Practice Research
Practice Research is at the core of what we do here at Exeter, where we are recognised as world-leading experts in the design and implementation of research projects that work at the intersections of creative practice and scholarship. Our staff are award-winning artists, as well as acclaimed scholars.
Projects have included exploring space, place and the city, activism, performer training, medical humanities and decolonisation. We have a rich tradition of research into the history of studio practices and their cross-fertilisation, including projects focussed on voice training, the development of the Russian laboratory and the role of women in performer training lineages.
Our critical and cultural inquiry is enriched by engagement with performance making, training and pedagogy in a diverse range of contexts and across disciplines. Staff conduct research all over the world, making performance, delivering workshops and collaborating with partners. We ask and answer questions about culture, space, society and performance and have developed funded Practice Research projects in countries including China, Greece, India, Russia, South Africa and the USA.
Our eleven studio spaces, bespoke sound and film editing suites, and staffed costume and prop stores provide researchers with an excellent range of facilities in which to develop practice, and support the culture of practical inquiry that we foster.
Drama hosts four staff-led performance companies, whose international output is always in conversation with ongoing research questions. For example, in recent years Wrights & Sites members have created ‘Mis-Guides’, which set parameters for embodied explorations of the city, including The Architect Walker and A Mis-Guide to Kochi while RedCape’s projects including Be Brave and Leave for the Unknown and Thunder Road (https://www.redcapetheatre.co.uk/shows), which have toured to over fifty venues nationally, apply Professor Loukes’ expertise in physical theatre and female-led performance making traditions.
