Professor Richard Gough
Professor of Theatre & Performance
Contact
Email: rig@aber.ac.uk
Office: Room FS7 Parry Williams Building
Phone: 01970 622133
Fax: 01970 622831
Personal Web Site:www.richard-gough.com (under construction)
Responsibilities
Director: Centre for Performance Research (CPR); General Editor: Performance Research (journal and book series); Director: CPR Resource Centre, Collections and International Theatre Collection (ITC); Member of the UA/CPRA Management Committee; Member of the TFTS Research Committee
Research
Performance in relation to other disciplines and artistic and social pursuits – current concerns include: performance and photography; performance and tourism; performance, health and medicine and an ongoing interest in performance food and cookery.
Artistic led research/practice and practical creative work as a curator, devisor and director.
Biography
Richard Gough was born in North Wales, went to school in Hereford, grew up in Cardiff and began working with Cardiff Laboratory Theatre at the age of eighteen. As Artistic Director of Centre for Performance Research (1987 -), and its predecessor CLT (1979 – 86), he has curated and organised numerous international theatre projects which include conferences, research projects, summer schools, workshop programmes, and international festivals, as well as producing nationwide tours of experimental theatre and traditional dance/ theatre ensembles from around the world. He has directed over seventy productions many of which have toured Europe and he has lectured and led workshops throughout Europe and in China, Japan, India, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, Brazil, Philippines and Kenya,.
Richard Gough was the founding President of Performance Studies international (PSi) and developed the association between 1997 and 2001 and directed the 5th PS conference Here Be Dragons in 1999. Extending his interest in the education of young people and the promotion of a world view of theatre, he was the Chief Examiner, Theatre Arts (world-wide) for the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) 2002-05 and supervised the re-writing of the curriculum for that programme.
He published his first journal at the age of nineteen – Masquerade – containing articles by Barba, Brook, Grotowski and Kantor, as an initiative of Cardiff Laboratory Theatre and has continued throughout the past 35 years to publish books, magazines and programmes as a part of the multi-faceted CPR (editing, writing and curating). He is the General Editor and co-founder of Performance Research (The Journal of Performance Arts published bi-monthly by Routledge, Taylor & Francis).He is series editor and publisher of Black Mountain Press (a division of CPR) and has recently co-founded Performance Research Books which is an independent venture of Performance Research the journal. He co-edited A Performance Cosmology – the 30th year anniversary book of CPR published by Routledge (2006). His major publishing ambition is to write on artists’ engagement with food throughout the twentieth century through a project entitled Leaving the Table. He has also served on the editorial boards of nine theatre/dance/performance journals (print and on-line projects) and continues to advise two major UK publishers.
His own performance work in relation to performance, food and cookery continues to develop with a series of productions and installations based around the theme of ‘Last Supper’ and an evolving sequence of performance banquets for a variety of international events and conferences realised in America, Europe and Australasia. He has a developing interest - both theoretical and practical - in the relationships between performance, photography and portraiture as well as relationships between documentation, process, and performance: he continues to develop the CPR Resource Centre and Collections and plans to establish an archive on contemporary Welsh theatre practices and a major research project exploring the relationship of the archive and archiving to performance.
Teaching
Theories and concepts of performance and world theatre (non western theatre/performance); dramaturgy and comparative dramaturgy (specifically Indian, Japanese and Chinese dance/theatres); history and function of European laboratory theatres; 20th Century theatre directing, devising theatre and multi sensory theatre; performance, process and documentation; performance food and cookery.
BA Theatre & Performance Studies, MA Practising Theatre and Performance
(In previous years MA Theatre & the World and CPR Summer School – to be resumed)
Directing and facilitating BA and MA level theatre and performance productions.
Currently supervising two PhD and one MPhil candidates; recently supervised a PhD student, funded by the Ford Foundation, to successful completion.
Module Co-ordinator:
TPM0530 Production Project (MAPTP)
Teaching:
TP10220 Studying Theatre 2
TP30220 Key Theatre Practices
TP33940 Advanced Production
TPM0130 Theoretical Practices (MAPTP)
TPM0430 Research Practices (MAPTP)
TPM0530 Production Project (MAPTP)
TPM0660 Research Project (MAPTP)
Publications
Selected Performances & Installations in the Public/Professional Domain (recent):
After the Earthquake in Chile (theatre production and performative banquet) – with the Free Theatre Company and the community of Addington, Christchurch, New Zealand, October 2011
Out of the Box: Unfolding Feasts / Allan o'r Blwch : Agor Gwleddoedd (Exhibition, film, installation and performance meal) with Iachus gyda’n gilydd / Healthy Together and Ymlaen Ceredigion, Aberaeron, Wales, July 2011
Over the Hill (performance installation) – Camillo 2.0 PSi#17, Utrecht, Netherlands, May 2011
Savouring Androscoggin County (installation and performance meal) Bates Mill, Lewiston/Auburn, Maine, USA, April 2008
Books (recent):
A Performance Cosmology (with Judie Christie), London, Routledge 2006
Special Journal Issues
Performance Research (13.2): On Performatics (with Grzegorz Ziolkowski) London, Routledge 2008
Performance Research (13.4): On Appearance (with Adrian Kear), London, Routledge 2008
Performance Research (14.1): Performing Literatures (with Stephen Bottoms) Routledge 2009
Performance Research (14.2): On Training (with Simon Shepherd) Routledge 2009
Performance Research (16.2): Performing Publics (with Laura Levin and Marlis Schweitzer) London, Routledge 2011
Performance Research (17.6): On Fire (forthcoming), London, Routledge 2012
Performance Research (18.2): On Scenography (with Sodja Lotker – forthcoming) London, Routledge 2013
Performance Research (18.6): On Ice (forthcoming), London, Routledge 2013
Chapters in Books (recent):
Kantor in Cardiff in Kantor was Here: Tadeusz Kantor in Great Britain (Eds Katarzyna Murawska-Multhesius and Natalia Zarzecka) Black Dog Press. London 2010
Troubling Performance: Local, National and International in Mapping Landscapes for Performance as Research (Eds Shanon Rose Riley and Lynette Hunter) Palgrave/Macmillan, London, 2009
Selected Public Lectures (recent):
Locating Performance - The Theatre Company, Nairobi, Kenya February 2012
The Ends of Theatre - The Little Theatre, Mombasa, Kenya February 2012
On Food, Christchurch and Earthquakes - NZ National Radio interview and discussion (with Kim Hill – 70 minutes) Wellington, New Zealand, October 2011
A Response to the National Exhibitions - Prague Quadrennial – PQ#12, Prague, Czech Republic July 2011
Troubling Performance - Cultural Center of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines March 2011
Performance & Documentation: Stage and Page – the work of Performance Research (the journal) Bergen International Theatre Festival, Bergen, Norway, October 2008
Spilt Cargo: Flotsam, Jetsam and Lingam - An Address for World Theatre Day, National Theatre, Reykjavik, Iceland, March 2007
Selected Conference Keynotes & Papers (recent – last three years):
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back - Auckland University, New Zealand October 2011
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back and Locating Performance –A day-long series of talks, seminars and presentations Victoria University, Massey University and Toi Whakarri, Wellington, New Zealand October 2011
Faulty Optic: Performance as a Field of Enquiry - Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand October 2011
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back - Dunedin University, Dunedin, New Zealand, September 2011
Locating Performance - University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, September 2011
Performance as a Field of Enquiry - University of the Philippines, Diliman College of Arts and Letters, Manila Philippines March 2011
Theatre & Performance: A Distant View - Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Calamba, Laguna, Philippines February 2011
Theatre & Performance: A Distant View - De La Salle Canlubang, Laguna, Philippines, February 2011
Performance as a Field of Enquiry - De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines, February 2011
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back - Aquinas University of Legazpi – Center for Culture and the Arts
Performance and the Intermedial - Aquinas University of Legazpi – Budyong, the First Regional Students’ Congress on Media and the Arts, Legazpi City
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back - Silliman University (College of Performing Arts-Speech and Theatre Arts Department and College of Mass Comm), Dumaguete City
Theatre & Performance: A Distant View - Holy Name University, Tagbilaran, Bohol
An Introduction to Performance Studies - Tanghal 5, the National University Theatre Festival, St. La Salle University, Bacolod (Post) Dramaturgy and the (Post) Dramatic at the international conference Dramaturgy and the 21st Century, Victorian College of the Arts/Melbourne University, Melbourne, Australia March 2010
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back - University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, March 2010
Thinking Performance/Training Performance - Cultural Industries, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, March 2010
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back Sydney University, Sydney, Australia, March 2010
Troubling Performance: From Theatre to Performance and Back - Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, March 2010
Pistols at Dawn - Prelude Keynotes Friendly Fire, Performance Studies Conference #15, Zagreb, Croatia, June 2009
From Theatre to Performance and Back - A series of three university-wide lectures followed by seminars, University of Malta, Valetta, Malta, March 2008
Additional Interests
Awards & Honours:
Life-Long Honorary Member of PSi Performance Studies international (in recognition of work done as inaugural president and in establishing the association world-wide).
Award of Honour from the University of Khartoum, Sudan, November 1999 (in recognition of work done to encourage exchange and mutual understanding).
Guest of Honour & Award Recipient of the Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre September 2002 (in recognition of life-long commitment to experimental theatre).
Recipient of the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Visiting Artist/Scholar award and residency (Autumn 2003).
Recipient of an Erskine Fellowship for University of Canterbury Visiting Fellow, Christchurch, New Zealand (Autumn 2011)
Project Management and Budgetary Responsibility:
As Director of the Centre for Performance Research Ltd, Richard Gough has been responsible for the realisation of complex national and international projects involving several hundred scholars and practitioners in any one year. Working in close association with CPR Executive Producer (Judie Christie) since 1986 and a team of administrators and Project Directors in various combinations across the last thirty five years (notably Helen Gethin; CPR Senior Administrator since 2004), Richard Gough, has been accountable to the CPR Board of Directors (and formerly Trustees), UA/CPR Management Committee, Funding Authorities & Councils for project budgets of between £20,000 and £350,000.
Across thirty years work in excess of eight million pounds worth of arts and research funding has been effectively and responsibly managed by Gough, Christie and Gethin - with and through CPR. Richard Gough is currently principal investigator, consultant and co–investigator on several research projects (some of which are seeking AHRC support) and CPR is lead partner and co-partner on several major international bids and collaborations and is the holder and Principal Investigator of a Leverhulme International Network Grant (2012-2014).