We celebrated Warwick’s rich history of performance practice, student drama, and graduate theatre companies at an evening of new performance work last November, which launched Emerge 2015 in Warwick's 50th year.

These performances enabled current students to engage with alumni artists and academic researchers and built on the success of the Emerge Festival and Laboratory (2014), which brought five graduate theatre companies back to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Warwick Arts Centre.

This was a collaborative project between an interdisciplinary team of Warwick’s alumni, students and academics from across the university. We initiated a digital archive of campus performances from 1965 to 2015, commissioned two Warwick theatre companies, and developed a new performance map of the campus. This research informed an original exhibition of materials, including an illustration of the 'family tree' of theatre companies and drama societies.

Emerge is an on-going collaboration between the Warwick Arts Centre, the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) and the School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies (nominated this year for The Stage 'School of the Year'). As part of this project, the IATL Student Ensemble have worked alongside professional practitioners to create work about the university's history and the future of higher education.

Warwick 2065 was supported by Warwick's 50th Anniversary project Imagining the Future and the student researchers are supported by the Undergraduate Research Support Scheme.

Project Director:

Dr Jonathan Heron (IATL)

Project Manager:

Dr Becky Fisher (IATL)

Postgraduate Mentor:

Ali Pidsley (English)

Undergraduate Researchers:

Amanda Fawcett (English)

Ed Franklin (English)

Ollie Higgins (Chemistry)

Commisioned Companies:

Dumbshow Theatre

FellSwoop Theatre

Photographer-in-Residence:

Peter Marsh (ashmorevisuals)