Theatre & Performance Studies News
In Memoriam - Professor Jim Davis
It is with a very heavy heart that we write to let you know that Professor Jim Davis passed away on Saturday 4th November following a stroke. Everyone who had the pleasure of encountering Jim will appreciate that this is a huge loss for his family, friends, colleagues, collaborators and the wider research community. He was a fantastic scholar and unwavering champion for the discipline and theatre historiography. He was such an important part of the Theatre and Performance family at the University of Warwick and will be missed for his leadership, mentorship, friendship and unfailing sense of fun and mischief.
Jim Davis joined Warwick in 2004 as Head of Department (2004-2009) after eighteen years teaching Theatre Studies at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, where he was latterly Head of the School of Theatre, Film and Dance. In Australia he was also President of the Australasian Drama Studies Association and member of the Board of Studies of the National Institute of Dramatic Art. Prior to leaving for Australia he spent ten years teaching in London at what is now Roehampton University. He co-organised many conferences including for the International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) in New South Wales and at Warwick. He convened Historiography Working Groups for both IFTR and for TaPRA. He served as an editor for the journal Nineteenth Century Theatre and Film.
He published widely and with considerable critical acclaim in the area of nineteenth-century British theatre. His most recent bookComic Acting and Portraiture in Late-Georgian and Regency England (2015) won the TaPRA David Bradby Prize for Research in International Theatre and Performance in 2017 and was shortlisted for the 2015 TLA George Freedley Memorial Award. His other publications include Theatre & Entertainment (2016), Dickensian Dramas: Plays from Charles Dickens Volume II (2017) and European Theatre Performance Practice Vol 3 1750-1900 (editor, 2014). He was also joint author of a study of London theatre audiences in the nineteenth century Reflecting the Audience: London 1840-1880 (2001), which was awarded the 2001 Theatre Book Prize. He contributed numerous chapters including essays on nineteenth-century acting to the Cambridge History of British Theatre and on audiences to the Cambridge Companion to Victorian and Edwardian Theatre. He also published many articles in Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, Theatre Notebook, Essays in Theatre, Themes in Drama, New Theatre Quarterly, Nineteenth Century Theatre, Theatre Research International and The Dickensian. He was also responsible for many of the theatrical entries in The Oxford Readers' Companion to Dickens and contributed to the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Theatre and Performance, The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Stage Actors and Acting and the New Dictionary of National Biography. For several years he wrote an annual review of publications on nineteenth-century English Drama and Theatre for The Year's Work in English Studies.
An event to celebrate Jim’s life and work was held on 6 January 2024 12pm-4pm in the Studios in the Faculty of Arts Building on the University of Warwick's campus.
Interested in a PhD with us and want to secure Midlands4Cities funding?
You can hear more about how to apply at the Coventry Midlands4Cities application writing workshop on the 16th November.
Sign up HERE
Applications Open for The Clive Barker Award for Performance!
Applications Open for The Clive Barker Award for Performance!
Are you working on a performance, or have an idea for a piece you’d like to develop further?
The Clive Barker Award provides practical and financial support to help you realise your project and present it to the public.
Click HERE to find out more and apply!
Arts Excellence Scholarships for 2020 Announced
The University has announced the arrival of Arts Excellence Scholarships 2020 and the Theatre & Performance Studies BA are among the eligible Faculty of Arts Courses. The scholarships will be automatically awarded to all entrants for our BA course who achieve AAA+ or equivalent (read our qualification equivalency criteria) who have applied in 2019/20 through the main UCAS entry route, adjustment or clearing.
“Homeless Monopoly” won joint first prize for a Game in Development at the European Conference of Game Based Learning in Denmark
“Homeless Monopoly” won joint first prize for a Game in Development at the European Conference of Game Based Learning in Denmark.
Homelesss Monopoly is a prototype board-game featuring real life testimonies and scenarios of homeless and ex-homeless people in the Coventry area. It has been developed by Nadine Holdsworth (Theatre and Performance Studies, University of Warwick)and Jacqueline Ann Calderwood (Disruptive Media Lab, Coventry University) with Coventry Cyrenians. The game has been piloted with local schools with the aim of raising awareness and encouraging empathy in young people towards issues faced by Coventry’s homeless and street sleepers.