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.
Emeritus Reader Dr Margaret Shewring Awarded Fellowship of the ABTT
Dr Margaret Shewring has been awarded Fellowship of the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT). This is in recognition of her significant contribution to the revising of Theatre Buildings: A Design Guide (Routledge, 2010). This new edition (Routledge, 2024) has substantially re-written text with fresh images and entirely new reference projects, providing essential guidance for all those engaged in the design of theatre buildings. Margaret is the editor of this volume, being invited to undertake the role as the former Director of the Postgraduate Diploma and MA in Theatre Consultancy. The publication is written by a team of international experts, architects, theatre consultants, acousticians, engineers and industry professionals led by Tim Foster (Foster Wilson Size) and Robin Townley (CEO of the ABTT).
Bidding Farewell to Dr Margaret Shewring
On 31 August 2020 Dr Margaret Shewring retired from Theatre and Performance Studies after 42 years teaching in the department. Margaret has inspired generations of theatre scholars and practitioners with her research on Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Renaissance and Early Modern European Festivals, and the design of space for performance on the contemporary stage.
Fortunately Margaret will remain an active researcher and will be an Emeritus Reader in the department. She plans to celebrate her retirement in 2021 when she is due to host a conference as part of Coventry City of Culture. Find out more about Margaret's extraordinary career on her staff page.
Society for European Festivals Research - Turin Conference
As a co-founder and convenor of the Society for European Festivals Research, Margaret Shewring is hosting a conference in Turin from 18 to 20 September (2019), on ‘The Role of Courtly Spectacle in the Politics and Diplomatic Entanglements of the House of Savoy in the Renaissance and Early Modern Periods (1450–1750)’. Turin, the capital city of the Piedmont region in northern Italy, used to be a major political centre and has a rich culture and history, with part of the historical centre of Turin, the Residences of the Royal House of Savoy, added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list in 1997.