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.
Yvette Hutchison awarded WIF Award
Yvette Hutchison was awarded a WIF award of £20k to make a 10-15 minute film to document the research from her African Womens' Playwright Network project. Its objective is to capture and amplify the non-academic voices conveying how AWPN has influenced and changed their lives and livelihoods. We will also upload short pieces of events and stories along the way.
Invitation from Yvette Hutchison: African Women's Plays Leap Off A Global Page
African Women's Plays Leap Off A Global Page
21 February, 6.30 p.m. Belgrade Theatre, Coventry
22 February, 5.00 p.m. Oxford Playhouse, Oxford
When did you last watch a play written by an African woman? Have you ever read one? This is only the second published collection of plays written by African women, the last edited by Kathy Perkins ten years ago. The African Women’s Playwright Network, established through a n AHRC and University of Warwick funded research project, has connected more than 240 African women creative practitioners from 21 countries on the African continent and beyond.
We would like to warmly welcome you join us as we launch one outcome of this project, Contemporary plays by African Women, in Coventry and/ or Oxford.
"Contemporary Plays by African Women" launches in collaboration with the Belgrade Youth Group
Yvette's co-edited collection of Contemporary Plays by African Women will be launched in collaboration with the Belgrade Youth Group at two events - at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry on Thursday 21st February, and Oxford Playhouse on 22nd February, for details see
http://www.belgrade.co.uk/event/contemporary-plays-by-african-women
Contemporary Plays By African Women at Belgrade Theatre As part of a new partnership between the Belgrade Theatre and Warwick University’s African Women’s Playwright Network, select participants from our Youth Theatre will present extracts from Contemporary Plays by African Women due to be published by Methuen in January 2019.. The evening takes on an interactive form, embracing and encouraging discussion and debate around where and how the ... |
https://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/whats-on/all-shows/contemporary-plays-by-african-women/11997
Contemporary Plays by African Women - oxfordplayhouse.com A free event from the African Women Playwright's Network |
AWPN at Africa Writes
AWPN to be represented by Yvette Hutchison and Warwick TPS research fellow, Kenyan playwright JC Niala, who will speak at Africa Writes, British Library, London on Saturday in the session, ‘Why African Literature Matters’ - see the whole program at
https://www.bl.uk/…/events/2018/june/aw_2018_leaflet_final_…