Research Interests #

The main focus of my research is corporeal feminist understandings of the female body in performance, specifically in contemporary productions of early modern plays. I am particularly interested in the precise and focused analysis of whole bodies, and parts of bodies, in theatrical and televisual performance. For example, reading hair in theatrical performance as a site of cultural, theatrical, and feminist analysis.

My work often centres around particular characters and how they have been embodied throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. These characters include Jessica in The Merchant of Venice, Tamora and Lavinia in Titus Andronicus, and Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew.

My PhD thesis was entitled "My body shall pay recompense: The Embodiment of Margaret in Selected Staged and Televised Cycles of the First Tetralogy". Some of the key points of analysis in my thesis were: analysing hair in performance photographs; the relationship between bodies and cameras in televised productions; and examining the impact of adaptation on female characters.

Further research #

Currently, I am developing the work of my PhD thesis for publication, including presenting three papers at major Shakespeare conferences in 2021. I am also revisiting my examination of Jessica from my MA thesis ‘But though I am daughter to his blood, / I am not to his manners’: The Performance of Jessica as Other in The Merchant of Venice.

I am interested in developing my practice into practice as research, working as an actor, dramaturg, and director to further understand how the female body is performed in the 21st century.