Current Projects
BreakinG The Silence on the British Slave Trade, SIte Specific Performance Based research Project
My Site Specific Performance Based Research project, Breaking the Silence toured 9 sites in the UK in October 2021 with close ties to the 18th century British Slave Trade and at historic churches with freed slave graves. Funded by Arts Council England and the Unity Trust, Breaking the Silence was designed to draw out contradictions in the narratives surrounding the British slave trade and abolitionist movement, aiming to investigate if immersive, and interactive activities that foreground the challenges and emotionally fraught construction of historical ‘facts’ impact the way the public encounter and respond to troubled national histories and Black British history. Our production combines innovative strategies to decolonise the heritage sites and the 18th century abolitionist movement, particularly in relation to key abolitionist figures such as Wilberforce. The site-specific performance includes immersive storytelling, combining historical dramatized storylines from verbatim historical sources with immersive theatre designed to enhance audiences’ affectual, imaginative, and embodied response to history.Intersecting archival research with theories of embodied spectatorship and sensorial history, Breaking the Silence is a part of a wider performance-based research project investigating innovative performance techniques to critically engage heritage audiences with the decolonising process.
https://www.collisionstheatre.co.uk/breaking-the-silence-tour
Touching Past Lives
Breaking the Silence is a part of my ongoing research on Immersive Heritage Performance which encourages audience members to not only witness historic narratives, but, experience, embody, and 'touch' a localized past. The tactile, experiential and sensorial nature of heritage performance creates an intimate relationship between past and present bodies, commingling private experience with communal and/or national heritage. Through the creation of a series of site specific heritage performances, immersive audio walks, and digital, multimedia interactive storytelling (involving digital installation and Mixed Reality Hololens technology), my performance-based research includes a series of interactive performances for the Heritage Lottery and Arts Council England funded Paston Footprints project in Norfolk from 2018-2021, the Norwich Castle Museum Viking: Discover the Legend Project in 2019, the Dock Arts Festival Knock Me Down Multimedia Installation in 2020, and others. This project engages with ethnographic and performance-based research to study immersive heritage performance’s effect on local and global theatre audiences. My performances use sensory, experiential methods to invite members of the public to, literally as well as figuratively, feel and touch the past through interactive, creative responses to the collective, troubled, under-represented and intangible heritage. My immersive heritage PaR investigates how creative practice engages audiences, not only with the past, but with their present relationship to communal, social, and environmental heritage.
Freelancers In the Dark
UKRI ESRC COVID-19 Research Project on the Impact of COVID-19 on UK Theatre Freelancers
A mixed-methods research project including interviews, focus groups, a survey, and creative micro-commissions, Freelancers in the Dark investigates the social, cultural, and economic impact of COVID-19 on theatre freelancers across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Dr Holly Maples is the Primary Investigator on the project with a team of Co-Investigators, Prof. Rosie Klich from Univeristy of Essex, Dr Josh Edelman from Manchester Metropolitan University, and Dr. Ali Fitzgibbon and Dr. Kurt Taroff from Queens University Belfast. Our team works ith Postdoctoral Reesarchers, Dr Laura Harris and Dr James Rowson, and our Project Manager, Dr. Allie Young. Our research asks how freelancers’ experiences since March 2020 are affecting their sense of their place in the field of theatre and their expectations for their post-pandemic careers. As the theatre sector is interdependent with its freelance workforce for operational and artistic development, understanding the expectations, plans and hopes of these workers is essential for effective recovery planning and policy-making.