about
I am based in the North West of England and perform, devise and lead workshops in Clowning, Physical Theatre and Heritage Performance. My creative research has investigated clown performance, memory, laughter and Japanese Theatre. I teach Performance Studies, Physical Theatres and Acting for Motion Capture and supervise PhD projects at the University of Salford.
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Dr Kurt Zarniko shadows my research. This alter ego participates in my teaching and his voice operates as a form of playful institutional critique. There is a project about in-role teaching here​.
I am currently experimenting with clowning and puppetry in virtual/online environments. A new publication reports on workshops in multimedia performance in Alexandria, Egypt and at Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan.
I am also involved in the Arab Theatre Festival network. There is an article in Arabic about a clowning workshop in Tunisia here. And a symposium presentation at the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre in 2022 is available in this journal.
I create with and for community performers: please see this chapter in The Practical Handbook for Dementia (2022) on 'Virtual Clowning' or 'Teleplay'. There's also an entry on the 'Hat Snap' game in Liz Postlethwaite's Treasury of Arts Activities for Older People (Baring Foundation, 2021). Alongside this I made an oral history documentary film If My Memory Serves Me (2022) about Sefton Older People's Forum.
In addition to this practice research, I frequently collaborate with Ridiculusmus. I performed as an associate in The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Lapland, part of a trilogy of work about mental health therapies. I appeared in two previous shows with the company - The Exhibitionists (British Council Tour) and How To Be Funny (ICA & Vauxhall Tavern).
I frequently work with Carran Waterfield. Over the last 15 years we have been developing a performer training method with applications for Museums and Heritage Sites. I worked with The National Trust to develop a Performance Manual for volunteer curators which aims to improve the public experience of interactive performance at National Trust properties.
You'll find a chapter on digital clowning in Routledge Comedy Studies Reader (2019) and a chapter on immersive theatres in Freize, J. Ed. (2016) Framing Immersive Theatre. London: Palgrave. Through my PhD (Roehampton, 2009) The Clown Who Lost His Memory: Multiple Faces of the Clown in Practice and Theory, I curated clowning artefacts at the Herbert Museum, Coventry UK.