Staff in Drama and Theatre Arts 

Research in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts covers a wide range of cutting edge explorations and theorisations of drama, theatre and performance.

While the research undertaken in the department is multifaceted, the following research supervisor groupings highlight points of intersection and speak to the research strengths of the department. The groupings allow for collaboration and support between researchers, as well as offering a thriving environment for postgraduate students.

Academic staff

Dr Gianna Bouchard

Dr Gianna Bouchard

Senior Lecturer
Head of Drama and Theatre Arts

I joined the Department in September 2017, having taught at Anglia Ruskin University since 2004, prior to which I worked as a research assistant and doctoral student at the University of Roehampton. My research focuses on the interface between medicine and performance.

Dr Joanna Bucknall

Dr Joanna Bucknall

Lecturer

I am a practice-based scholar whose research interests include immersive performance practices, augmented and mixed reality in performance, live art, practice-as-research, performance documentation and cognitive approaches to reception theory. I am the artistic director of Vertical Exchange Performance Collective, co-artistic director of KeepHouse Performance and an Associate Artist at the New ...

Dr Claire French

Dr Claire French

Assistant Professor in Performance and Creative Practices

I am new to the department, teaching across theory and practice and leading the new MA in Performance Practices: Applied Artists. My specialisms include applied, autobiographical and multilingual performance practices. I am currently most connected to South African theatre and performance artists and activists, articulating new dramaturgies and frameworks for sustainable global collaboration. ...

Professor Russell Jackson

Professor Russell Jackson

Emeritus Professor of Drama

My work focuses on the relationships between text and performance - particularly but not exclusively of Shakespeare’s plays - in their social and intellectual context and in a wide range of media. I am currently engaged in studies of the representation of the theatre in the other arts.

My research is informed by (and informs) my work in professional theatre and film.

Professor Adam J. Ledger

Professor Adam J. Ledger

Professor of Theatre and Performance

My research centres on directing, performance practice and the creation of new work.

I have published widely on theatre practice, especially directing, and significantly on the work of Odin Teatret and Eugenio Barba. I have recently completed the monograph The Director and Directing: Craft, Process and Aesthetic in Contemporary Theatre (Palgrave Macmillan).

I am co-artistic director ...

Dr Pablo Pakula

Dr Pablo Pakula

Teaching Fellow

I am a practice-based scholar and I joined the department as a Teaching Fellow in September 2017, specialising in practically teaching theatre and performance. Besides being a university teacher and lecturer for over twelve years, I have been developing my practice as performance-maker, live artist and event curator since 2006.

At the University of Birmingham I have also set up creative, ...

Dr David Pattie

Dr David Pattie

Senior Lecturer

I've been teaching and researching in drama and theatre studies since 1992. I’m an internationally recognised expert on the work of Samuel Beckett, and I’ve published ground breaking work on live music as a performance. I’ve also written extensively about contemporary British theatre, Scottish theatre, and popular culture.

Dr Caroline Radcliffe

Dr Caroline Radcliffe

Reader in Drama and Performance

I have had a long freelance career in music and drama and am still an active performer in both fields. My specialist academic areas are nineteenth-century theatre, popular theatre studies, technology and performance and any area of music and drama.

Dr Ellen Redling

Dr Ellen Redling

Lecturer

 I joined the department in September 2016, after lecturing in English Literature, Culture and Drama at the University of Heidelberg. From April 2015 to April 2016 I conducted research at the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance, University of Royal Holloway, London. 

I have written numerous articles on contemporary theatre and performance, and co-edited a volume on Non-standard ...

Professor Graham Saunders

Professor Graham Saunders

Allardyce Nicoll Chair in Drama

I joined the department in January 2016, after teaching at the University of Reading since 2005 in the department of Film, Theatre and Television. I have also taught at the universities of Coventry, Lancaster and the University of the West of England (UWE).  I also studied at the University of Birmingham as an undergraduate (joint honours English & Drama,1991-4) and completed my PhD here ...

Dr Jon Venn

Dr Jon Venn

Teaching Fellow

My research primarily concerns mental health in contemporary performance, from representation of psychiatric diagnosis to autobiographical theatre. I’ve written extensively on British theatre and Irish theatre. My current work concentrates on understandings of suicide, including representations of suicide-as-protest and the mourning of suicide.

Dr Rose Whyman

Dr Rose Whyman

Senior Lecturer

I joined the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts in 2003. My main research interests are in the science of acting, actor training and Russian Theatre. I teach a wide variety of modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels including a course on tragicomedy (Dark Comedy), Russian theatre, Alexander Technique and Performance as well as practical modules in a variety of approaches to acting ...


Doctoral research students

The department brings together a dynamic and critical cohort of postgraduate research students.


Production staff

Linda Muirhead
Theatre Arts Manager / Stage Management Tutor
Email: L.Muirhead@bham.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 5677

David Crisp
Scenic and Costume Designer / Tutor
Email: D.L.Crisp@bham.ac.uk  
Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 6395

Undreia Capewell
Costume Supervisor
Email: U.Capewell@bham.ac.uk  
Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 6000

Phil Speck
Lighting Designer/Technical Tutor
Email: P.A.Speck@bham.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 7018

Administration staff

Jayne Smith and Lizzie Compton
Email: drama@contacts.bham.ac.uk  
Telephone: +44 (0)121 414 5998

Honorary Professor

  • Professor David Edgar