Katie Beswick – författare

Slags on Stage weaves cultural analysis with poetry and art criticism to explore the concept of the ‘slag’ and its place in contemporary British culture.The book traces the etymology of the word slag through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, thinking through the ways ‘slag’ speaks to issues of class, sex and desire. Broadly, slag is an insult bound up with women’s sexual reputations – but beyond this it is a ‘key’ word that shapes the ways we debate and understand what it means to be a woman. For women who came of age in the United Kingdom in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries ‘slag’ produces complex feelings and has influenced how we have come to know ourselves and understand our sexual and quotidian desires. This book explores the terrain of slag and includes analyses of artworks by artists who have invoked the slag in their practice, including Tracey Emin, Cash Carraway and Michaela Coel. Covering the cultural politics of clothing, motherhood, television representations, sexual assault, sex work and desire, Slags on Stage asks: what role does the ‘slag’ play in British culture? Who is she for? And how have women used sex and sexuality to have their own say in cultures that want to control them?This is a fascinating exploration for students and scholars of British drama, theatre and performance, cultural studies and sociology.

Slags on Stage weaves cultural analysis with poetry and art criticism to explore the concept of the ‘slag’ and its place in contemporary British culture.The book traces the etymology of the word slag through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, thinking through the ways ‘slag’ speaks to issues of class, sex and desire. Broadly, slag is an insult bound up with women’s sexual reputations – but beyond this it is a ‘key’ word that shapes the ways we debate and understand what it means to be a woman. For women who came of age in the United Kingdom in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries ‘slag’ produces complex feelings and has influenced how we have come to know ourselves and understand our sexual and quotidian desires. This book explores the terrain of slag and includes analyses of artworks by artists who have invoked the slag in their practice, including Tracey Emin, Cash Carraway and Michaela Coel. Covering the cultural politics of clothing, motherhood, television representations, sexual assault, sex work and desire, Slags on Stage asks: what role does the ‘slag’ play in British culture? Who is she for? And how have women used sex and sexuality to have their own say in cultures that want to control them?This is a fascinating exploration for students and scholars of British drama, theatre and performance, cultural studies and sociology.

Three old friends in their mid-twenties. One remarkable day. For Ted, Danny and Charlotte, it’s time to seize control. Make a difference. Change things. This is it.A day trip through the parks and raves and cafes of South London, where life is what you make it. The rapid-fire words of Kate Tempest paint a picture of lives less ordinary in an unforgiving world, soundtracked by an exhilarating score.A play about love, life and losing your mind, Wasted heralded the dramatic career of one of the UK’s most exciting performance poets, Kate Tempest. It was originally produced by Paines Plough and is published here as a Methuen Drama Student Edition alongside commentary and notes by Katie Beswick, lecturer in Drama at the University of Exeter.The ancillary material is geared at students and includes:- an introduction outlining the play's plot, character, themes context and performance history- the full text of the play- a chronology of the playwright's life and work- extensive textual notes

This book explores the ways that council estates have been represented in England across a range of performance forms. Drawing on examples from mainstream, site-specific and resident-led performance works, it considers the political potential of contemporary performance practices concerned with the council estate. Depictions of the council estate are brought into dialogue with global representations of what Chris Richardson and Hans Skott-Myhre call the 'hood', to tease out the specific features of the British context and situate the work globally. Katie Beswick's study provides a timely contribution to the ongoing national and global interest in social housing. As the housing market grows ever more insecure, and estates are charged with political rhetoric, theatre and socially engaged art set or taking place on estates takes on a new potency. Mainstream theatre works examined include Rita, Sue and Bob Too and A State Affair at the Soho Theatre, Port at the National Theatre, and DenMarked at the Battersea Arts Centre. The book also explores the National Youth Theatre’s Slick and Roger Hiorns' Seizure, as well as community-based and resident led performances by Fourthland, Jordan McKenzie, Fugitive Images and Jane English.

Making Hip Hop Theatre is the essential, practical guide to making hip-hop theatre. It features detailed techniques and exercises that can guide creatives from workshops through to staging a performance. If you were inspired by Hamilton, Barber Shop Chronicles, Misty, Black Men Walking or Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster, this is the book for you.Covering vocal technique, use of equipment, mixing, looping, sampling, working with venues and dealing with creative challenges, this book is a bible for both new and experienced artists alike. Additionally, with links to online video material demonstrating and elaborating on the exercises included, it offers countless useful tools for teachers and facilitators of drama, music and other creative arts.Alongside this practical guidance is an overview of hip hop history, giving theoretical and historical context for the practice. From documentation of Conrad Murray’s major productions, to commentary from leading practitioners including Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, David Jubb, Emma Rice, Tobi Kyeremateng and Paula Varjack, readers are treated to a detailed insight into the background of hip hop theatre.Edited by scholar Katie Beswick and genre pioneer Conrad Murray, Making Hip Hop Theatre is a vital teaching tool and provides a much-needed account of a burgeoning aspect of contemporary theatre culture.

Making Hip Hop Theatre is the essential, practical guide to making hip-hop theatre. It features detailed techniques and exercises that can guide creatives from workshops through to staging a performance. If you were inspired by Hamilton, Barber Shop Chronicles, Misty, Black Men Walking or Frankenstein: How to Make a Monster, this is the book for you.Covering vocal technique, use of equipment, mixing, looping, sampling, working with venues and dealing with creative challenges, this book is a bible for both new and experienced artists alike. Additionally, with links to online video material demonstrating and elaborating on the exercises included, it offers countless useful tools for teachers and facilitators of drama, music and other creative arts.Alongside this practical guidance is an overview of hip hop history, giving theoretical and historical context for the practice. From documentation of Conrad Murray’s major productions, to commentary from leading practitioners including Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, David Jubb, Emma Rice, Tobi Kyeremateng and Paula Varjack, readers are treated to a detailed insight into the background of hip hop theatre.Edited by scholar Katie Beswick and genre pioneer Conrad Murray, Making Hip Hop Theatre is a vital teaching tool and provides a much-needed account of a burgeoning aspect of contemporary theatre culture.

'One way of describing Educating Rita would be to say that it was about the meaning of education ... Another would be to say that it was about the meaning of life. A third, that it is a cross between Pygmailion and Lucky Jim. A fourth, that it is simply a marvellous play, painfully funny and passionately serious; a hilarious social documentary; a fairy-tale with a quizzical, half-happy ending.' Sunday TimesThis new student edition includes an introduction covering the play's context; chronology; dramatic devices; critical reception; production history; and key themes such as class and identity, popular culture and education. Educating Rita portrays a working-class Liverpool woman's hunger for education. It premiered at the RSC Warehouse, London, in 1980 and won the SWET award for Best Comedy of the Year. It was subsequently made into a highly successful film with Michael Caine and Julie Walters and won the 1983 BAFTA award for Best Film.Commentary and notes by Katie Beswick, University of the Arts London.

This collection of three hip hop plays by Conrad Murray and his Beats & Elements collaborators Paul Cree, David Bonnick Junior and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, is the first publication of the critically acclaimed theatre-maker’s work. The three plays use hip hop to highlight the inequalities produced by the UK’s class system, and weave lyricism, musicality and dialogue to offer authentic accounts of inner-city life written by working-class Londoners. The plays are accompanied by two introductory essays: The first gives a specific social and historical context that helps readers make sense of the plays, the second positions hip hop as a contemporary literary form and offers some ways to read hip hop texts as literature. The collection also includes a foreword by leading hip hop theatre practitioner Jonzi D, interviews with the Beats & Elements company, and a glossary of words for students and international readers.

This collection of three hip hop plays by Conrad Murray and his Beats & Elements collaborators Paul Cree, David Bonnick Junior and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, is the first publication of the critically acclaimed theatre-maker’s work. The three plays use hip hop to highlight the inequalities produced by the UK’s class system, and weave lyricism, musicality and dialogue to offer authentic accounts of inner-city life written by working-class Londoners. The plays are accompanied by two introductory essays: The first gives a specific social and historical context that helps readers make sense of the plays, the second positions hip hop as a contemporary literary form and offers some ways to read hip hop texts as literature. The collection also includes a foreword by leading hip hop theatre practitioner Jonzi D, interviews with the Beats & Elements company, and a glossary of words for students and international readers.

This short book gives an overview of the relationship between class and musical theatre in Britain, and how the class system plays out through industry practices.Beginning with an analysis of the 2001 London production of My Fair Lady as an example of class representation, Class in British Musical Theatre argues how productions are marketed to particular groups, how audience segmentation practices feed into a classed discourse, and how all this shapes how musical theatre as a genre is received. It takes in contemporary musicals such as Everybody's Talking About Jamie and Matilda and looks back to Oh, What a Lovely War!. Published in the Topics in Musical Theatre series, this short book gives the reader new ways of seeing the aesthetically and politically capacious category of class in musical theatre from a fresh perspective.