Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)
Submitted by Ella Brooker on Wed, 15/01/2025 - 16:22
We spoke to the Course Director of our new Undergraduate Certificate in Theatre and Performance Studies to find out more about his career, the new course, and his best study advice.
What is your career background?
I have had a mixed and varied career in academia, professional theatre, publishing and broadcasting. Here are some of the high points. My academic field of study is Theatre History, Theory, Playwriting and Theatre and Performance Studies. Also, Shakespeare Studies. I went on to teach at a variety of institutions and then ran various theatre programmes.
When I moved permanently to the UK in 1990, I began working in drama publishing. During the 1990s I was also a Producer for BBC Radio Drama and eventually became Chief Producer of Plays for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. After moving away from London to take up a post as Professor of Theatre and Drama at the University of Lincoln, I was then headhunted and returned to London where I was appointed Principal and Chief Executive of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance.
I then went to Singapore to become Dean of Performing Arts at LASALLE College of the Arts in 2018. When I returned to the UK post-Covid I was appointed Visiting Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Harlaxton College in Nottinghamshire and was also asked by ICE to write a new UG Certificate in Theatre and Performance Studies.
Why should people study your course?
Theatre and Performance Studies is a wide-ranging field of study that looks at the evolution and history of a global art form and various strands of the subject like theory, performativity, dramatic literature, acting, directing and playwrighting techniques, producing, arts marketing, community practice and theatre technologies now used to create live performance.
Anyone with an interest in any of these subjects will find that the course will provide a solid background in and motivation to explore so many areas and approaches. Finishing the course, a student might want to go on to do further studies, but they will also be prepared and empowered to seek good entry level jobs in the wide-ranging global entertainment business. The course will appeal to a global audience as it will look at Western theatre, drama and performance practice in the context of and in comparison with other cultures.
What do you love about your subject?
Theatre expresses who we are and how we might live and behave in a just society. It excites us, entertains us, can frighten us, moves us and teaches us about one another, our failings and our passions. It is a fantastic subject to teach because it examines a living art form with live performance and human fragility as its centre of attention.
My favourite part of teaching is the lecturing and discussion, where you see that lights are going on for students, which really excites me. During Covid, when I was teaching Shakespeare in Performance online, I really took to online teaching, which I know many tutors do not favour. I think I do most of my work today online, so I am very keen to explore tools via ICE that make that online experience for students better and better.
Who or what has inspired you?
I was first inspired by playacting as a child and school drama, I’m sure. But as I grew older and living across the river from New York City, I was regularly taken to see Broadway shows. But it was a Royal Shakespeare Company production by Peter Brook, a legendary British theatre director, of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which I saw in New York three times, that was my Road to Damascus moment. At that point I knew that working in all aspects of theatre was for me. Ironically, when I finally came to the UK and started working in theatre publishing, Peter Brook was one of the authors I published.
What is the best study advice you have ever been given?
Read the book. Or read the play. We all start there and go on from there. Learning is a process of reading, re-reading, reflection, reaction and reification. I suppose because I teach theatre and acting, doing and being are very strong elements in the study process of an art form that is physically alive with possibilities. And potential. That’s why reification—transforming the abstract into the concrete—is such an important outcome of the study of theatre and performance.
Learn more about our Undergraduate Certificate in Theatre and Performance Studies and sign up here.