BA (Hons)

Staff Research

Sean Aita

Sean’s research publications primarily focus on inter-cultural performance, performance pedagogy and rural theatre and include articles in the International peer reviewed journals RIDE (Research in Drama Education); Scenario: The journal for drama and theatre in second language education and The Journal of arts and communities. He has also been involved through the European Off Network of Independent Theatre in editing a publication exploring the relationship between performance and conflict Theatre in times of war. Recent work includes a chapter in a forthcoming publication Playing to the critics: Film acting and theory and EU funded Shakespeare project in Austria.

Ellie Nixon

Ellie is currently undertaking a PhD in Performance Practice at the University of Exeter, which focuses on the relationship between the body and the imagination within theatre devising practices. Her research interrogates how methods and strategies developed in her own practice are informed by French theatre pedagogue Jacques Lecoq’s notion of the ‘poetic body’.

Katharine Piercey

Katharine is currently undertaking a part time M.A. in Devised Performance at the University of Winchester. Her research this year has focused on how auto-biography and text deconstruction can be used in devised performances, and also how the investigation of location and space can inform the creation of site-specific theatre.

Research Illustration: A visual construct to image Shakespeare’s words.

‘Summer’s honey breath’. Imaging Shakespeare’s words. (Photo Dave Powell. Art work Nick Franklin. Actress Jaimmie Bird).

Petronilla Whitfield

Petronilla is currently pursuing a PhD at Warwick University’s Institute of Education, with supervisor Professor Jonothan Neelands. Her research focuses on supporting the acting student assessed as dyslexic in accessing text – particularly Shakespeare. She is currently investigating the building of visual constructs as a tool for realising the text.

In 2009, Petronilla won a Teaching and Learning Development Award from the AUCB to support her building of a computer tool for acting students with dyslexia, to support the reading and acting of Shakespeare.

Petronilla has also devised a computer programme to assist students in the learning of phonetics. This can be accessed at https://www.wonderfulworldofphonetics.co.uk/

Publications:

Whitfield, P. (2009). Shakespeare, Pedagogy and Dyslexia. In Cooke,R (ed )The Moving Voice: The Integration of Voice and Movement Studies Essays on Voice and Speech, USA, Publication of the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association/University Readers.

Conference Presentations:

• 2011 Cambridge University Shakespeare international conference ‘Sources and Adaptations’.Title: ‘Sensing Shakespeare through technology, adaptation and visualisation- supporting the dyslexic student in accessing text’
• 2010 Key speaker at the Teaching and Learning conference at the Arts University College.Title: ‘Excavating Text through Technology: pronouncing words visually, kinaesthetically and sensorially’.
• 2008 Speaker at the Learning and Teaching Conference at the Arts University College.Title: ‘Dyslexia, Shakespeare and Pedagogy’.
• 2007 Speaker at the Learning and Teaching Conference at the Arts University College.Title: ‘Shakespeare and Syllabus in Higher Education’.