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.
'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
Website Launched exploring climate crisis with young people in the UK and Uganda
Breathe in –
With one breath, what concerns you most about the climate crisis?
Breathe out
Breathe in –
With one breath, who needs to change?
Breathe out
Breathe in –
With one breath, what can you do?
Breathe out
The air that we breathe connects us - with each breath we take, we inhale oxygen that sustains us and pollutants that endanger us. The products we consume, the ways we travel, the forests we decimate – our local actions have global implications.
Dr Bobby Smith has collaborated with young people, Highly Sprung Performance Company (UK), Rafiki Theatre (Uganda) and the visual artists Becky Warnock and Ashley James Brown to explore the local and global challenges of the climate crisis.
The project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's 'Engaging Young People with Climate Research' funding stream. It resulted in an experimental, online artwork titled With One Breath. The website brings together physical performance, photography and visual arts as well as creative writing to offer provocations for action on the climate crisis. Young people in the UK and Uganda participated in a series of workshops which aimed to bring together participatory practices drawing on photography and Theatre of the Oppressed methods. It is hoped that this short project can feed into longer-term initiatives which build on the learning that has taken place.
You can explore the website here https://www.withonebreath.world/
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.