Research and Development in British Theatre

Tom Cantrell is a Professor of Theatre and Head of the School of Arts and Creative Technologies at the University of York, UK. He has published widely on acting processes, including Acting in Documentary Theatre (Palgrave 2013), Acting in British Television (Palgrave 2017) and Exploring Television Acting (Bloomsbury 2018), co-written with Christopher Hogg.Katherine Graham is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York, UK, where her research focuses on the agency of materials in performance. She has also worked extensively as a lighting designer for theatre and dance and has published work about light in Theatre and Performance Design Journal, Studies in Theatre and Performance, and Contemporary Theatre Review. She is co-editor, with Kelli Zezulka and Scott Palmer, of Contemporary Performance Lighting: Experience, Creativity, Meaning (Bloomsbury 2023).Mark Love-Smith is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York, UK. He has research interests in devised and physical theatre, community theatre, and the interplay of writing, directing and devising. His latest publication is the Routledge Performance Practitioners book on Frantic Assembly, co-written with Professor Mark Evans.Karen Quigley is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre at the University of York, UK. Her first monograph, Performing the Unstageable: Success, Imagination, Failure was published by Bloomsbury in 2020. She has also published research on a range of subjects including site-specific performance, solo spectatorship, embodied voice, British television comedy and theatre-fiction.

This book is a revelation, enabling the reader to go up-stream and see the sources of shows from the first inklings in the minds of their makers. By mixing trenchant argument and analysis with insightful first-person interviews with key theatre folk, it builds to a compelling case for the need for R&D and a rallying cry for it to be funded.

• Foreword Jenny Sealey Introduction1. Warped virtuosity and wobbly visuals: skills-learning in R&D: Karen Quigley2. Interview with Selina Thompson3. R&D in public: Scratch at Battersea Arts Centre: Mark Love-Smith4. Interview with Gilly Roche5. R&D at the National Theatre Studio: London Road: Tom Cantrell6. Interview with Lillian Henley7. Percolating and plummeting: Artist perspectives on R&D: Deborah Pearson8. Interview with Rosemary Jenkinson9. Questions, materiality, and negotiation: the role of the designer in R&D: Katherine Graham10. Interview with Rosie Elnile11. Developing a dramaturgical praxis through repetitive R&D: Rebecca Benzie, Harry Kingscott, and Nora J. Williams12. Interview with Alex Kelly and Rachael Walton13. Movement direction as R&D: Ayse Tashkiran14. Interview with Georgina LambAfterword: Duška Radosavljevic