Centre for Creativity, History and Identity in Performance

The Centre for Creativity, History and Identity in Performance pursues creative inquiry and critical analysis at the intersection of theory and performance practice. The group comprises Theatre and Choreography, Music and Sound, and Musical Theatre; specific research specialisms across these disciplines are:

New Musical Theatre Studies
Theatre Science and Philosophy
Identity in performance
Collaboration and group identity in Experimental music
Sound and Music Computing

The activities of the centre are developing a national and international reputation for excellence, as well as being of strategic importance to the West Midlands region, and continue to develop projects, collaborations and publications both within Performance Arts and cross-disciplinarily.

Key contacts

Research group leader: Dr Richard Glover, Tel: +44 (0)1902 321903, Email: Richard.Glover@wlv.ac.uk

Deputy: Dr Demetris Zavros, Tel: +44 (0)1902 322338, Email: D.Zavros@wlv.ac.uk

Recent activity

Dr Chris Foster’s new collaborative composition points: Finding a Place to be was performed at the University of Kiev in earl 2018.The piece has been co-created with choreographer Jo Breslin at De Montfort University, and explores how indeterminate procuedures in composition share synergies with choreographic processes.
Dr Sarah Whitfield’s book Boublil and Schoenberg’s Les Miserables for the Routledge ‘Fourth Wall’ series will be published in July, and explores 350 people’s own personal connections with the show in order to try and understand why the show has such a strong worldwide following
Dr Demetris Zavros is attending the Artist Development Reatreat run by Anna-Helena McLean in Portugal in May to develop his creative music theatre approaches.
Dr Richard Glover’s chapter on interaction and game design in his recent string quartet Build-a-Chord Workshop will be published in a forthcoming book he is co-editing for the RMA Music and/as Process Study Group on Distributive and Collaborative Creative Processes
Dr Clare Lidbury article “Whoever pays the piper calls the tune: Kurt Jooss, Public Subsidy, and Private Patronage” will be pulished in the journal Dance Research in May 2018, and discusses the manner in which subsidy and patronage from both private and public organisations in Germany and Britain supported large amounts of Kurt Jooss’s international choreographic and directorial work.