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John Matthews Dr John Matthews - ()
Role Year Tutor for Stage 1 Theatre & Performance Qualifications & background PhD, for a thesis entitled What is Called Training?, University of Surrey
BA (Hons), Theatre Arts, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Award for Excellence in the Field of Drama, University of London
Research interests Acting Contemporary performance Philosophy of embodiment Ethics and performance Grants & contracts Creative practice & artistic projects
Being Touched,
Oct.2010
Athletesof the Heart
, Stratford Circus
Dance-theatre exploring histories, conventions andethics of touching throughout history and across cultures.
Dagenham Art Brut,
June2010
By Matthew Broughton, Theatre 503, London
An audio-theatric experience; deconstructed radiodrama performed live on stage.
I Thought of the Sun and the Sea,
Dec2009
Devised with MKULTRA, SHUNT, London
A durational, task-basedperformance using digital media, commissioned by SHUNT
Talk Trash at South Bank Centre, London, Sept.2007
Commissioned text for LondonDesign Festival
My performance text, incorporated into aninstallation of artefacts manufactured by international artists and designers.
Delphi, Texas,
May2005
Devisedwith Zeb Fontaine,
at the Pleasance Theatre, London
Musictheatre reworking the Oedipus myth in the context of the foot-and-mouthoutbreak in the UK.
280, 000, 000, 000 at The Old Operating Theatre, London, March2004
Curated with support from Guy’sHospital Fertility Unity, London
An installation featuring aprojection showing the live denaturing of a sample of human sperm under apowerful microscope.
Friday on My Mind,
June-Oct1992
By Alick Rowe BBC Film Drama
A drama tracing the aftermath ofa Gulf War pilot’s death during a training exercise.
Publications Training for Performance, London: Methuen Drama, 2011 My monograph extends thework of my thesis to establish ‘askeology’ as a framework for meta-disciplinaryresearch in training. The book is an original piece of research asking a prioriquestions about participatory experience to produce a unique philosophicalstudy of training. about the book: ‘Trainingfor Performance is the first work of its kind… What makes this book so importantis not only that it offers an interesting and contrasting set of accounts of training,but…it begins to shape a field of enquiry rather than simply respondto it.’ Dr Martin Welton, QueenMary University ‘Training for Performancepromises to make an original contribution to the recently expanding field of workon actor training.’
Prof. Joe Kelleher, Roehampton University ‘Afresh, innovative andstructured account of ‘training’ in vocational applications [with] futureimplications for a new welcome discourse in research.’
Dr Zachary Dunbar, Central Schoolof Speech and Drama A Lifeof Ethics and Performance (editor), Newcastleupon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011 With contributions frominternationally renowned scholars including Alan Read, Nicholas Ridout andAdrian Kear the book discusses ethical concerns stimulated by performance inmoments from natality to fatality, and beyond, through the framework of the‘good life’ aboutthe book: 'Ethics meets performance in ahighly imaginative and innovative way here. This is a set of verystimulating and captivating essays and the book engages with you onevery level right to the last page. New questions are being explored;a new discipline is emerging. This is a book that changes the way youlook at the world.'
Dr. Ian Markham, Professor ofTheology and Ethics and President of Virginia Theological Seminary,USA ‘Corpsing’ in A Life ofEthics andPerformance, Newcastle upon Tyne:Cambridge Scholars, 2011 This chapter draws on thewell-known practice/art of corpsing to initiate an exploration of the ethicsentailed in contemporary ‘dying conduct’. Through analysis of‘stage-managed’deaths in hospitals and famous deaths on stage ‘corpsing’ unpicks the complexethics of laughter. ‘Acting Freely’ in Performance Research‘ On Training’, London & New York:Routledge, Vol 14.2, 2009 Critiquing thephilosophical concepts underpinning training practices to expose a centraldichotomy: whilst each regime of training seeks to increase a participant’scapacity for a particular form of action, this is frequently, if notnecessarily, accomplished by restricting the ways in which trainees can act. Reports & invited lectures ‘The Significance of Stress inDrama School Training’, Jan.2011 Research Seminars on Theory, Practice &History of Performance at Goldsmiths University Chartingthe institutionalising of stressful conditions within drama school training andassessing their transformative impact on students training to be actors. ‘Training in the Clinic, theCloister and the Studio’, Nov.2009 Spirituality, Education and Exegesis Lecture Series at LiverpoolHope University, This paper pursues philosophicalconcerns through training practice in the acting studio, the rehabilitationclinic and the monastic cloister to expose common processes of training. ‘Askeological Investigations’, Feb 2007 How to Act conference at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London ‘askeology’– a composite term deriving from the ancient Greek ‘askeo’ meaning ‘training’ or,more literally, ‘to work with raw materials’ - is presented as a discipline forthe study of training, providing a methodology for study and a language forinter-disciplinary sharing. ‘The Body in the Magic Box’, Oct2006 The Centre orTheatre Research in Europe, London The ‘first nature’ of untrainedperformers is contrasted with the ‘second nature’ of skilled practitioners inthe writing of a number of theorists from Diderot to Barba. This paperconsiders the philosophical problems associated with such claims in the contextof training. ‘Inscribing the Palimpsest Flesh’, Jan 2005 The Changing Body in Training andPerformance Symposium , Exeter University The rhetoric of detraining, or unlearning,popularised during the sixties, comes under scrutiny in this paper, whichexamines training’s claim to ‘rewrite’ the capabilities of the body. Conferences organised Material Engagements Conference, British Library Sound Archive, Dec06 – May 07 Co-organiser |
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