Postgraduate students from Staffordshire University were treated to a day away, to sample the cultural delights and watering holes of Liverpool. It proved to be an ideal opportunity to get everyone together, and the focus of the day was Leonora Carrington’s extraordinary exhibition at the Liverpool Tate (just before the show closed at the end of May). Carrington was an all-out surrealist and magical realist – and a highly accomplished writer of short stories and novels – as well as a stunning visual artist, whose work encompasses paintings large and small, prints, sculpture, tapestries, theatre design and – impossible hats.
Author Archives: Mark BROWN
Lear at the New Vic
Staff and students enjoyed Northern Broadside’s production of King Lear at the New Vic theatre last night. Barry Rutter, the company’s actor-manager and driving creative force, took the title role. The production was directed by Jonathan Miller.
The Guardian gave it 5 stars, which I thought a little generous (http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/mar/08/king-lear-northern-broadsides-review-jonathan-miller). In comparison with the energy and dynamism of other Broadside’s productions, this one felt static; but perhaps this reflected the sense of transition from the old order, by way of tragic hubris, to the new. Rutter brought touching moments to Lear’s downfall, but lacked the authority of a flawed tyrant at the beginning to give the necessary scale to his descent.
The fantastic story, of familial and political loyalty and conflict, carried the production to its famous conclusion (yes, if you don’t know it, you’ll have to read it or see it).
English and Creative Writing nominations in the SU Student Experience Awards
English and Creative Writing lecturers Dr.s Lisa Mansell, Martin Jesinghausen and Martyn Hampton have all received nominations from their students for their teaching. The citations read:
“[Martyn] is really motivating, and when he gives feedback it is in depth and always helps me. I look forward to his lectures as I know they will be interesting and passionate!”
“Dr Lisa Mansell is one of those lecturers who really wants you to succeed, a small achievement for you is a huge smile on her face. She engages you, makes sure you know she has time for you, and her office door is always open.”
“I have never met a member of staff [Martin J] more supportive of mental health issues. Always friendly, caring and incredibly helpful in supporting my studies.”
Watch this space to see who ‘the winner is ….’
Dracula at the Vic
Review from 1st Year student, Danny Collard
Theresa Heskins’ production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula was, undoubtedly, one of the more inventive adaptations of this well told tale. Performed at the New Vic Theatre in Stoke ‘in the round’, each audience member left with plenty to discuss on the journey home, regardless of their enjoyment of the show.
The performance stayed remarkably true to the original plot, and it may be said that many of the issues taken (for those that took them) came from its adherence to Stoker’s work, which, especially with age, Continue reading
PhD success
Our congratulations go to Emma Cleary who successfully defended her PhD thesis, ‘Jazz-Shaped Bodies: Mapping City Space, Time, and Sound in Black Transnational Literature’, last Thursday. The examiners, Dr.s Mark Brown form Staffs and Brian Jarvis from Loughborough), praised the work for its conceptual sophistication, its wide-ranging approach to Black transnational literature (the US, Canada and the Caribbean; the novel, short story and spoken word poetry and rap), and its precision of expression and presentation. The project was supervised by Dr Lisa Mansell.
Congratulations Dr Cleary!
Emma (center) with the examiners (right) and her supervision team.
Challenging drama on campus
3rd year drama students, as the Axiom Theatre Company, produced Sarah Kane’s 4:48 Psychosis in Studio 2 on the College Road Campus this week. This is a challenging work, debuting posthumously after Kane’s suicide in 1999 and exploring the dark areas of the mind. The staging needs to be imaginative as Kane’s script provides us only with the lines of dialogue, leaving the director to establish who speaks and the context. The director chose to interpret the dialogue as shared between a doctor and a number of patients, each demonstrating different symptoms displayed by the lines in the text. The company’s imaginative construction of back-stories for their characters was an innovative dimension to the actual staging.
It was good to see English and CW students – some of whom will be studying Kane’s Blasted next term – supporting their drama peers.
Award Winning theatre company at the New Vic
Staff and students were at the New Vic to see Northern Broadside’s production of She Stoops to Conquer. It was an outrageous interpretation of the play’s themes of love and class; matched only by the outrageous wigs. Students repaired to the Victoria, where they ended up in conversation with the cast.
Writing and Recovery
Staffs lecturer and poet, Barry Taylor, on a project to use arts and creativity in the recovery process for addicts
To Dublin and Kilkenny in Independent Study Week week for a meeting of the European partners in Typecast, a collaborative project between the British Ceramics Biennial and Portraits of Recovery, a leader in developing arts and creative initiatives to support the drugs and alcohol recovery process. Continue reading
Grasmere Trip
Staff and 1st year students had a great weekend in the Lake District. We visited Dove Cottage and the Wordsworth museum, eat and drank handsomely, communed with nature, and a few hardy students accompanied us to Easedale Tarn where we read Coleridge and Wordsworth. Magnificent.
More to follow from the students who were there.
Newcastle under Lyme playwright, Deborah McAndrew, won the award for best new play for An August Bank Holiday Lark at the UK Theatre Awards in London this week. Continue reading