about discoveries that were made during the first phase of immersive work with Professor Shepherd-Barr and Tzen Sam, a doctoral student in English and Research Assistant on the project. Kirsten and Tzen discussed how Laura’s and Ibsen’s careers intertwine over many decades.
“Fog and Filthy Air”: Macbeth, the Global and the Planetary, and Covid-19 (June 2022)
A talk with Professor Jonathan Gil Harris, Ashoka University
The talk thought about how Macbeth’s Witches introduce into the play an imagination that is both global and planetary. Whilst the global is a largely anthropocentric concept, mapping the world in terms of fixed states and cities such as Aleppo, the planetary is a frame that embeds the human within churning assemblages that also include non-human entities and elements. The “fog and filthy air” of Macbeth – as performed in the early seventeenth century, and the author’s location in Covid-stricken contemporary New Delhi – both demanded to be seen in this way.
The talk was followed by a Q&A chaired by Professor Nandini Das (Faculty of English, University of Oxford).
Molière on stage. Lesson in interpretation: Ariane Mnouchkine in Conversation with Wes Williams (June 2022)
A conversation between Ariane Mnouchkine and Prof Wes Williams on 'Molière on Stage: Lesson in Interpretation'. An event hosted by the Maison Francaise and part of the Innovation Provocation: Transnational Avant-Gardes Season in the Humanities Cultural Programme.
Reimagining Performance Network Reading Group | Introductory Meeting (October 2022)
The group met fortnightly to discuss texts, read plays, and watch theatre in a relaxed and social setting.
The first discussion was on ‘Verbatim Theatre: Documentary drama in times of geopolitical crisis’ (October 2022)
SOLD at Trinity College (October 2022)
SOLD is the story of Mary Prince and her journey to overcome the brutality of enslavement through the power of her indomitable spirit. She was born in enslavement in the British Caribbean colony of Bermuda but went on to become an abolitionist and autobiographer. This performance was presented in partnership with Oxford and Caribbeanity Now, a research project led by Dr María del Pilar Blanco.
Verbatim Theatre: Documentary drama in times of geopolitical crisis (October 2022)
A session to explore the role of verbatim and documentary drama in times of social and political crisis. The focus was on Ukrainian playwright Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s Bad Roads, a work responding to Russia’s invasion of Crimea which was first performed at The Royal Court in 2017, as well as creative responses to the war in Ukraine more broadly.
Reimagining Performance Podcast Launch (October 2022)
Podcast launch: 'Practice Makes' staged discussions between leading performance scholars and theatre practitioners – actors, playwrights, directors and more — to crack open the connections between theatre research and performance in practice.
Presenters Helen Dallas and Madeleine Saidenberg introduced the podcast and shared a teaser of the first episode, featuring Jess Thom of Touretteshero and Hannah Simpson, author of Samuel Beckett and Disability Performance, discussing relaxed performance, accessibility, and the Touretteshero production of Beckett’s Not I.
Meerut (1931): Anti-imperialism, Agitprop, and the Workers’ Theatre Movement (November 2022)
Britain and the Soviet Union: Early Cultural Encounters Network
A workshop-performance of Meerut (1931), one of the most important of the Workers’ Theatre Movement’s early agit-prop sketches. The performance was followed by a discussion of the play’s context led by Nicholas Owen, Associate Professor of Politics.
The Future of Drama: Contemporary theatre manifestos (November 2022)
A session to explore several manifestos which have recently been published by contemporary theatre companies, particularly the NT Ghent Manifesto and New Diorama Theatre’s Intervention 01. This discussion hoped to raise issues of inclusivity, sustainability and diversity in modern theatre-making practices while also considering the role of public manifestos in constructing and developing visions of future drama.
The Mousetrap: Detective drama and the legacy of Agatha Christie (November 2022)
This year marked the 70th anniversary of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, the longest-running West End play. As part of its national tour, a production of the play toured Oxford during week six of Michaelmas term. In light of this, the group discussed Christie’s play and the enduring popularity of detective drama on stage.
‘Embodiment Onstage’ Roundtable (November 2022)
Reimagining Performance Network Roundtable with:
- Alice Baldock (DPhil in History candidate, Wolfson)
- Professor Susan Jones (Emeritus Professor of English Literature, St Hilda’s)
- Leverhulme Visiting Professor Felicia McCarren (Professor of French, Tulane).
National Theatre Home Watch Party: End-of-term discussion and social (December 2022)
Women and War in Ukrainian New Drama (December 2022)
A reading (in English) of excerpts from two new documentary plays by leading Ukrainian playwrights Anastasiia Kosodii and Kateryna Penkova. Commissioned by Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre and Birkbeck’s Institute for Gender and Sexuality, these texts exemplify the remarkable culture of defiance and resistance in Ukrainian political playwriting and demonstrate how theatre-makers are using their craft to speak out against the atrocities of Russia’s ongoing war.
Readings were followed by a discussion with the playwrights together with Ukrainian theatre specialist Molly Flynn (Birkbeck) and moderated by cultural historian of Ukraine Zbigniew Wojnowski (Oxford).
Graduate ‘Work-in-Progress’ Event (January 2023)
Re-Imagining Performance Network
A graduate ‘work-in-progress’ discussion seminar. The speakers, all current DPhil students, Anna Saroldi (English), Nick Duddy (English) and Jake Robertson (MML) talked on a range of topics, including the depiction of suicide in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949), Franca Rame and Dario Fo’s UK and US tours, and professional theatre in Stalin’s forced-labour camps. The event consisted of three short (15 mins) talks followed by a more discursive question and answer session.
Theatre and the Archive (February 2023)
An afternoon of talks and discussion
Dr Ulla Kallenbach, University of Bergen, opened the session by sharing her research on 'Transnational traces in the material and digital archive’.
Billy Barrett and Ellice Stevens from the acclaimed Breach Theatre talked about their new production After the Act, a documentary musical about the last 20 years since the repeal of the Section 28 law which prohibited the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in schools.
Followed by a roundtable discussion to consider how archival materials have informed, enriched or challenged research.
Panel featured Oxford faculty members Emma Smith, David Taylor, Sos Eltis, Tom Kuhn and Rebecca Beasley.
The Storyteller as Performer: Exploring the praxis of a contemporary reteller of traditional tales (March 2023)
A performance of The Blacksmith at the Bridge of Bones followed by a discussion on the art of storytelling, hosted by Ben Haggarty (Visiting Research Fellow in the Creative Arts at Merton College).
Dragademia: Show & Tell (March 2023)
Performances by Saundra Lezzenbaum, Rusty Kate, and Shroom, followed by a rousing and insightful discussion led by Mara Gold on drag in art and life.
The Queer Faces of War: Stories of Ukraine (May 2023)
A performance based on the life experiences of LGBTQ+ people impacted by the war on Ukraine. A retelling of their stories performed by actors. The monologues were developed with those impacted, to give us a window into their lives since the full-scale invasion, as well as to celebrate their bravery and resilience during wartime. The event was followed by a Q&A session with the co-founder of Queer Svit.
Queer Svit and Bold Mellon Collective in partnership with Queer Intersections Oxford and Reimagining Performance Network.
Reimagining Performance Network – Graduate ‘Work-in-Progress’ Event (May 2023)
We hosted a graduate ‘work-in-progress’ discussion seminar. The event included three short presentations on doctoral research, followed by audience questions and discussion.
Presenters:
- Julia Tonsberg (Aarhus University)
- Rachel O'Nunain (Mansfield College, Oxford)
- Tzen Sam (Jesus College, Oxford)
Dragademia 2: Show & Tell More! (June 2023)
A show hosted by St. Hilda's Community College Honorary Fellow in Love Saundra Lezzenbaum, with performances by two Oxford drag kings Orlando and Danny Issues followed by an insightful discussion about drag art and life led by the Rowan Dowling.
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