Doctoral Researcher

About me

Following retirement and several years of independent research into theatre history in Birmingham and Malvern, I decided to formalise my commitment to lifelong learning and joined the Department of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick as a doctoral researcher in September 2024.

Research Interest

My research is primarily into the history and achievements of the Pilgrim Players, an amateur theatre group active in Birmingham from 1907 until 1912 when they became the professional Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Bache Matthews, one of the company, wrote an early history of the Pilgrims in 1924 but there has been no further research or analysis by later historians of the Repertory Theatre or of the city of Birmingham. The aim of my research is to provide a rounded account and analysis of this remarkable group.

The Pilgrims were financed by their founder, Barry Jackson, from an affluent Birmingham family and were therefore freed from financial constraints. Because they had no need to formalise their organisation or collect fees, they had a loose membership structure based around shared theatrical goals and a willingness to fit in with colleagues.

Despite their organisational informality the Pilgrims put on twenty-eight varied plays in their five active years in Birmingham and its environs, as well as a much-commented production in London alongside Yeats’ Abbey Theatre players. Although they included Shakespeare and canonical English theatre in their repertoire, they were primarily focussed on innovative Edwardian and poetic theatre. They also developed new approaches to their productions, appointing producers for each of their plays and using drapes rather than scenery. Eventually some of the group became professional actors in the new purpose-built Birmingham Repertory Theatre which Jackson financed and were able to advance their agenda of innovative plays, in repertory, with reduced scenery and a focus on good acting under a director.

This study analyses the Pilgrims’ contribution to renewing theatre in the city as well as their impact on intellectual debate in Birmingham, examining the resonance of their productions with social and political concerns in the city. It aims to go beyond established theatre historiography by close reading of the plays produced by the Pilgrims and through demographic research into the actors to establish their backgrounds, motivations and subsequent careers. More men were involved as actors than women and a special effort will be made in the research to find out more about the women Pilgrims.

My research is supervised by Dr. David Coates (Assistant Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies) and Dr. Matthew Franks (Associate Professor of English and Theatre Studies).

Experience

After gaining a first degree in European Studies at the University of East Anglia in 1974, I studied abroad at the University of Barcelona where I also worked in a Centre recuperating the history of resistance to Francoism. In 1979 I applied for an archivist position in the new Modern Records Centre at Warwick and was invited to interview, but all public sector recruitment was halted following the general election in that year so my early involvement with Warwick was halted at that point. I subsequently gained an MA in Information Science in 1981 and took on a range of policy roles and ultimately senior manager positions in a twenty-five-year career in local government before transferring to an economic development role in a civil service agency. I also had a variety of non-executive positions in the voluntary and statutory sectors and was Chair of the West Mercia Probation Trust for seven years.