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.
JC Niala's play Unsettled wins the Alfred Fagon Award
Congratulations to JC Niala, a Research Fellow in Theatre and Performance Studies at Warwick and a core member of the African Women Playwrights Network (AWPN). Her play Unsettled - published in the collection Contemporary Plays by African Women - has just been longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award. https://www.alfredfagonaward.co.uk/awards/2020-award/
Homeless Monopoly in the Coventry Creates Exhibition
Prof. Nadine Holdsworth's Homeless Monopoly game is featuring as part of Coventry Creates.
Coventry Creates is a digital exhibition of artworks created during lockdown and inspired by university research. It features 18 artistic responses to research, amongst which you’ll discover poetry about Coventry, Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matters movement. Find stories about what Coventry means to refugees, and learn about Coventry’s twinning history, women’s suffrage and how interactive games can help break down the complexities of homelessness. Hear the words of healthcare workers during the first peak of Coronavirus, and explore creative connections forged by ‘The Artist and the Prof’.
Coventry Creates is part of the ongoing work by Coventry and Warwick universities in the lead up to the City of Culture. The University Partnership has funded over 30 creative research projects, involving over 50 Coventry organisations and local communities.
https://coventrycreates.co.uk
#CoventryCreates
Promotion and Publication: Prof. Silvija Jestrovic
Today brings bumper news for Silvija Jestrovic. This summer Silvija has published her latest monograph: ‘Performances of Authorial Presence and Absence: The Author Dies Hard’. Silvija is running a third year module around this research in the 2020/1 academic year.
This summer it was also announced that Silvija has also been promoted to Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies. Congratulations Silvija and enjoy the celebrations!
Dr Yvette Hutchison Publication: 'Voicing the Imaginative in Africa: three creatives speak'
Published online on 22 Jun 2020:
Loots, L, Yvette Hutchison & Ongezwa Mbele. Voicing the Imaginative in Africa: three creatives speak. Agenda, special issue on “Cultural Dialogues for Feminist Creatives: Southern Voices”, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2020.1773289
In this article, the authors interview three African women creatives - Tosin Jobi-Tume (Nigeria) about playwriting/theatre, Germaine Acogny (Senegal) about dance and choreography, and Buhlebezwe Siwani (South Africa) about fine art/performance art and photography - asking them how they engage with African feminisms as African women creatives and how this impacts their work.