Dr Michael Pearce

Senior Lecturer

6479

01392 726479

Overview

I am a theatre practitioner, educator and scholar. I trained at the Jacques Lecoq School of Theatre in Paris and began my professional career with Zimbabwe-based theatre company, Over The Edge. Since then, I have worked on a range of theatre projects across the UK, in Europe, the USA and in southern Africa with support from national and international creative industry partners.

My research interests focus on two related areas. The first is the theatrical representation of race and racism on the British stage, particularly in dramas by black playwrights of African and Caribbean heritage. I have published a number of essays on this topic and am the author of the book Black British Drama: A Transnational Story, which was shortlisted for the Society for Theatre Research Book Prize.

Research for this book resulted in Raising the Bar, an award-winning 10-part BBC Radio 4 documentary about the history of black performance on the British stage and screen, which was presented by Sir Lenny Henry.

I have been working with the National Theatre for over a decade to create the Black Plays Archive, an online catalogue of plays by black dramatists of African and Caribbean heritage produced in the UK.

My practice as research explores environmental and social justice issues relevant to people living in the UK and in countries in the global South. From 2010 to 2015, I founded and ran Fourth World Productions with artist and activist Chipo Chung. I produced and toured international theatre productions exploring themes of immigration and asylum (Chasing the Moon), truth and reconciliation (You Cannot Escape Our Love) and racial injustice (The Gospel of O and The Man Who Committed Thought). My new theatre company, Mycelia, expands my commitment to making socially-engaged theatre to encompass themes of environmentalism and environmental justice.

I established the new MA Creativity: Innovation and Business Strategy which had its first intake in 2019.

I am a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, FHEA

Supervision

I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students on any subject related to my research expertise. Please contact me via email with a short proposal and you CV.

Research students

Lin Chen

Zhiyue Hu (second supervisor)

Lizzie Jago

Alison Rockbrand (second supervisor)

Hekmat Shammout

Publications

_{Copyright Notice: Any articles made available for download are for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the copyright holder.}

| 2021 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2013 |

2021

Pearce M. (2021) Making Whiteness Visible and Felt in Fairview, Humanities, volume 10, no. 2, pages 81-81, DOI:10.3390/h10020081. [PDF]
Pearce M. (2021) ‘Though we are written into the landscape you don’t see us’ (Testament, 2018). Black Faces in White Spaces: Whiteness as Terror and the Terror of Un-belonging in Black Men Walking, The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Race, Palgrave Macmillan.

2019

Pearce MC. (2019) Black Rage: Diasporic Empathy and Ritual in debbie tucker green’s hang, debbie tucker green: Critical Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan.

2018

Pearce M. (2018) Biyi Bandele’s Theatre of the Afropolitan Absurd, Africa on the Contemporary London Stage, Palgrave, 87-108, DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-94508-8_5.

2017

Pearce MC. (2017) Biyi Bandele’s Theatre of the Afropolitan Absurd, African Theatre Association Annual International Conference, The University Of The West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, 6th - 9th Jul 2017.
Pearce M. (2017) Black British Drama A Transnational Story, Routledge.

2016

Pearce M. (2016) ‘Why then the world’s mine oyster / Which I with sword will open’. Africa, diaspora, Shakespeare: Cross-cultural encounters on the global stage, Shakespeare, Race and Performance: The Diverse Bard, Routledge, 65-79.

2015

Pearce M. (2015) African theatre 12: Shakespeare in and out of Africa, Studies in Theatre and Performance, volume 35, no. 3, pages 269-271, DOI:10.1080/14682761.2015.1032533.
Pearce M. (2015) Routes to Roots: Black British Representations of Africa via Black America, African Theatre Association Annual International Conference, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, Usa, 23rd - 26th Jul 2015.
Pearce M. (2015) Kwame Kwei-Armah's African-American Inspired Triptych, Modern and Contemporary Black British Drama, Palgrave Macmillan.

2013

Pearce M. (2013) Tracing Black America in Black British Theatre from the 1970s. [PDF]
Pearce M. (2013) Roy Williams, Modern British Playwriting 2000-2009: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations, Methuen Drama.

External impact and engagement

Co-creator and consultant for Raising the Bar, an award-winning 10-part BBC Radio 4 documentary about the history of black performance on the British stage and screen, presented by Sir Lenny Henry. (2015, 2018, 2019)

Consultant for the National Theatre's Black Plays Archive, an online catalogue of plays by black dramatists of African and Caribbean heritage produced in the UK. (Since 2009)

Keynote at the Business of Conservation Conference hosted by the Africa Leadership University’s School of Wildlife Conservation, Rwanda. (2018)

Guest speaker at a cross-Whitehall conference arranged by the Civil Service Race Forum for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Portcullis House. (2016)

Adjudicator for Zimbabwe's National Speech and Drama Festival, hosted by the National Institute of Allied Arts. (2016)

Panel chair on commissioning at the national conference, 40 Years On: The Arts Britain Ignores and Diversity in British Theatre. (2016)

Guest speaker at African-American Playwrights: The 20th Century, convened by Professor Kate Dossett (Leeds) at the National Theatre. (2016)

Convenor with Professor Lynette Goddard (Royal Holloway) of Representing Race and Black Britain in Theatre, Film, Television and Digital Media, an interdisciplinary symposium at the National Theatre. (2015)

Consultant for Black Plays at the National Theatre (1976-2014) digital exhibition hosted by the Google Art and Culture platform. (2015)

Contribution to discipline

I am a member of the AHRC Peer Review College.

I have served as peer reviewer for publishers and journals such as Taylor & Francis, Bloomsbury, Contemporary Theatre Review, Studies in Theatre and Performance.

Teaching

I strive to encourage creativity and critical thinking by breaking down the barriers between research and practice. I design my own modules related to my research interests and expertise. I established the MA Creativity: Innovation and Business Strategy which had its first intake in 2019. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Modules taught

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