I am a theatre historian whose work over a 60-year span has been preoccupied with illuminating English-language theatrical cultures and the larger social contexts in which theatres operated in the long nineteenth century, (e.g. from the 1760s until ca.1920). I further suggest, and indeed argue, that early motion pictures (i.e., “silent” film) were derived from the Victorian and Edwardian stage and that traces – rewarding glimpses – of the Victorian stage (which are otherwise known only through textual sources and static illustrations) are visible and recoverable on such films.
I do not accept the tired myth that theatre, growing stale, ran out of steam and was replaced by motion pictures. Theatre is a living breathing art which changes and adapts as cultures change. Further, my research has shown that the stage and film are linked in various ways and that, rather than perpetuating a narrative of separation, theatre and motion pictures have much in common and can be studied in tandem.
This website offers an invitation to scholars and students to note published work which relates to both pursuits and invites questions, challenges, and, if possible, guidance to their own further research.
Teaching Work And Focus
Current
Emeritus Professor of Drama & Research Professor,
University of Manchester, U.K.
Previous
1993-96 Professor of Drama, University of Manchester
1980-1993, Reader in Drama, University of Manchester
1976-80 Senior Lecturer in Drama, University of Manchester
1972-76 Lecturer in Drama, University of Manchester
1971-72 Lecturer in English, University of Warwick
1968-69 Visiting Lecturer in Drama, University of Bristol
1960-68 Instructor, Assistant Professor, and Associate Professor of Theatre and Drama, Lawrence University, Wisconsin, U.S.A.
1959-60 Instructor in Theatre Arts, Denison University, Ohio, U.S.A.
Teaching at Manchester University
Undergraduate: Subjects (course titles) include: Popular Theatre of the Industrial and Post-Industrial Ages, Popular Stage into Popular Screen, Theatre and Silent Film, Performing Melodrama, Quasi-theatrical Leisure, Spectacle, Classical Theatre, Practical Theatre Criticism, 'The New Woman' in British Drama, Spanish Theatre of the Golden Age, Contemporary Spanish Theatre, Shakespeare in His Age, Prescribed Texts, Concepts of Theatre, Theoretical/practical workshops on the uses of "evidence" in historiography and dramaturgy, Dissertation supervision.
Postgraduate: Diploma in Drama courses: Playwriting, Theoretical/practical workshops on the uses of "evidence" in historiography and dramaturgy, Performance Art Archives and Collections Study, Occasional lecture/seminars for History of Art Gallery and Museums Study, Regular supervision of M.Phil. and Ph.D. research students.
Elsewhere: Postgraduate (Ph.D.) supervision in British theatre for Faculty of English, Oxford University (St.Edmund Hall and Oriel College), 1990-1993, U. of Connecticut 2009-2012.