Wednesday April 24, 2024 | Drama Department / News |
Staging AgeingProfessor Mick Mangan has received an AHRC fellowship for this new research project in medical humanities, which will explore how drama, theatre and performance have engaged with the experiences and social dynamics of ageing. It will investigate the history of dramatic texts and performances, not just as witnesses, but as contributors, to the various contested meanings of ageing in its many historical and cultural contexts, and will investigate how these lessons illuminate - and how they are illuminated by - the urgent contemporary questions of the new dynamics of ageing. The project will begin in January 2011. Revitalising the Prom: Popular Performance and History at the Seaside.Jane Milling has received an AHRC award of £28,420 to support a practice-led research project exploring the history and re-activation of the seaside pierrot show, with Tony Lidington, director of the last pierrot troupe in the UK. The pierrot show was a popular, open-air, variety entertainment that formed an essential part of the British seaside holiday from the 1890s until the 1950s. The project sets out to explore we can discover about this almost lost popular performance mode, through performance? What happens if we re-create a pierrot show for today’s beaches, not as heritage, but as contemporary performance? And what role might promenade performance play in the cultural regeneration of seaside resorts? Foul TideHonorary Fellow William Stanton's new play 'Foul Tide' will be performed March 16 - 24 2010 at the Courtyard Theatre, Pitfield Street, London N1 6EU (nearest tube Old Street - www.thecourtyard.org.uk/whatson) 1912: preparations are being made for war and the naval dockyard at Plymouth is to be extended. An entrepreneur has a contract to dredge shingle from the seabed in front of a fishing village for the concrete, but he is warned that the action might cause the waves to break higher up the foreshore and threaten the village. With the connivance of the local landowner, and against advice and the wishes of the village people, he goes ahead. The rector, losing his faith, tries to find courage to stand up for his parishioners while his uneasy peace is disturbed by a woman painter, who returns to the village with a camera to be a witness. The entrepreneur struggles against his feelings for a young prostitute, and while storms smash the cottages, distant guns thunder in the biggest naval battle since Trafalgar. Digital Reconstruction AwardIn collaboration with Goldsmiths College, University of London, Computing Department, the Centre for Intermedia has been awarded an AHRC/BT Pilot Research Networking Scheme award of £11,995 for "Digital Reconstruction in Archaeology and Contemporary Performance". The PI is Dr. Marco Gillies (Goldsmiths), CI Professor Nick Kaye (Exeter). The network will initiate new interdisciplinary collaborative research around digital technologies for reconstructing and accessing lost cultural sites and events in areas ranging from archaeology to contemporary performance. Told by the WindPhillip Zarrilli has received two major awards to support a practice-led research project, Told by the Wind: an AHRC grant for £28,619 and an Arts Council of Wales grant for £4,200.
Transforming the way we live in digital BritainGabriella Giannachi is a 'spoke' of Horizon Digital Economy Research Hub, a £12m research centre funded by RCUK based at the University of Nottingham (2009-2014). Other spokes are based at Reading and Cambridge Universities. Key partners include: Active Ingredient, Aerial, Alton Towers, the BBC, Blast Theory, the British Library, BT, Experian, Infoterra, Invensys, Jaguar, Leica, Network Rail, Oracle, Ordinance Survey, the Radiator Festival, ScienceScope, and Sharp Laboratories. More information Howard Barker / 21 for 21Christopher McCullough and Mick Mangan are delighted to announce that Howard Barker is the recipient of the new AHRC funded Creative Fellowship in the Department of Drama. Howard, who was described by The Times newspaper as “Britain’s most important living playwright” will spend the time continuing his life’s work of re-defining tragedy. The three-year Fellowship will produce, apart from academic papers and symposia, two new plays by Howard on the themes of Plethora and Bare Sufficiency. One of these new works will have its premiere at the Northcott theatre on campus. The Fellowships commencement will follow closely on a series of masterclasses that Barker will be giving at his theatre company’s summer school, which the department will be hosting, in addition to a one day international festival celebrating Barker’s work of which the department will be part. Sarah Goldingay, Executive Producer for 21 for 21 explained; Graduate ScholarshipsGraduates of the University of Exeter will receive a £1000 fee scholarship for SALL Masters programmes in the Departments of Drama, English and Modern Languages. To be eligible students must meet the standard entry criteria for the relevant programme and must have graduated within the last five years. More information. Best PaperA Best Paper Award was received at CHI 2009 for 'From Interaction to Trajectories: Designing Coherent Journeys Through User Experiences' written by Steve Benford (University of Nottingham), Gabriella Giannachi (University of Exeter), Boriana Koleva (University of Nottingham) and Tom Rodden (University of Nottingham). Music Theatre GrantDavid Roesner has been awarded an AHRC workshop grant. It will enable him to conduct two 3-day workshops for practitioners and scholars investigating the creation processes of experimental music theatre. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Prof. Matthias Rebstock of the Universität Hildesheim, Germany, and will result in an co-edited book and a DVD documentation by Peter Hulton. Dramaturg AwardDavid Lane, Dramaturg at the Drama department, has recently been awarded the Michael Meyer Award of £1500 from the Society of Authors, to support research costs in the writing of his book Contemporary British Drama for Edinburgh University Press. Exeter at the FringeA large number of Exeter students, graduates and staff are having a successful time at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. Shows connected to Exeter have achieved two Total Theatre nominations and a number of 4 and 5 star reviews. Rebecca Loukes (Drama staff member) is appearing in The Idiot Colony; a show which she co-created with other members of RedCape Theatre Company. Winner of Fringe First Award and Total Theatre Award (Visual Theatre) . Shortlisted for a Carol Tambor Award (final 5), Holden Street Theatre Award (final 2) and Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award (final 5). Ben Harrison (graduate 2004) has written and composed the music for Finding Alice, which features Jo Kennedy and is directed by Jessica Swale from the same year. Tom Deacon (graduate 2007) is going down well at the Comedy Zone - he won Chortle Student Comedy Award 2007 and was immediately taken up by Avalon Management, the largest comedy agency in the country. He's also presenting an online daily show for BBC Switch called 5:19. Richard Hay (graduate 2005) is appearing in A Pirate's Life for Me and is a founder member of Scarlet Blade Theatre along with colleagues from the Stage Combat programme he undertook following his graduation. Richard Smith (graduate 2006) is a founding member of Gomito Productions who have two shows at the Fringe; The Sun Dragon and Before We Remember. The latter production features Lizzie Franks, a current Drama student at Exeter. Graduate seeks Piranhas and other deadly wildlifeFully embracing his role as BBC wildlife presenter, Steve Backshall (graduated in 1995) can be seen on BBC1 on Wednesday evenings in 'Lost Land of the Jaguar' - tonight he's hunting piranhas. Having suffered a climbing fall (broken back and damaged ankle) whilst preparing his new series Steve's Deadly 60, he's recovering well. Actor in Hospital DramaImmediately after completing his two year MFA degree in Theatre Practice 2005-2007), Seok-Ha Hwang auditioned for and was cast as Mr. Tan in HOLBY CITY. Seok-Ha's "Mr. Tan" is appearing over a 12 week period between 8 July and 7 October on BBC1 (Tuesdays, 8p.m.). This is the first time in Holby City's 10 year history that a guest character has appeared in so many episodes. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/holbycity/). Seok-Ha is one of a number of students from Korea who have completed the MA/MFA programme in Theatre Practice over the past five years. Medics get dramatic treatmentContinuing the medical theme, undergraduate Drama students have taken on the role of patients at a local GP surgery. Their role of simulating a patient is part of a recruitment process that examines whether medics who intend to train for career in general practice are suitable for the position. Assessing how medics react and deal with patients forms an important part of a nationwide recruitment process that involves the use of simulated patients. Dr Vik Mohan who works at the Student Health Centre at the University and also the South West Peninsula Deanery, the body responsible for postgraduate training of doctors and one of a number of NHS institutions involved in regional assessments recognised the benefits the Exeter drama students would bring to the recruitment process. A group of 14 third year drama students were invited to utilise their acting skills as part of the medical candidates’ competency based selection process. The drama students involved attended an intensive two day training course that enabled them to role-play specific patient emotions that included fear, anxiety and anger. The candidates were assessed on how they dealt with these emotions, so it was crucial that the students demonstrated consistency of expression of these emotions, to ensure reliability and fairness in the assessments. The course also explained how this part of the assessment may impact on whether a medic is appropriate for a role as a GP. The drama students were given a brief on a particular illness and had to show a range of emotional states, the objective was to assess how candidates manage the patient’s emotions rather than establish a medical diagnosis. Lecturer in Applied Drama, Fiona Macbeth said of the students’ involvement, ‘The students took their role seriously, and they were responsive and worked hard to maintain consistency in their acting. It was great for them to be put in such a responsible position where they worked with the lead GPs, making valid contributions to the assessment.’ The requirements from the drama students were not about great acting skills but about consistency of emotions so that all the medics experience a similar opportunity to assist the patient through the range of emotions they go through in relation to their illness. The students were able to offer their perspective on each candidate as each candidate was assessed in three different exercises; the stimulated surgery in which the drama students contributed, working in a group in which two drama lecturers were involved and a written medical paper. The performance of each candidate in these assessments was discussed with the intention of establishing an overall grade. The drama students made a valuable contribution to this and although the final decision was the responsibility of the GP assessors, the perspective of the patient was influential in the final assessments. Drama lecturers from the University of Exeter were also involved in assessing the group work part of the examination and were given strict criteria to follow. The Drama Department is currently working with the Peninsula Deanery to develop a programme of broader drama student involvement in GP recruitment, assessment and training. This process is part of a research initiative exploring areas such as the value of feedback to the GP from the simulated patient. The Almond and the SeahorsePhillip Zarrilli recently directed the premiere of Kaite O’Reilly’s most recent play, The Almond and the Seahorse for Sherman Cymru (Cardiff) and on national tour (March-April, 2008). The 5* Guardian review described the production as "Unmissable drama...Tremendous... extraordinary scenarios are tenderly drawn and powerfully realised in Phillip Zarrilli's beautifully judged production." Grant SuccessJerri Daboo has been awarded two research grants to support her work on the southern Italian ritual of tarantism. An AHRC Research Leave Scheme award will enable her to complete her book, 'RItual, Rapture and Remorse: the dance of the spider in Salento', to be published next year by Peter Lang. A second award from the Wellcome Trust will enable Dr. Daboo to develop her archival research into the medical history of the ritual. Dedication CeremonyA short ceremony took place outside the Alexander Building on 19th July 2008 to celebrate the lives of two graduates from 1975 (Árni Ibsen and Olivier Pierre) who recently passed away, and to dedicate a new bench in their memory. Recent ConferencesMany thanks to the delegates who made our two recent conferences (Researching Applied Drama, Theatre and Performance and British Asian Theatre: From Past to Present) so successful. The Centre for Performance Histories ran a seminar series on Alternative Histories during the last academic year. For further information about the visiting speakers click here. Top for Student SatisfactionThe Drama Department at Exeter has been ranked first out of UK university Drama Departments for student satisfaction in this year's National Student Survey. AHRC AwardHugo Glendinning has joined the Department as Fellow in the Creative and Performing Arts. Hugo, who has been working as a photographer for 20 years, has collaborated with leading British theatre and dance companies and is regularly commissioned by the RSC, National Theatre, Royal Opera House and many West End theatre producers. CongratulationsDr David Roesner has been awarded the "Thurnau Prize for Music Theatre Research 2007" in Germany from over 40 submissions. The award aims "to set a new standard in scholastic excellence with this competition" looking for "modern, creative and outstanding scholarship in music theatre studies". New Honorary Visiting ProfessorThe international playwright, Howard Barker, has agreed to become an Honorary Visiting Professor to the Department of Drama. We offer a very warm welcome to Howard and look forward to a very exciting collaboration. > Howard Barker website > The Wrestling School website Award-winning Building for DramaThe newly opened Alexander Building at Thornlea has been voted 'Building of the Year' in a prestigious architectural competition covering the South West. AHRC Grants awardedThree staff have received major AHRC grants for research projects: Professor
Nick Kaye and Gabriella Giannachi are working on Performing
Presence: From the Live to the Simulated,
and Graham Ley is researching British Asian Theatre |
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