The Editors
Simon Murray is a theatre practitioner and academic, currently working as a Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies/Contemporary Performance in the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow. Previously Director of Theatre at Dartington College of Arts, he trained with Monika Pagneux, Philippe Gaulier and other movement theatre practitioners in the 1980’s and ‘90’s. Many of his publications (e.g. Jacques Lecoq 2003, Physical Theatres: A Critical Introduction 2007 and 2015 [2nd edition] and Physical Theatres: A Critical Reader 2007 [both with John Keefe]) have engaged with the histories and practices of performer training. In recent years he has written more widely on lightness in performance, WG Sebald and contemporary performance and the (sometimes) deceptive allure of collaboration. He is currently working on a new book entitled Performing Ruins as part of the Performing Landscapes series, edited by Dee Heddon and Sally Mackey.
Jonathan Pitches is Professor of Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries. He specialises in the study of performer training and has wider interests in intercultural performance, environmental performance and blended learning. He has published several books on performer training: Vsevolod Meyerhold (2003), Science and the Stanislavsky Tradition of Acting (2006/9) and Russians in Britain (2012) (all Routledge). He is currently working on three new books, Stanislavsky in the World (with Dr Stefan Aquilina 2016, Bloomsbury), Great Stage Directors Vol 3 (2017, Bloomsbury) and Performing Landscapes: Mountains (2018, Palgrave).
Training Grounds Editors
Laura Bissell is a Lecturer in Contemporary Performance Practice within the School of Drama at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She is a visiting lecturer on the MRes in Creative Practices programme at Glasgow School of Art and has taught on the Transart Institute MFA in Berlin. Laura’s research interests include: contemporary performance practices and methodologies; technology and performance; live art; feminist performance and performance and journeys and she has presented her research on contemporary practices at conferences nationally and internationally.
Kate Craddock is a Senior Lecturer in Performing Arts at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. As a theatre maker and practice-led researcher, Kate interrogates concepts of collaboration, and is co-artistic director of mouth to mouth, a group of globally dispersed performing artists who utilise domestic web based technologies as tools for performance. Kate also has a solo performance practice, and has performed in a number of international theatre festival contexts. Kate is the founder and Festival Director of GIFT: Gateshead International Festival of Theatre.
Dick McCaw was co-founder of the Actors Touring Company in 1978, and of the Medieval Players in 1981. Between 1993 and 2001 he was Director of the International Workshop Festival. Since 2002 he has been an independent researcher and Senior Lecturer (part-time) at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is contributing editor of The Laban Sourcebook (Routledge: 2011) and has been commissioned to edit the Complete Laban Toolkit (Nick Hern Books).
Maria Kapsali is Lecturer in Physical Performance at the University of Leeds. She trained in a number of psychophysical disciplines, such as Kalaripayattu and Tai Chi with Phillip Zarrilli, Body Mind Centering with Linda Hartley, Feldenkrais with Richard Cave, and Iyengar Yoga with Silvia Prescott, and is herself a qualified Iyengar Yoga teacher. Her PhD thesis both examined the use of yoga by key theatre practitioners and practically experimented with ways in which yoga can be used towards pre-performative as well as performative purposes. Alongside her teaching she is currently working on a co-authored DVD-Booklet on yoga and actor training (Routledge 2015).
Royona Mitra is Lecturer in Theatre at Brunel University London. Her PhD, from Royal Holloway, University of London (2011), is on the British-Bangladeshi artist Akram Khan and her monograph Akram Khan: Dancing New Interculturalism was published in May 2015 (Palgrave). Royona trained in classical and contemporary South Asian dance in India and specialised in physical theatre in the UK. She was the founding member and performer with Kinaetma Theatre, an intercultural physical theatre company that made work between India, UK and Portugal from 2002 to 2007. Her research interests include Intercultural Performance, Dance and the Diaspora, Contemporary South Asian Dance and Physical Theatre/Dance Theatre.
Thomas JM Wilson is a Module/Year Coordinator for BA European Theatre Arts at Rose Bruford College, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Initially training in Equestrian Vaulting he competed at European-level in the mid-1990s. Subsequently he has engaged in practices rooted in the intersection between dance and theatre methodologies, working as both a performer and director/choreographer in a range of contexts. Thomas served on Oxford Dance Forum’s Steering Group (2008-10) and has regularly contributed to Total Theatre Magazine since 2001. He is an Associate of Gandini Juggling working as their Archivist and Publications Author.
The Contributors
Edith Cassiers obtained a Bachelor in Dutch - Theater, Film and Literature Studies and a Masters’ degree in Theater and Film Studies at the University of Antwerp. In 2010, she was an assistant-dramaturge for Jan Fabre for the production Prometheus Landscape II. From 2011 until 2013 she has worked as a researcher for the Antwerp theatre institute Laboratorium/Troubleyn, which studies artistic methodologies of “the performer of the 21st century”, including the acting method of Jan Fabre. Currently, she is a fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and is preparing a PhD within the project The Didascalic Imagination about contemporary theatrical notebooks (UA/VUB).
Alissa Clarke is Senior Lecturer in Drama at De Montfort University, Leicester. She holds an AHRC-funded PhD from the University of Exeter. She has been practising Phillip Zarrilli’s psychophysical performer training since 2002 and has been involved with Sandra Reeve’s ‘Move into Life’ work since 2005. Alongside psychophysical performance and performer training, her research interests include: contemporary body-based performance practice, feminist and gender theory and performance practice (live and on film), and documentation of performance. She has published articles in these areas in journals including The Drama Review and The Journal of Writing in Creative Practice.
Charlotte De Somviele is a researcher and teaching assistant at the University of Antwerp (Research Centre for Visual Poetics). She has published about contemporary performing arts in a.o. Documenta and Prospero European Review and worked as a dramaturge of Johan Leysen for Theâtres de la ville de Luxembourg. She also works as a freelance dance critic for a.o. the newspaper De Standaard, and is co-editor-in-chief of Etcetera, Flanders leading performing arts magazine.
Jan Gielen works as a musculoskeletal radiologist at Antwerp University Hospital (UZA) with special interest in radiological imaging of sports lesions. Since October 2006 he has been docent at Antwerp University (UA). He organized the STMS (Society for Tennis Medicine and Science) congress in 2007 Antwerp and the EFSMA-congress this year. He is past president and treasurer of the “Flemish society of Sports Medicine” (VVS). Currently, he is preparing a book Nuclear Medicine and Radiological Imaging in Sports Injuries (2015 Springer Verlag) and Image Guided Intra- and Extra-articular Musculoskeletal Interventions (2015 Springer Verlag).
Ann Hallemans obtained a PhD in Sciences at the University of Antwerp studying the biomechanical determinants of the development of bipedal gait in humans (2005). Currently she works as coordinator of the M²OCEAN movement analysis lab (UAntwerpen), combining research activities with teaching responsibilities in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences. Her own research focuses on the neuro-mechanical control of movement and on the important role of balance and postural control. While performing her research activities she gained experience in 3D experimental data collection and movement analysis as well as biomechanical modelling.
Deborah Leveroy completed her PhD in the drama department at the University of Kent. Her PhD research focused on dyslexia within the context of drama training and the acting profession. She is a dyslexia and acting tutor at Arts Ed, ALRA, the Actors Centre and the Actors Guild. Her publications include Dyslexia and Sight Reading for Actors in Dyslexia, Music and other Performing Arts (British Dyslexia Association). As an actor, Deborah trained at Drama Studio London and worked with companies including Creative Partnerships, Underbelly, Nimble Fish and Traffic of the Stage.
Arjun Raina is an actor, playwright and Kathakali performer of international repute having written and created original works of the theatre which have been performed worldwide. (www.arjunraina.com). He is also a visiting acting teacher at the National School of Drama, New Delhi, India. As India’s leading voice and accent coach he has written and published two books Speakeasy (Full Circle) and Speakright for a Call Center job (Penguin India). Arjun now lives and works in Australia. He is a practice-based PhD Candidate at Flinders University, Adelaide working under the supervision of Dr. William Peterson. His research is supported by the Flinders University Research Grant.
Nathalie Roussel graduated as Master of Science in Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven in 2000 and obtained a PhD at the faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Antwerp in 2009. She works as an Assistant Professor in the department of Rehabilitation Sciences & Physiotherapy, University of Antwerp. As head of the division of Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy, she combines teaching and research. Her main research focuses are control of movement and the relationship between pain and movement in patients with low back pain and in performing arts. She has published more than 30 peer-reviewed publications as (co-)author and is regularly invited to present her results at congresses.
Jonas Rutgeerts is a dramaturge and performance theorist who studied Philosophy at the KU Leuven and dramaturgy at the University of Amsterdam. He is currently working as FWO-fellow at the Institute of Philosophy (KU Leuven) making a PHD on the concept of rhythm as an artistic and theoretical tool in contemporary choreography. As a dramaturge he collaborates amongst others with Ivana Müller, David-Weber Krebs, Needcompany, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Emio Greco, Jan Fabre, Clément Layes and Sanja Mitrovic and is involved in different research projects. He is also working on the book Re-act: Re-enactment in contemporary dance that will be published Spring 2015.
Hannu Tuisku is a theatre researcher, educator and director. He is a doctoral candidate at the Theatre Academy, University of the Arts Helsinki. In research, his primary interest is in the methods of actor training and their applications in the youth theatre. Currently, he is working on a project that establishes workshops in embodied actor training in professional theatres. He is also a Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Kallio Upper Secondary School of Performing Arts, Helsinki. As a performer, he is a member of the Research Group in Interdisciplinary Improvisation that works also as a performance group.
Luk Van den Dries is Full Professor of Theatre Studies at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). His research deals with contemporary theatre, with a focus on postdramatic theatre. He wrote extensively on Jan Fabre, one of the main examples of postdramatic theatre in Flanders. He was editor of the theatre magazine Etcetera, organiser of the Flemish-Dutch Theatre festival, president of the jury of the Flemish-Dutch Theatre festival and president of the Flemish Arts Council. He co-founded the postgraduate academy in theatre Apass and the arts centre for starting theatre artists in Antwerp De Theatermaker.
Annouk Van Moorsel is head of teacher training dance, drama and music at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp (Artesis Plantijnhogeschool). Since 2005, she has been closely involved as a promoter and co-promoter in various research projects of the department Royal Conservatoire and of the University of Antwerp. She is a member of the board of the School of Arts and of the Academic Council of the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp.