about
I am a performer, researcher and teacher working in the field of Physical Theatre and Physical Comedy. My research activities are predominantly practice-based, and often conducted through in-role and immersed performance in public spaces, heritage sites and studios. I research practices and topics related to clown performance, memory and laughter.
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 a project about in-role teaching here​.
I am currently experimenting with clowning and puppetry in virtual/online environments. In July 2023 I'll be working on this at Studio Kura, Itoshima. I gave a presentation at the conference on Technology and Theatre held during the Cairo Interntional Festival of Experimental Theatre in 2022, and an article is now available. I have a chapter in The Practical Handbook for Dementia (2022) on 'Virtual Clowning' or 'Teleplay', and an entry on the 'Hat Snap' game in Liz Postlethwaite's Treasury of Arts Activities for Older People (Baring Foundation, 2021). I am trying to make this approach accessible to community performers. Alongside this I made an oral history documentary film and book about Sefton Older People's Forum, at the time of QEIIs Jubilee events.
In addition to this practice research, I frequently collaborate and am a board member with Ridiculusmus. I performed as an associate in The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Lapland, part of a trilogy of work about mental illness therapies and 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, Heritage Sites, Care and Education settings. Associated with this, I working 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 in Routledge Comedy Studies Reader (2019) and interactive and immersive theatres - see my chapter in Freize, J. Ed. (2016) Framing Immersive Theatre. London: Palgrave. There an article in Arabic about a recent workshop in Tunisia here.
My PhD (Roehampton, 2009) The Clown Who Lost His Memory: Multiple Faces of the Clown in Practice and Theory, investigated the figure of the contemporary clown and its theoretical reflections and was conducted largely in role.