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CHM Hiding in the Pub to Cutting the Cord?

'Our Fathers'


The Cast

Mike
babakas10.jpg
bert.jpg

Mike Tweddle

Sofia Paschou

Bert Roman

Mike Tweddle trained at the Jacques Lecoq School in Paris before returning to the UK to found touring company Temple Theatre, who create original shows inspired by Ancient Greek culture. Mike is a co-founder and director of BE FESTIVAL, Birmingham’s annual European theatre festival, which programmes performances that cross borders between cultures, languages and styles. He has directed and performed for Shakespeare’s Globe, Jumbled, Foster and Déchery, Tangram Theatre and CASA Latin American Theatre Fesitval. He has taught and directed for the National Youth Theatre since 2004, and is currently a BA course tutor at Birmingham School of Acting. Mike is one of the co-founders of Babakas.

Sofia Paschou studied acting and physical theatre (Archi, Athens and LISPA, London) and is also certified in classical singing. She has performed in theatre productions and concerts both in UK and Greece; her most recent work was Grimm & Grimm directed by Lilo Baur (Porta Theatre, Athens). She performed as an actor/musician in Temple Theatre’s production of Hippolytus, and has also composed music for various plays, the most recent being the City of Darker Skies (London Bubble). This year she joined the LISPA Team as a voice teacher after having completed the teacher training course at the school. Sofia is one of the co-founders of Babakas.

Bert Roman trained in contemporary dance at the Lier Higher Institute in Antwerp. He has worked as a performer for United-C (Netherlands), Diecimenodieci (Italy), Andwhatbeside(s)death, De Maan, Cacao Bleu, Joji Inc and Fonkel (all Belgium). As a movement coach and choreographer, he has worked with de Munt/La Monnaie Royal Opera House (Belgium); Temple Theatre (UK); and Theatre Témoin (UK), and he often coaches individual performers in the development of their own work. Bert was selected for Danceweb ’09, an international scholarship programme for dance professionals – part of the the ImPulsTanz Vienna International Festival. Bert is artistic director of Birmingham-based company Kiviki Dance and has also worked as Venue Designer and Venue Manager for BE FESTIVAL for the last two years.



The Panels

Slogan trio


Following each performance the CHM hosted a panel discussion considering fatherhood in the past and present. A number of expert speakers, along with Dr Laura King as chair, considered themes emerging from the performance relating to fatherhood and the family in historical and contemporary perspective. The audience also shared their views and asked questions of the performers and panel speakers. An exhibition of fathers’ poetry accompanied these performances.

Panel 1 - 12th June: Father Figures Through Time
This panel examined how ideas about fatherhood have changed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It considered the ways in which traditional gender stereotypes developed over many decades still persist today.

Speakers:

Dr Julia Griggs, National Centre for Social Research, a social policy researcher who has just completed a Leverhulme Trust-funded project exploring generational change in fathering behaviours.
Craig Hodgson, Founder of Dadzclub, an organisation which supports fathers of all ages and provides a space in which men can discuss issues of parenting.
Professor Pat Thane, King's College London, an eminent historian of the family and family policy in twentieth-century Britain.
Bert Roman, Babakas, performer in 'Our Fathers'


Panel 2 -13th June: Thoroughly Modern Dads?
This panel examined new ways in which fathers interact with their children, through pregnancy, childbirth and infancy, drawing on the personal stories of the panellists.

Speakers:

Dean Beaumont, Founder of DaddyNatal, an organisation of male antenatal educators providing classes and support for expectant dads.
Dr Alan Dolan, University of Warwick, sociologist of contemporary British fatherhood, masculinity and men's health.
Catherine Kanter, an actor and mother, currently writing about the experience of parenting as a team of three, with actor Charlie Condou and his partner Cam. Columns about their family life, 'The Three of Us', appear weekly in the Guardian newspaper.
Ben Wakeling, a journalist and father, author of advice literature for fathers and contributor to a poetry collection published as part of the 'Hiding in the Pub to Cutting the Cord?' project.
Mike Tweddle - performer and co-director of 'Our Fathers'.

‘Hiding in the Pub to Cutting the Cord?’ was a major research and public engagement project conducted by Dr Laura King in 2011/12 at the Centre for the History of Medicine (CHM), University of Warwick and supported by the Wellcome Trust. This project analysed the changing nature of fatherhood in the past and present, and involved a number of events and activities, such as poetry workshops, festival exhibitions and a conference on parenting.
The CHM is a lively, inter-disciplinary community of scholars and students, committed to teaching and research in the area of the history of medicine and public health and its social and cultural context. We aspire to reach beyond academic life and engage with the local community and the public at large with medical, scientific and social concerns in the past and present, and to do so in creative and innovative ways - find out more about CHM's engagement work.