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.
Modern Visuality and Nineteenth-Century Performance: Conference Call for Papers
CFP - DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS 17 MAY 2021
Modern Visuality and Nineteenth-Century Performance
Theatre and Visual Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century AHRC-Project
Conference at Exeter University, 31 August – 3 September 2021
This event is organised as part of the three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project, Theatre and Visual Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century, for which Prof Jim Davis (University of Warwick) is the Principal Investigator.
Keynote speakers:
Michael Gamer, University of Pennsylvania
David Taylor, Oxford University
The nineteenth century is associated with the transformation of traditional ways of life, rapid technological advances, radical changes to the environment, and the emergence of new conceptions of subjectivity. Theatre was central to the culture of this period, so how far did it reflect or shape the experience of modernity? The Modernist experiments of the latter part of the century used to take centre stage in discussions about modernity, but how far can the popular, commercial theatrical culture of this period be seen as the locus of an emergent modern aesthetic?
This is the third and final conference of our project investigating nineteenth-century stage spectacle, the viewing practices associated with it, and its relationship to the wider visual culture of this period. With this event, we return to one of our core concerns: to consider nineteenth-century spectacle as a new and experimental form and as both a facet and product of modernity. We welcome ideas for papers on all aspects of the visual culture of theatre, from theatrical ephemera to links with the world of ‘high’ art, to new spectacular and immersive technologies. We particularly welcome submissions that bring questions of methodology to the fore, offering new contexts through which we may understand the theatrical spectacle of this period.
To read the full call for papers, submit an abstract, join our mailing list, and find out more about the project, please visit our website https://theatreandvisualculture19.wordpress.com. For queries, please contact Patricia Smyth, P.M.Smyth@Warwick.ac.uk.
The Young Producers, run by China Plate and Warwick Arts Centre
Young Producers is a programme that has brought a group of 16-21 year olds together in an opportunity to not only learn the art of producing, but to work together and create a festival. Three students from your Theatre Department at Warwick University are actually part of this programme and would love for you to share it with your students.
Due to Covid-19, our initial idea had to be rethought. We are now putting on RECLAIMED - a three day digital arts festival by, with and for young people, to showcase three different art forms, Dance, Poetry, and Theatre.
For our theatre showcase, we are looking for 16-21 year old artists that already have created theatre, but haven’t had a chance to share it. The pieces can be between 2 and 15 minutes long. After watching all the pieces sent to us, the young artists who are chosen will have the opportunity to show their work as a part of our festival, be in with the chance of winning a £50 gift voucher (audience vote), have it introduced by an industry professional and speak to that professional in an exclusive online Q&A. We were wondering if you might know anyone who would be interested in this opportunity. This email is a call out for theatre submissions but feel free to browse our website for information on the poetry and dance submissions.
Further info can be accessed on our website and social media pages (https://bit.ly/YPReclaimed).
Deadline to send your application form (https://form.jotform.com/201383336001037) and submit your theatre video is 11:59pm Friday 5 June.
Creativity & Idea Generation
Express your creativity with Tik Tok: https://youtu.be/gyix5pr3dUE
Finding Freelance Work in Lockdown: https://youtu.be/7GSpSWzY9FI
Standing out from the Crowd: https://youtu.be/KTVtFC3Ykbo
I’d love to hear your thoughts on these videos. We have lots of great sessions planned, details of our summer plan are here: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/enterprise/summer-term-online/
Clare Green
Creative & Digital Communities Manager
SCAPVC’s Lucy Brydon is serving as a judge on the The Hibernation Film Festival Bear Jam Productions:
https://bearjam.co.uk/work/thehibernation/
Bear Jam Productions proudly presents The Hibernation Film Festival. A festival born out of the recent events that have unfolded across the globe. However, despite being confined to our homes, we are turning this pandemic on its head and want to celebrate filmmakers’ work from around the world. So, we have decided to not only “Do More Video,” but to host our very own online festival.