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This project fused Leeds research, the expertise of France's Théâtre du Soleil and the enthusiasm of Cambodian actors to create a series of international stagings of Hélène Cixous's Terrible But Unfinished Story of Norodom Sihanouk, an epic play about the Khmer Rouge genocide originally staged by Ariane Mnouchkine's Théâtre du Soleil in 1985.
Performances between 2010 and 2013 inspired widespread public discussion — notably in Cambodia — on factors leading to genocide, while demonstrating theatre's potential to foster political awareness. Its inclusion in the French school curriculum, and the creation of a vast publicly-accessible archive have been further impacts.
For the 32 actors who took part, the experience was life-changing.
For Professor Marina Warner literature acts as a cultural ambassador to open up dialogue in a globalised world riven by ideological and military conflict. She has used her research, which culminated in her multi-award-winning book Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights, to make a historical and cultural contribution to understanding the Middle East from the point of view of literary and artistic inter-relationships. She has used the extraordinary success of the book to raise public awareness through a series of international engagements. In the process she has addressed millions and contributed to cultural capital and debate worldwide. She has also directed the selection strategy of a major New York publisher, the Library of Arabic Literature.
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.
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.
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.
Professor Christopher Bannerman conceived this large-scale project as an extension of the ResCen mission to connect academia more intimately with the arts profession. The project promotes international communication and understanding between the UK, China and Taiwan linking Middlesex University with the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA), China National Academy for Arts Research (CNAAR) and Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA), amongst others. Through collaborative dance-making between choreographers and dancers from these countries, artists exchange perspectives and artistic and cultural paradigms, and present work to international audiences. In China and Taiwan, this develops platforms for experimenting with European artistic methods, and in the UK, it raises the profile of East Asian dance, art and culture, where these endeavours have been under-represented. Through online forums, discussions, seminars and conferences, the project opens dialogue about encounters with, and understandings of, the other. The project achieves reach and significance in conversation with policy-makers and producers in three sectors beyond HE: arts professional practice, cultural policy, and civil society. At its first stage the project was named Danscross, evolving into Artscross as further partners were involved. The project has taken the form of a series of intensive workshop/performance periods including discussion groups, lectures and symposia, linked by ongoing communication and exchange. Danscross 2009 and ArtsCross 2012 took place in Beijing, and ArtsCross 2011 and 2013 in Taipei and London respectively. See an overview published in Arts Professional (Bannerman 2013): http://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/magazine/268/article/bringing-it-all-back-home.
Professor Paul Heritage joined QMUL in 1996. His research over the last two decades has opened up new understandings of Brazil's transformative arts practices within the UK cultural sector. Through practice-based projects, his research continues to deepen and extend the understanding of innovative Brazilian arts practices in Britain. Heritage has forged new opportunities for UK arts practitioners to develop their work in Brazil and shaped new policy exchanges between ministerial/governmental and non-governmental organisations. His research engages with a diverse range of artists and cultural institutions, reaching over 50,000 people in the period since 2008 via performances/screenings/seminars/exhibitions/events. Through disseminating research into Brazilian culture policy and practices that have responded to extreme social crises, he has strengthened the British cultural sector's confidence in using art in the advancement of social development.
The British Asian Theatre Project (2004-2009), involved researchers from the Centre for Performance Histories and Cultures. The project charted and disseminated the cultural history and heritage of British Asian theatrical practitioners, enriching appreciation and preserving the heritage of British Asian theatre, partly by enabling theatre professionals to possess their own history more securely. Research findings were presented as part of industry debates, informing theatrical development. This led to a further research project, `The Southall Story' (2011-2013), which is documenting the cultural history of the art forms and political movements among the British Asian communities in Southall. There is further funding via the AHRC Follow On grant scheme for a touring exhibition and performances, emerging from `The Southall Story,' in the source culture of India, and on to Thailand. These projects are preserving and disseminating this public history through a public digital archive, and series of community and arts events in the UK and internationally. All the research is supported by AHRC funding, awarded after a rigorous peer-review process.
Over the last five years Dr Anne Witchard's research on the representations of China and the Chinese in Britain has generated considerable social, cultural and political impact on an international stage. The research has contributed significantly to international cultural relations between Britain and China, in particular through enhancing understanding of the social and historical ties between these nations. The research has also improved Britain's knowledge of its own multicultural history and altered public understanding of ethnic groups in contemporary urban Britain. Finally, the research has directly influenced the creative industries in their efforts to represent British-Chinese relations today.
In Place of War (IPoW) is a research project that has had substantial impact on civil society and cultural life worldwide by documenting, analysing and enhancing the work of war zone theatre practitioners. Paradoxically, in a context of globalisation, these artists are professionally and geographically isolated: indeed, it is often assumed that art cannot take place in a war zone, when in fact it remains a vital means of human expression during times of crisis. To overcome this relative invisibility, the project has helped professionals and organisations in several countries by building artist networks, developing resources for creative practice, and offering practitioner training. The project has also provided support for third sector agencies developing projects in this field, with the research enabling more context-sensitive planning of programmes. There has also been impact on public discourse, providing new insights about the role of artistic work in conflict situations and the esteem in which it is held, while contributing to the increased public profile of such work and its potential for global circulation.