Jo Ronan

My recently completed practice –based PhD interrogates the concepts of ownership, capital, collectivism, collaboration and artistic vision in theatre-making today. It employs a Marxist framework in developing a dialectical relationship between process and product enabling renewed definitions for the ownership of theatrical artefacts. BloodWater Theatre, a practice-based research ensemble was formed in February 2011 to test new ways of making theatre through its productions, Whose Story Is It Anyway staged at the Tron Theatre and Leave Your Shoes at the Door staged at the CCA. I am invested in exploring non-hierarchical collaborative theatre production within capitalist economy.

I am committed to researching and developing radical theatre pedagogy where the politicisation of teaching and training actors/performers is made explicit. My research interest stems from my intention to develop intersections between professional and community performance. During my MA in Actor Training & Coaching at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama, I made a case for a more radical approach to actor training through research I undertook there.

I have a special interest in applied and participatory performance. I lead on the undergraduate provision for Community Theatre. I am currently developing research projects which focus on utilising drama pedagogy in nursing homes. I have delivered conference papers on the politics of transmission when training actors who have disabilities.

I recently completed my PhD thesis entitled, Capital, Cooperation and Creating Performance: BloodWater Theatre Develops Ownership in Collaborative Theatre Practice, undertaken at the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama and supervised by Dr Gareth White and Dr Joel Anderson. I was examined by Professor Gay McAuley and Dr Alex Mermikides

I am writing an article on dialectical collaborative theatre, a method of non-hierachical theatre production that I have developed for performance created by small ensembles

I am researching the role of applied theatre and participatory arts within undergraduate performance programmes in Scotland

I am developing drama projects in nursing homes

I intend to develop projects in collaboration with ArtWorks Scotland particularly for disabled participants and unemployed youth premised on Freire's dialogic pedagogy in the belief that dialogic processes can empower individuals within state regeneration agendas.

I would like to research intersections between economy and society; commodity and artist; the leader and the led in developing radical performance training models.

I would like to continue testing dialectical collaborative theatre within BloodWater Theatre and beyond. 

National Theatre of Scotland

Paul Hamlyn Foundation

ArtWorks

Local Authorities

The Necessary Stage (Singapore)

British Council