Geraldine (Gerry) Harris
Director
Contact
Tel: +44 (0)1524 594153
Fax: +44 (0)1524 593071
Biography
Research
My early research was in female performers in 19th Century French Popular Theatre specifically Le Music Hall and Le Cafe-concert but this interest in the politics of subjectivity and identity expanded into the field of contemporary experimental performance. I have published on artists such as Helene Cixous, Fiona Templeton, Doo-Cot, Split Britches ,Annie Sprinkle, Bobby Baker and Rose English in various articles and a book entitled Staging Femininities on Female Performance and Performativity (Manchester University Press, 1999). I am currently co-editing a book with Elaine Aston entitled Feminist Theatre Futures? to be published in 2005/6 and have just completed a book on the politics and aesthetics of television drama (Beyond Representation?). This latest work reflects a continuing interest in the relationship between the ‘popular’ and the ‘experimental’/avant garde. Like many other lecturers in Theatre Studies at Lancaster, I have strong links with Women’s Studies and the Institute of Cultural Research and my research is interdisciplinary and strongly informed by theories from these areas, as well as from theatre and performance studies.
Supervision
I have supervised MPhil and Ph.d students, including practice as research students focussing on a wide range of topics relating to contemporary performance from site specific performance to mutli media. Work, although my specific areas of expertise are as above.
Teaching
While at Lancaster I have taught both theory and practice across a wide range of different courses at all levels, including the MA in Contemporary Performance (laid down) Radical Theatre, Popular Theatre, Contemporary British Playwrights and Devising, My longest running course was on Sexual Politics and Identity in Contemporary Theatre and Performance but recently I have been focussing on television drama, although I hope to return soon to more theatre and performance based courses as well. As part of this teaching I have directed and supervised a large number of student centred performances.
Practice
Since the early 1980s I have continued to work as a devisor, writer, director and adapter both inside and outside of education. I have written or adapted and directed touring shows for schools, taken shows to the Edinburgh Festival and occasionally contributed to the work of Insomniac Productions a professional touring company re-writing and re-directing a show Clair De Luz with this company for the Munich Speil Art Festival 1995. The same year I wrote the text for a short film With the Light On, for Third Angel Independent Production Company. I am (still) currently working with the same company on a full length film script.