Theatre and Performance Studies News
TOP STORY: TaPRA 2025 Conference to be hosted at Warwick
We're delighted to announce that the annual Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) conference will be hosted by Theatre and Performance Studies at Warwick between 27 and 29 August 2025. The conference will mark both the 20th birthday of TaPRA and the 50th anniversary of Theatre and Performance Studies at Warwick. Our conference keynotes, plenary panels, artistic activity, conference dinner and programmed events will speak to the themes of milestones and markers, focussing on celebrations, festivities, spectacle and joy. We'll look forward to welcoming you to Warwick next year!
To keep up to date with the conference plans, please visit our dedicated TaPRA pages here.
New Book, 'Performance, Theatricality and the US Presidency - The Currency of Distrust', By Julia Peetz Published
A new book by Dr. Julia Peetz, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Performance and Politics at the Department for Theatre and Performance Studies, Performance, Theatricality and the US Presidency - The Currency of Distrust, has been published by Edinburgh University Press. At a time when the issue of lying in politics has assumed a new saliency on both sides of the Atlantic, the book proposes a new, interdisciplinary perspective on the contemporary rise of mainstreamed populism by exploring features of populist-style politics through the lens of distrust.
Dr. Peetz argues that, rather than being a flaw or corruption, the potential for political distrust must be understood as an essential feature of representative democracy because representation works through performance. The book explores performance as a constellation of factors: scripts, embodiment, ideas of selfhood, and historical norms and ideals. It draws on key scholarship of political representation, rhetoric, and populism; on theories of performativity, theatricality, and acting; and on interviews the author conducted with political speechwriters spanning presidential administrations and campaigns from Ronald Reagan to Barack Obama to demonstrate both that distrust is inherent in representative politics and that in mainstreamed populism distrust becomes a focal point around which the theatre of politics revolves.
Going beyond well-worn and simple theatrical metaphors to describe political action, Julia Peetz’s new book offers a sophisticated – and genuinely interdisciplinary - blend of performance and political analysis. Readers will find compelling new approaches to, and arguments about, crucial factors in political life, from legitimacy and representation to distrust, authenticity and populism. The book’s in-depth engagement with the past and present of US presidential performance is both illuminating and insightful. – Michael Saward, University of Warwick
'On Protest', new double issue of Performance Research edited by Julia Peetz and Andy Lavender, is published
On Protest, a new special double issue of Performance Research edited by Julia Peetz, Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Performance and Politics at Warwick TPS alongside former Head of School Andy Lavender, has been published. The issue includes an extended editorial by the two.
Dr Julia Peetz, our Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, has been nominated for the prestigious TAPRA prize for her article
'The Counter-Theatricality of Right-Wing Populist Performance’, Studies in Theatre and Performance (2021): https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682761.2021.1964818
Dr Julia Peetz's Chapter Publication and Book Launch
Dr Julia Peetz has published a chapter in the new volume Bodies that Still Matter: Resonances of Judith Butler. The book was published in July and a formal book launch will take place online on Zoom on 21 September 2021 at 20:00 CEST. The book has contributions from Butler herself, as well as Jean-Luc Nancy, Erika Fischer-Lichte and many others. You can find out more about the volume here and you can book a place at the virtual book launch using this link.