Dr Joanna Bucknall BA (Hons), MA, PhD, PGCTLHE & Fellow of the HEA

• Fellow of the Higher Education Authority
• PGCLTHE
• PhD
• MA Theatre Today
• BA (Hons) 1st Class in Drama & Theatre

Since completing my PhD at the University of Winchester in 2011 I have been concerned with exploring, making and understanding work that includes its audiences in fundamental ways. I have collaborated with The Barbican in Plymouth, Camden People’s Theatre, The Basement in Brighton, Performing Arts Centre Lincoln, the New Theatre Royal in Portsmouth, ArtReach UK, the British Red Cross, Coastguard Studio, Big Adventures and Battersea Arts Centre. I am concerned with exploring work that includes its audiences in fundamental ways.

• Theatre Practice
• Writing for Performance
• Performance Text Workshop
• Performance Project

I am the convenor for Applied Theatre

Balça, Jorge (2017 completed), ‘When a Voice Is Not Enough: the existentialist opera performer as auteur’, PhD Thesis, Portsmouth, UK: University of Portsmouth. I was the second supervisor offering support on PaR methodologies and documentation.
Smith, Victoria (expected completion 2019), ‘Painting on film: An interdisciplinary and performative exploration of Stan Brakhage’s hand-painted films’. PhD Thesis, Portsmouth, UK: University of Portsmouth. I am the second supervisor offering support on embodied and phenomenological methodologies and performative documentation.
Hayes, Laura, (Expected completion 2018). ‘Relationship between devised theatre and written performance script in the UK’, MA by Research at the University of Birmingham. I am the second supervisor, offering expertise in PaR and phenomenological methodologies.

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Find out more - our PhD Drama and Theatre Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

My primary research interests are in the following areas: production and reception theory of experimental contemporary performance; specifically, immersive, one on one, micro performance & participative dramaturgies. I am interested in explicating the nature of risk and investment in such dramaturgies and the implications of that upon the nature of the audience’s role. Practice as research (PaR) in performance that interrogates the nature of the audience in liminal spaces through liminoid acts and invitations. PaR theory, specifically the documentation of PaR through performative and intermediality. I am also concerned with exploring performative ways to document and archive a variety of localised histories and heritage. I have been working as a practice-based scholar since 2006 and in that time, I have produced PaR projects with both of my companies.

At present, I am developing and securing funding for an international immersive performance network, (IPN) in collaboration with Battersea Arts Centre and Dr Adam Alston at the University of Surrey.

 

I am the producer and host of a monthly podcast series called Talking About Immersive Theatre (TAIT), where I travel around the UK meeting immersive theatre makers, producers and performers in their natural habitats to chat with them about all things immersive.

• Talking About Immersive Theatre podcasts
• @taitpodcast

Founded by me in 2005, Vertical Exchange. (VEX) is a performance collective. Nigel Tuttle, Kirsty Mills and myself are the core members but we collaborate with a range of different artists, makers and practitioners depending on the project. We make work that is audience-centric; immediate, intimate and interactive.

• VEX Twitter @PlaywithMeART 

KeepHouse Performance are a PaR company that seek to interrogate autobiography and heritage; particularly in relation to female representation and domesticity. KeepHouse Performance is a company that explores contemporary issues through interdisciplinary approaches. We are keen to record and document our processes in innovative and interactive ways. KeepHouse Performance was founded in 2011 by me and Dr Karen Savage.

 

UoB Admin role: Staff student committee liaison for Theatre Arts.

I am a member of TaPRA & IFTR.