Drama Research

Research Areas

Performance practices: Actor training within a global context; mask performance and actor training with masks; dramatic writing and dramaturgy; writing for comedy; current directorial strategies; intersections of live performance and new media technologies.

Performance histories: the staging and interpretation of ancient Greek tragedy and comedy; opera, from Wagner to the present day; expressionist drama, opera and film from Appia and late Strindberg to Kaiser, Toller, Berg and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; expressionist drama, opera and film; nineteenth century popular theatre; twentieth century theatre (especially the Russian avant-garde and political theatre); circus and physical theatres; popular entertainments in the Victorian and Edwardian eras; Australian theatre; post-modern performance; gender and performance.

Theatre and cultural studies: Theories of culture and cultural production; theatre audiences (composition and reception); circus and culture; gender politics and self-fashioning; constructions of Shakespeare.

Community drama: History, theory and practice, with special reference to Australian work in the areas of community theatre and its relationship to social change; educational drama and youth theatre; drama and community development.

Musical theatre: Involving students in a collaborative creation encompassing all aspects of the production process.