About
I am a stage director, and teacher of acting. My work with actors is the source, form, and outlet for my ongoing research in the Early Modern drama, particularly the plays of Shakespeare.
Qualifications
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BA (Birmingham)
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MA, PhD (Clark University, USA)
Biography
I took my B.A. (Hons) at the University of Birmingham, and my M.A. and Ph.D. at Clark University, in Massachusetts. My doctoral dissertation was in interdisciplinary study of the Faust myth in drama, which included an original composition, Faust Sonata. I spent the next six years working in the professional theatre, first at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and later as Head of Research at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. After that I taught acting at the nationally ranked Actor Training Program at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City before joining the faculty in the M.Litt/M.F.A. program in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance at Mary Baldwin College, in partnership with the American Shakespeare Center.
Teaching
My teaching began outside of academia, as Verse and Text Instructor for the “Guthrie Experience for Actors in Training” program. I have led workshops for professional actors at the Guthrie Theater, Horse Trade Theater Group (NYC), and I have been a guest artist at several acting conservatories across the USA. At the University of Utah I taught all levels of acting, Shakespeare, and audition technique. At Mary Baldwin College I taught M.F.A. courses in acting, directing and dramaturgy, as well as supervising M.Litt and M.F.A thesis projects. Here at the Shakespeare Institute I am Course Convenor for the MA Shakespeare and Theatre and MA Shakespeare and Education programmes.
Postgraduate supervision
I supervise research students with an interest in Early Modern and/or post-modern theatre practice. I am interested in supervising research that is practice-led.
Research
My research interests include acting, directing and dramaturgy, in the context of (but not limited to) the Early Modern drama. I direct plays by Shakespeare and contemporary playwrights, as well as devising original works, and physical theatre pieces.
Other activities
I have served as a dramaturge for various regional theatres in the United States. I co-founded Black Dog Theatre Company in 2002 with my husband, the actor Jan Knightley. I am a member of the Advisory Board for the new Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works.
Conferences
I have given workshops in performance at the Henry J. Leir Symposium in Luxembourg, the Shakespeare Forum in New York City, the Shakespeare Bulletin conference in Toronto, the Blackfriars Conference in Staunton Virginia, the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America conference at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the South Eastern Theatre Conference in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Interests
I play bass guitar (loudly and badly) and enjoy running with my dogs.
Publications
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Directing credits include: Antony and Cleopatra (for Performance Research Group); punkrock/lovesong (co-directed with Heidi Grumelot for Horse Trade Theater Group, NYC), Love’s Labour’s Lost, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing (for the American Shakespeare Center); Bash: Latterday Plays (with Juliet Rylance, at the Union Theatre) The River, Cowboy Mouth, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Mojo, and This Property Is Condemned (for Black Dog Productions); Ladies of Leeds, Stags and Hens, The Fox (for the Guthrie Theater), The Nearly Men (for Company One).
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Print: “The Early Modern Physical Theatre” in Speaking Pictures ( Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2010). I am co-editor of this volume, with Virginia Mason Vaughan and Fernando Cioni.
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Online: Globe Research Bulletins, accounts of the work of the acting companies at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, from 1999-2002.
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Forthcoming: New adaptation of Macbeth for three actors (work in progress, opens Summer 2011), Chapter on the “Actors’ Renaissance Season at the Blackfriars Playhouse”, in Performing Early Modern Drama Today, edited by Kathryn Prince and Pascale Aebischer (Cambridge University Press, to be published in 2011/12).