Skip to main content

Theatre and Performance

This cluster comprises award-winning playwrights, dramaturgs, script consultants and researchers working on a wide range of contemporary and historical performance.

The School has exceptional breadth of expertise in theatre history and contemporary performance. The creative work of our staff and postgraduate researchers is regularly produced on stage, screen, and radio across the world.

We collaborate on research, impact, and engagement projects with local and national theatre companies including Northern Stage, Open Clasp, Live Theatre, Opera North, and the Globe Theatre.

Our staff co-lead the University’s Performance Research Network, an interdisciplinary community of performance researchers, and the North East Playwrights’ Forum.

This dynamic research culture provides a rich and well-resourced environment for postgraduate work. Past and current doctoral projects have focused on the participatory arts, radical adaptations of Greek tragedy, theatre and celebrity, and amateur performance.

Photo taken by Ginna Hoben, with permission of Dr Emma Whipday. Opening of play