Staff Profile

I took my PhD, MRes and undergraduate degrees at Edinburgh University, and taught at Nottingham University and Birkbeck College, London, before joining Newcastle University in 2011. 

My research focuses upon twentieth century British theatre and contemporary performance. My publications include Theatre & Audience and Theatre Censorship in Britain: Silencing, Censure and Suppression (which were both published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2009).

I was Co-Investigator on 'Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts', an AHRC-funded research project which concluded in 2020.

Research Interests

My research focuses upon twentieth century British theatre and contemporary performance. I have published on audiences, participation and interactivity; censorship; archive theory and historiography; and British physical theatres.

I continue to track the evolution of our understanding of audiences, and have an ongoing interest in contemporary British performance made for, with, and about children.

Recent publications include a book chapter on responses to Matilda The Musical. I have a chapter on 'Histories of Audiencing' for the Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts, and a piece on 'the people formerly known as the audience' for the Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945 forthcoming in 2022.

Postgraduate Supervision

I welcome applications from postgraduate students interested in working in any of the above fields.

I have previously supervised PhD projects on the history of the Tricycle theatre, London; the use of voice in British new writing for the stage; radical adaptations of Medea, the dramatisation of the experiences of First World War female munitions workers, and new forms of participatory performance.

I am currently supervising four PhD students, whose research focuses upon the history of Northern Stage; contemporary performance being produced in the North East; new plays exploring sex and silencing; and the issues raised by depictions of experiences significantly beyond the personal or first-hand knowledge of the playwright.

I usually contribute to 

SEL1003  'Introduction to Literary Studies 1' 

and 

SEL1031 'Drama, Theatre, Performance'

as well as supervising undergraduate and MA Dissertations. 

In 2022-23 I will be offering a third year option on theatre, emotion and spectatorship. 

• Freshwater H. Children and the Limits of Representation in the Work of Tim Crouch. In: Angelaki, V, ed. Contemporary British Theatre: Breaking New Ground. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp.167-188.
• Freshwater H. The censorship of the stage: writing on the edge of the allowed. In: Powell, K; Raby, P, ed. Oscar Wilde in Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013, pp.278-288.
• Freshwater H. Consuming Authenticities: Billy Elliot the Musical and the Performing Child. The Lion and the Unicorn 2012, 36(2), 154-173.
• Freshwater H. The Author: Tim Crouch in Conversation with Helen Freshwater. Performing Ethos 2011, 1(2), 181-196.
• Freshwater H. 'You Say Something': Audience Participation and The Author. Contemporary Theatre Review 2011, 21(4), 405-409.
• Freshwater H. Delirium: In Rehearsal with theatre O. In: Mermikides, A, Smart, J, ed. Devising in Process. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, pp.128-146.
• Freshwater H. Theatre & Audience. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
• Freshwater H. Theatre Censorship in Britain: Silencing, Censure and Suppression. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
• Freshwater H. ‘Physical Theatre: Complicite and the Question of Authority’. In: Holdsworth, N., Luckhurst, M, ed. A Concise Companion to Contemporary British and Irish Drama. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007, pp.171-199.
• Freshwater H. Sex, Violence and Censorship: London’s Grand Guignol and the negotiation of the limit. Theatre Research International 2007, 32(3), 247-262.
• Freshwater H. Fingers on the collective pulse? Frantic Assembly and the future of theatre. Performance Research 2004, 9(3), 30-43.
• Freshwater H. Towards a Redefinition of Censorship. In: Müller, B, ed. Censorship and Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age. Amsterdam and New York: Rodophi, 2004, pp.225-245.
• Freshwater H. The Allure of the Archive. Poetics Today 2003, 24(4), 729-758.
• Freshwater H. Anti-theatrical Prejudice and the Persistence of Performance: the Lord Chamberlain's Plays and Correspondence Archive. Performance Research 2002, 7(4), 50-58.
• Freshwater H. Performance Theory, Practice, and the Intrusion of the Real. In: Scanlon, J; Waste A, ed. Crossing Boundaries: Thinking through Literature. United Kingdom: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd, 2001, pp.189-199.
• Freshwater H. Suppressed Desire: dramatic inscriptions of lesbianism in 1930s Britain. New Theatre Quarterly 2001, 17(4), 310-318.
• Freshwater H. The Ethics of Indeterminacy: Theatre de Complicite’s Mnemonic. New Theatre Quarterly 2001, 17(3), 212-218.
• Freshwater H. Agency, Power, and the Inner Child: The "Revolting Children" of Matilda The Musical. In: Ruwe D; Leve J, ed. Children, Childhood, and Musical Theater. London: Routledge, 2020, pp.164-187.
• Freshwater H. British theatre and the people formerly known as the audience. In: Harvie, J and Rebellato, D, ed. The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre since 1945. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. In Preparation.