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.
Careers Event: Careers in Producing
12-1pm Wednesday 26 May.
Book your place on My Advantage: https://myadvantage.warwick.ac.uk/students/events/Detail/2156606
Producers oversee the creative process of film/TV/theatre from conception to completion, working closely with directors to make artistic and technical decisions - but how do you develop a career in this role? In this Q&A event industry professionals will describe how they have achieved success, offering advice & information to help you plan your career.
The panel will feature:
- Pauline Mason a producer and director at the BBC with 25 years of experience in TV, radio and digital content. She has produced documentaries and live programmes on four continents on subjects ranging from the global financial crisis to climate change. She specialises in stories about innovation and social enterprise and is a diversity and inclusion champion at the BBC. She started her journalistic career on the Warwick Boar
- Suzie Samant Suzie is a freelance Creative Consultant on primetime TV shows. She previously produced and directed documentaries for Channel 4, BBC, ITV1 and Discovery. Credits range from 'The Fantastical Factory of Curious Craft' and 'The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes', to 'Kara Tointon: Don't Call Me Stupid' and 'Dispatches'. She has served as a Royal Television Society Judge and BAFTA Guru Panellist
- Diandra McCalla Beginning her career as a Secondary Music Teacher, Diandra is a Birmingham-based Arts Producer who is passionate about creating provocative and engaging participatory arts experiences especially for young people and socially disadvantaged communities. Diandra’s producing credits include Project SoundLounge Festival 2017 with Town Hall Symphony Hall as well as the Culture Catwalk Stage for the Birmingham Weekender 2017, with Southside Producers. More recently, Diandra was Community Project Producer for Imagineer’s Bridge producing Foleshill Weaving Together, where Foleshill’s interfaith community collaborated on a woven artwork made from images that represent their rich cultural diversity. She also was part of the producing team for West Midlands Weekender- Democratising Creativity and Culture 2020. Diandra currently works for Birmingham REP Theatre in the Creative Learning team and also with China Plate Theatre as Associate Producer developing a co-designed arts programme with Caribbean and South Asian community groups in North Birmingham.
- CJ Lloyd Webley majored in Theatre and Performance and received a Master of Arts in Creative Writing. He wrote and produced his first play, Shadows received 4 & 5 star reviews and was regarded “smart as hell” by London City Nights. CJ has written and produced plays at esteemed theatre venues like, Soho, Leicester Square, Birmingham Rep and The Brockley Jack. He is part of the Tamasha Playwrights alumni, shortlisted for the Adopt a playwright Award; selected for Criterion Theatre’s New Writing Programme; nominated for the Acumen Global Leaders Fellowship and awarded a place on the SSE Social Entrepreneurs Futures programme. As the Founder of Sorrel Park Theatrical Limited, CJ has delivered staff training, creative writing workshops and created showcase events for pupils with learning and behavioural difficulties. CJ has completed the prestigious Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme and the Common Purpose leadership programme. CJ is the Lead Artist for Lightpost Theatre Company at the Birmingham Rep which supports the well-being of young black men who according to the Centre for Mental Health (CFMH) report are, “at greater risk of experiencing mental health issues during lockdown”.