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Professor Rebellato's research has been a significant factor in the revival of Terence Rattigan's reputation as a serious playwright, impacting on a wave of high-profile productions from 1998-2013. He has impacted on two groups of beneficiaries identified in the Department's Impact Strategy:
Elizabeth Kuti's writing has had an impact on the public's understanding of eighteenth-century literature by bringing an important part of the British heritage alive again for twenty-first century audiences. As an eighteenth-century scholar and a playwright, she works with what performance records tell us were unperformed, or rarely performed, dramas. She creatively restores these forgotten eighteenth-century plays, and has even completed an unfinished comedy from 1764. She also dramatises the lives and writings of well-known eighteenth-century public figures. To these ends, she has collaborated with the Theatre Royal in Bury St. Edmunds, the National Portrait Gallery, and the BBC. Her work has given the public an important opportunity to see rare eighteenth-century plays and to understand this period better through the historically-inspired drama she has written for the stage and radio.
Donald Rayfield's biography of Chekhov, Anton Chekhov: A life has transformed Russia's understanding of its cultural icon, as attested by the fact that the Russian government has bought 200 copies of it to disseminate among higher education institutions. The biography has achieved this: 1. by challenging myths about the great humanity of the playwright and stimulating public debate around this — both in Russia and further afield — in light of the facts it unearthed about Chekhov's tumultuous private life, which had been excised from Soviet editions of his works and correspondence; and 2. by inspiring filmmakers, theatre directors and actors to create new works that disseminate new interpretations of Chekhov's personality and of the relationship between his writings and his life.
When Hand and Wilson commenced research into Grand-Guignol in the late 1990s, it was a neglected topic in academic studies and a largely forgotten or misunderstood form in both theatrical circles and the popular imagination. Hand and Wilson have unraveled the myths surrounding the Grand-Guignol to explain in unprecedented depth this unique phenomenon in popular theatre and horror culture. Hand and Wilson have had a major role in the renaissance of the form in academia and also in the professional theatre and media. Their research has enjoyed extensive media coverage and the plays the authors have published have been performed internationally.
Laura Bradley's research on GDR theatre censorship (2006-) enabled the University of Edinburgh to stage The Stasi are Among Us at the Glasgow Film Festival (2011). This two-day event increased public understanding of East German culture, showing how artists participated in censorship and how it affected their working lives: 95% of the audience agreed that they had learned more about GDR culture and/or censorship. The event's success led the Glasgow Film Festival's Artistic Director to choose Germany as the country focus for the 2012 Festival. Bradley has collaborated with Theatre Found on events campaigning against present-day censorship in Belarus and Iran, using the recent East German experience to explore control mechanisms and show how they were abolished.
Research findings on the lives and work of Edith Craig (1869-1947), lesbian theatre director and suffragette, and her mother, Ellen Terry (1847-1928), internationally celebrated Shakespearean actor have been shared with members of the public, family history researchers and members of Equity (the actors' union) through talks, a conference and documented use of the AHRC Ellen Terry and Edith Craig database (20,000 records). This online database has had a significant impact on the preservation and worldwide accessibility of one of the most significant theatre archives in the UK. It has assisted members of the public in genealogical research, raised awareness of women's enfranchisement, promoted citizenship and inspired public performance of original drama.
Research undertaken at the University of East London has confronted the historical lack of documentation, representation and participation in the British theatre by ethnic minority communities, with particular reference to the British Asian community. This work has been used to create and shape the production of important new theatre pieces, as well as to engage and develop new young and diverse audiences for them. Workshops, post-show discussions and symposia relating to the production of these pieces have increased the engagement of these new audiences both with theatre generally, and with the often sensitive, contested, and politically-charged subject-matter of the specific pieces under review. The research has also been used as the basis for the development and delivery of professional development training for emerging theatre artists from minority community backgrounds.
The Stanislavski Centre,(Patron, Prof. Anatoly Smeliansky), founded 2007, responds to the Stanislavski legacy and post-Stanislavski approaches to acting and provides a research-driven facility promoting and developing a new field of `Stanislavski Studies' within an international context. The Centre acts as a conduit enabling professional practice and scholarly research to interact, enrich and inform each other. Based upon the pioneering research, translations and publications of RBC's former Principal, Professor Jean Benedetti, the Centre, guided by a distinguished advisory board, includes an archive of photographic, printed and AV materials and hosts an annual programme of events open to the public. In 2012, the centre launched an ejournal, Stanislavski Studies. (bit.ly/Iu8VVo)
Allan Owens has worked worldwide to bring drama into the professions. He has developed an artistic form that has impacted in a wide range of contexts including the social sector, in education, health, and public service, and also in private business. The trajectory of his research and practice has been concerned with pioneering the use of pre-text based process drama as a form of artistic initiative beyond mainstream education. The underlying research consists of authored articles and pre-texts which were part of the 2008 RAE submission classed as `internationally recognised with world leading elements'.
This case study documents the impact of practice-as-research into playwriting methodologies engaging multiple voices as expressive of the instability of auto/biography and the social/political construction of the self. This research has had a national and international impact on the cultural life, the quality of life and education. The impact was initiated at the anniversary event of the Goethe-Institute (Dresden and Mühlheim) in celebration of the twenty years since the fall of the Berlin Wall; the impact has been continuing and, apart from a life in the theatre, has resulted in the inclusion of the script in German language tuition at A-Level (Routes Into Languages Project).