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This case study draws together a number of research projects led by members of the UoA whose work has had shared thematic goals. Collectively, this research has impacted upon the UK theatre industry's understanding of its international influence. This has served to promote and champion a vibrant culture of international new playwriting in the UK, and also to disperse positive practices internationally to encourage equally vibrant playwriting cultures in communities abroad. The research has had effects on the cultural capital of key institutions that support international playwriting and its growth; and formative impact on the praxis of translation and adaptation in the theatre industry.
The principal beneficiaries of the impact are key industry institutions and organisations who have a stake in the development of new playwriting, its funding and its outreach (the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic, the Old Vic, ACE, the British Council, etc.).
Direct impact is in the transfer of knowledge to industry and NGO stakeholders. Secondary impact is in the implementation of policy and procedure by those organisations (establishing initiatives; moving into new territories). Indirect and long-term impact will be felt by arts practitioners, audiences and theatres internationally. Additional spin-off and associated research enquiries are also likely to use this research as a springboard for further enquiry.
Through providing the first English translations of several Polish plays, which she has published and staged, and through devising performances based on family interviews about Polish deportation during World War II, the University of Reading's Dr Teresa Murjas (Lecturer 2002- ) has:
a) provided educational resources to UK Polish and other schoolchildren
b) made aspects of Polish culture and history accessible to Anglophone audiences for the first time, and
c) in partnership with the main centre for the UK Polish diaspora, POSK, has enriched the cultural heritage of both specific diasporic and general audiences.
In addition, Murjas' methodology has influenced Dr Ashley Thorpe (University of Reading Lecturer 2004-2013) in his practice-as-research production, which engaged the Chinese-British community in a re-evaluation of aspects of their cultural heritage. Thorpe's production continued his ongoing embodied research which disseminates Chinese performance traditions to UK based Chinese and wider communities.
Research undertaken by Dr Peter Thompson at the University of Sheffield into the role of religion in society, and specifically focusing on atheism, Marxism, Ernst Bloch and the Frankfurt School, has led to new public interest in an atheist philosophy which goes beyond the "new atheist" paradigm. The work has attracted national media interest, and as a result of this, Thompson has become a regular contributor for The Guardian, with 34 columns in the `Comment is Free' section on religious and philosophical matters, all derived directly from his recent research into atheism, attracting 9-10,000 comments which have been read by at least 75,000 individuals. Indicative of Thompson's work are comments such as "Thank-you [...] for introducing an ordinary, non-academic person like myself, to interesting concepts like 'reification' [...]. I will have to read your whole series of articles now. Although philosophy appears, to someone like me, to be complex and remote, you have managed to explain the concepts of the Frankfurt School in such a lucid and engaging way that I will now have to read more on this subject." (13 May 2013). Developing his research on Bloch and religion has also led to Thompson co-editing a book with Slavoj Žižek, whose role as a public intellectual further strengthens the reach of Thompson's own research. Related to this work are further articles by Thompson in the Church Times, and a BBC Radio 3 documentary on atheist playwright Georg Büchner written and presented by Thompson (listening figure 100,000).
The AHRC-funded British Grotowski Project has enhanced international theatre practice and the teaching of theatre in schools, as well as broadening cultural understanding in the UK.
The project enabled the development of new theoretical and embodied understanding of Jerzy Grotowski's oeuvre within and beyond the theatre profession, enhancing theatre skills in actor training and directing amongst professional practitioners, schoolteachers and pupils. Many project events took place under the auspices of the Polish government's Polska! Year in the UK and UNESCO's Year of Grotowski, both 2009, which broadened the global impact.
This case study describes the impact of making academic knowledge of Spanish-language theatre widely available so that it creates opportunities for translation, performance and learning. Since 2008, the AHRC-funded project `Out of the Wings' has provided the English-language theatre professional with access to thoroughly researched and contextualized information about Spanish-language theatre that is fit for professional purpose through a database that provides comprehensive information for and about translators, writers, key practitioners and scholars. The work has created the environment for engagement with previously unknown theatre, resulting in new translations, the development of methodologies for the rehearsal of the translated text and the creation of new audiences.
The range, quantity and quality of Hispanic theatre production, film exhibition and cultural understanding in the UK has been significantly enhanced by the research on Spanish-language stage and screen cultures by Professor Maria Delgado (at QMUL since 1997). The body of knowledge she has generated has led to significant impact in three key areas: i) opening up public discourse on Hispanic cultures; ii) improving the programming and circulation of Spanish-language theatre and film; and iii) contributing to creative and economic prosperity through consultancy and advocacy in the creative industries in the UK and Spain.
Professor Sinclair's project on `Wrongdoing in Spain 1800-1936' explores the difference between cultural representations of wrongdoing and their underlying realities, and includes the digitization and cataloguing of c4500 items of popular Spanish material held at the University Library, Cambridge (UL), and the British Library (BL). This contributes significantly to the conservation, stewardship, and enhanced accessibility of this ephemeral material, increasingly valued and recognized as important in Spain as part of its social history and heritage. Digitization also makes this fragile material available to support teaching. An exhibition of this material and comparable material in English runs at the UL, Cambridge April — December 2013, strongly supported by a virtual exhibition. Public engagement events extend the understanding of the relevance of this material to modern Britain.