Profile
Supervisors
Professor Peter Boenisch and Dr Gareth White
Abstract
My thesis is an AHRC funded study in collaboration with the Theatre of Europe and the European Theatre Research Network and was developed through case studies of Theatre of Europe’s collaborations with Rimini Protokoll’s Remote London and Fix and Foxy’s A Doll’s House. Seeking to identify expanded scenographic practices within the work of the two companies, I observed that scenography can be created through practices which draw attention. These Attentional practices include methods not traditionally identified as scenographic design; a text message, a GPS system, having a cup of tea, instructions which control your pace or being invited to sit on a stranger’s bin. I suggest that we regard these Attentional practices, as acts of scenographic construction akin to the drawing of a costume design, the constructing of a stage set or the creation of a lighting or sound design. Historian Jonathan Crary states that we currently exist ‘in a dimension of contemporary experience that requires that we effectively cancel out or exclude from consciousness much of our immediate environment.’ (2001, p1). Thus, I situate Attentional practices within the Glocalised context of our contemporary attentional lives. By examining our contemporary distracted existence, I propose we can discover more about the nature of this form of scenography but also conversely, I argue, this form of scenographic practice might also be a vital method for examining the nature of our current attentional lives.
Crary, J (2001). Suspensions of Perception: Attention, Spectacle, and Modern Culture, MIT Press, London.
Profile
I am a theatre maker, teacher and scenographer based in Brighton. I originally attained a BA (Hons) at the University of South Wales in Theatre and Media Drama and an MA in Musical Theatre at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. I also have a PG Cert in Teaching and Learning in HE at Brighton University. As a theatre maker, I have worked in a number of roles over my career, as a performer, assistant director, dramaturg, scenographer, director and maker. I have also worked with a wide range of practitioners during this time, Amit Lahav (Gecko), Dream Think Speak, Royal Court, National Theatre, Boxclever Theatre Company and Dumbshow Theatre Company.
I have worked consistently as a teacher and lecturer throughout my career, teaching all ages. I have taught at undergraduate level at a number of institutions including Chichester University and Kent University. For the last 15 years I have consistently taught on the BA Theatre Arts degree at Greater Brighton Metropolitan College. In this role I have assisted Propmakers, actors, Musical Theatre performers, stage managers and sound and lighting designers, Make Up and Hair Artists and Costume Designers in the development of their work. I have co-led the top up degree, with responsibility for running the Contextual Studies modules. I have taken in part in the recent revalidation and re-writing of the course in its recent affiliation with UAL and have experience in course and module design, as well as assessment and moderation.
Practice
2012 The Pearl, Various Venues, Dumbshow Theatre Company (Scenographer).
2012 The Rest is Silence, Dream Think Speak, Brighton Festival (Assistant Director).
2011 Wild Swans, Young Vic (Designer Associate).
2011 Closer, Marlborough Theatre, Brighton (Designer).
2011 Odanadi UK, Marginal Voices Project, (Assistant Director).
2006 Royal Court (Theatre Script Reader).
2004 National Theatre Ed Dept, (Workshop Coordinator/Administrator).
2009 If you don’t Shut Your Mouth (Co-Director for Brighton Fringe Festival)
2007 Reflections on a Gentleman (Co-Director for Pulse Festival)
2003-2005 Theatre Adad (Performer)
2002 Boxclever Theatre Company directed by Amit Lahav (Performer)
2000 Funny Ha ha, Funny Peculiar (Co-Director for Edinburgh Fringe Festival)
1999 A Night at the Grand Guignol (Co-Director for Edinburgh Fringe Festival)
Teaching
- Scenography
- Theatre-making
- Cultural and Critical Studies
- Contextual Studies
- European Theatre
Conference Presentations
2019. TAPRA Scenography Working Group ‘Drawing Attention as a Scenographic Act’
2016. TAPRA Postgraduate Symposium ‘Feels like Home: Conceptual and Compositional practice and the presence of people in Fix & Foxy’s A Doll’s House.’
Writing
2017. ‘Report from London’ Theatre and Performance Design, 3(1-2), pp.90.
2019. ‘Contemporary scenography: practices and aesthetics in German theatre, arts and design’ by Birgit E. Wiens, Book Review, Theatre and Performance Design, 5(3-4), pp. 320–321.