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Staff Profile

Professor Helen Freshwater

Professor of Theatre and Performance

Background

I took my PhD, MRes and undergraduate degrees at Edinburgh University, and taught at Nottingham University and at Birkbeck College in London before joining Newcastle University. I was central to the development of Theatre Studies in my previous post at Birkbeck. I was directly involved in the foundational design and delivery of Birkbeck’s undergraduate and MA degrees in Theatre Studies, and I co-founded the Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre. I moved north to take up my post at Newcastle in 2011. Since then, I have taught at all levels across the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics. I was Subject Head for Literature from 2018 to 2021, and I became Deputy Head of School in 2022. 

My research focuses upon twentieth century British theatre and contemporary performance. My 2009 monograph Theatre Censorship in Britain: Silencing, Censure and Suppression examines deep-seated cultural anxieties about the performative influence of the stage, and the complex questions raised by acts of censorship and silencing in the context of contemporary debates over civil liberties and freedom of speech. It has been credited with having ‘a genuine and long-term impact on the discipline’ (Professor Maggie Gale, New Theatre Quarterly). My interest in responses to theatre led to my next book, Theatre & Audience, which was commissioned by Palgrave Macmillan. This book contains analysis of contemporary performance practice, identifies current malpractice in audience research, and urges theatre scholars to engage with this field with greater critical and ethical awareness. This monograph (now published by Bloomsbury) has become a set text on introductory theatre studies modules across the UK and beyond, and remains the best-selling publication in the 54 book strong Theatre & series. 

From June 2017 to Jan 2020 I was Co-I on a major AHRC grant, ‘Understanding Audiences for the Contemporary Arts’. Stretching across a wide range of disciplines, arts organisations, and four cities, the project drew out the insights provided by 187 individual interviews and the detail of over 1.5 million words. The team worked closely with arts organisations in Birmingham, London, Liverpool and Bristol to understand their current and potential audiences, and then to put the project findings into action, testing audience development initiatives to recruit new audiences and enhance the experiences of attenders.

The quality and impact of my work was recognised in November 2011 when I was awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize. These prestigious Prizes are given to outstanding young scholars who have made a substantial and recognised contribution to their particular field of study at international level. Since then, my publications have been used by scholars across an exceptionally wide range of disciplines, including history, politics, translation, education and marketing. They evidence the global reach of my work, appearing in publications produced by scholars based in Africa, China, South Asia, North and South America, Australasia, and across Europe.

I have been a member of the AHRC Peer Review College since 2017 and a member of the UKRI Talent Panel College since 2023, acting as Panel member and Panel Chair for the AHRC on several occasions in recent years. 

My new book, Theatre and its Audiences: Reimagining the Relationship in Times of Crisis (co-authored with Kate Craddock) was published by Bloomsbury in January 2024. 


Research
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.

My new book, Theatre and its Audiences: Reimagining the Relationship in Times of Crisis (co-authored with Kate Craddock) was published by Bloomsbury in early 2024. Written in the aftermath of the Covid crisis, this book brings the past, present and future of theatre-going together as it explores the nature of the relationships between performance practitioners, arts organisations and their audiences. Proposing that the pandemic forced a re-evaluation of what it means to be an audience, and combining historical and current cultural sector perspectives, the book reflects on how historical conventions have conditioned present day expectations of theatre-going in the UK. It examines the ways in which developments in technology, architecture and forms of communication have influenced what is expected by and of audiences, reflecting changes in theatre's cultural status and place in our lives. Drawing on the first-hand experiences of festival director and performance practitioner Kate Craddock, it also contends that practitioners now need to turn their attention to care, access and sustainability, arguing that the pandemic taught us, above all, that it is possible to do things differently. Part vision, part provocation, part critical interrogation, Theatre and its Audiences offers an insightful appraisal of past norms and assumptions to set out a bold argument about where we should go from here.


Postgraduate Supervision

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


Current PhD Supervisions

Hannah Wilkin – ‘Contemporary Playwriting: Respect, Responsibility and Representation: Negotiating Distance and Experience’ (co-supervised with Dr Zoe Cooper)

Tamsin Rees – ‘The Possibilities of Silence: Negotiating Power in Contemporary Narratives’ (co-supervised with Dr Zoe Cooper)


Past PhD Supervisions

Amelia Joicey – ‘Glitter and Glue: Examining the Role of Young People’s Participation at Northern Stage, 1967-2017’ (co-supervised with Dr Andrew Law)

Andrew Latimer – ‘Beyond 'Geordie-rama': Contemporary Performance in North East England, 2017-18’ (co-supervised with Dr Alex Niven)

Jamie Harper – ‘Play and cultural transformation : designing for reflexive agency in participatory performance’ (co-supervised with Dr James Ash)

Tracy Gillman – ‘The Fugitive Archive, the creative writer in the archive’ (co-supervised with Prof Sean O’Brien)

Fiona Evans – ‘Radaptation : adapting ancient Greek tragedy in the twenty-first century’ (co-supervised with Dr Margaret Wilkinson)

Ella Paremain – ‘A History of the Tricycle Theatre: Audience, Identity and Agency’ (co-supervised with Dr Aoife Monks and Dr Kate Dorney)

Maggie Inchley – ‘Inclusion and betrayal: voice in British new theatre writing and performance, 1997-2007’ (co-supervised with Dr Aoife Monks)



Teaching
Teaching in 2024-25

This year will I be convening and teaching on SEL1031 'Drama, Theatre, Performance' and SEL3447, 'Exposing Ourselves: Privacy, Performance and the Public Sphere'.


Teaching in previous years

I have offered lectures, seminars and workshops at all levels during my time at Newcastle. This has included presenting lectures and leading seminars and practical workshops on first year undergraduate modules ‘Transformations’ (SEL1023), Introduction to Literary Study (SEL1003), Drama, Theatre Performance (SEL1031), and our second year Independent Research Project (SEL2210). I regularly supervise undergraduate and MA Dissertations and have taught on MA modules including Research Training (SEL8674) and Mind Body Affect (SEL8539).

As Subject Head for Literature I focused on future-proofing our teaching offer with innovations designed to address the needs of our students. Outcomes included greater choice of assessment options across modules, and the introduction of four new undergraduate capstone options, enabling students to present their final year research in a wider variety of forms including online exhibitions, digital editions, presentations and project placements, as well as the traditional long essay.

I very much enjoy developing new modules which provide opportunities for our students to engage with the latest developments in contemporary performance. I have led on delivery of several entirely new modules including the second year undergraduate module Popular Performance Here and Now (SEL2217), and the final year undergraduate modules ‘The Child in Contemporary Performance’ (SEL3353) and ‘All the Feels: Theatre, Emotion and Spectatorship’ (SEL3435). My research into audience engagement has also informed my understanding of the way that diversification of assessment can be used to enhance student experience. While Subject Head for Literature I created new assessment criteria for Participation and Engagement, which are now widely used across our modules in Literature.




Publications