Looking: the experience of seeing, a scenographic perspective

Workshop: Site –specific workshop and performance scheduled for September 2011 in Hyderabad.

RESEARCH STATEMENT: My research continues to focus on performance which re-engages the ‘theatrical’ as a means of interrogating contemporary society. In 2007 I wrote an article for Studies in Theatre and Performance which examined the efficacy of performance as a means of investigating the construction of post colonial identities through the ‘staging’ of an African ‘past’. One aspect of this research was an analysis of the scenographic framing of these performances for western audiences. Among the many outcomes of this process was the identification of a dearth of material with which to interrogate critically the visual aspects of performance in particular and the scenographic in general. Concurrent with this, in my role as Contextual Studies Co-ordinator for Theatre at Wimbledon, I was also concerned that students of theatre design did not have a comprehensive body of accessible written texts to help them situate their own work and analyse the work of others. Theatre and Performance Design, a reader in scenography aims to fulfil this need and continues to be the main focus of my research as a practitioner and in my critical writing.

• Organisation