Mary Luckhurst
Encyclopedia
Mary Luckhurst is Professor in Modern Drama at the University of York
. She is also a playwright and director.
, Cambridge, reading French and German, and the London School of Economics
. In the 1980s she was in Cambridge running a ground-breaking new-writing group, Playwrights in Anglia, and worked as a playwright, director, producer and dramaturg. In the early 1990s she was appointed Lecturer in Drama and Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University
, where a teaching partnership with John Singleton produced the Creative Writing Handbook (Palgrave 1996; 2nd ed. 2000). She returned to Cambridge to complete doctoral studies under Peter Holland
and Anne Barton.
Appointed Lecturer in Drama at the University of York
in 1998, Luckhurst founded the Writing and Performance initiative with [Professor Michael Cordner] and together they created the nationally recognised BA in Writing, Directing and Performance and the MA in Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance. Both degree programmes offer students the chance to develop as both researchers and theatre practitioners.
A string of publications, beginning with co-edited volumes of interviews with actors and directors that put theatre-makers at the centre of academic enquiry, and expanding through combative essays on individual dramatists and an edited collection on theatre and celebrity, culminated in 2005–2006 in publication of her doctoral monograph and editorship of the new Blackwell Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama. As this volume seeks to re-shape the modern teaching canon, so the monograph—Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre—breaks new historical ground. The whole work is potentially of importance across the disciplines of literature and theatre studies, and the chapter on Brecht’s theories and practices of dramaturgy is developed in the 2nd edition of the Cambridge Companion to Brecht (2007). In 2006 she successfully competed for a University of York teaching award, and for a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/3943.htm – both awarded in recognition of her international contributions to drama teaching and research. In 2007 she was promoted to Professor of Drama. Luckhurst is also a series editor for Routledge’s new Modern and Contemporary Dramatists.
She has developed a directorial and dramaturgic practice connecting University drama with the City of York that has produced memorable and widely acclaimed productions of Martin Crimp
’s dark and fragmentary fable Attempts on Her Life (Dixon Drama Studio, 2002, Caryl Churchill
’s bleak investigation of refugees, Far Away (York Theatre Royal, 2005) and Mad Forest (York Theatre Royal, 2006). Her comedy reviews, directed with Mike Cordner, have proved big local hits and have spawned the popular Comedy Lab.
Luckhurst’s plays include The Woman of Shallott (Cambridge 1990), translations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
’s Emilia Galotti (London, 1993) and Elisabeth Bouchaud's A Contre-Voix (London, 1994), and Kretschmer's Diary (Prague, 1999).
Luckhurst also translated (with Gabriella Giannachi and John Lennard
) Laura Curino’s performance-text Passione, as Passion, in Lizbeth Goodman
, ed., Mythic Women/Real Women: Plays and Performance Pieces by Women (Faber, 2000). ISBN 0-571-19140-1
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
. She is also a playwright and director.
Biography
Luckhurst was educated at New HallNew Hall
New Hall may refer to:* New Hall School, a school in Essex, England* New Hall, Cambridge, a Cambridge University college now known as Murray Edwards College, in Cambridge, England* New Hall , a prison in West Yorkshire, England...
, Cambridge, reading French and German, and the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
. In the 1980s she was in Cambridge running a ground-breaking new-writing group, Playwrights in Anglia, and worked as a playwright, director, producer and dramaturg. In the early 1990s she was appointed Lecturer in Drama and Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University is a university in North West England. Its headquarters and central campus is in the city of Manchester, but there are outlying facilities in the county of Cheshire. It is the third largest university in the United Kingdom in terms of student numbers, behind the...
, where a teaching partnership with John Singleton produced the Creative Writing Handbook (Palgrave 1996; 2nd ed. 2000). She returned to Cambridge to complete doctoral studies under Peter Holland
Peter Holland
Peter Holland is a senior lecturer in the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts in Perth, Western Australia He previously had a long and distinguished career as a broadcaster, interviewer and newsreader...
and Anne Barton.
Appointed Lecturer in Drama at the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
in 1998, Luckhurst founded the Writing and Performance initiative with [Professor Michael Cordner] and together they created the nationally recognised BA in Writing, Directing and Performance and the MA in Theatre: Writing, Directing and Performance. Both degree programmes offer students the chance to develop as both researchers and theatre practitioners.
A string of publications, beginning with co-edited volumes of interviews with actors and directors that put theatre-makers at the centre of academic enquiry, and expanding through combative essays on individual dramatists and an edited collection on theatre and celebrity, culminated in 2005–2006 in publication of her doctoral monograph and editorship of the new Blackwell Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama. As this volume seeks to re-shape the modern teaching canon, so the monograph—Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre—breaks new historical ground. The whole work is potentially of importance across the disciplines of literature and theatre studies, and the chapter on Brecht’s theories and practices of dramaturgy is developed in the 2nd edition of the Cambridge Companion to Brecht (2007). In 2006 she successfully competed for a University of York teaching award, and for a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/3943.htm – both awarded in recognition of her international contributions to drama teaching and research. In 2007 she was promoted to Professor of Drama. Luckhurst is also a series editor for Routledge’s new Modern and Contemporary Dramatists.
She has developed a directorial and dramaturgic practice connecting University drama with the City of York that has produced memorable and widely acclaimed productions of Martin Crimp
Martin Crimp
Martin Andrew Crimp is a British playwright.Sometimes described as a practitioner of the "in-yer-face" school of contemporary British drama, Crimp though rejects the label...
’s dark and fragmentary fable Attempts on Her Life (Dixon Drama Studio, 2002, Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill
Caryl Churchill is an English dramatist known for her use of non-naturalistic techniques and feminist themes, the abuses of power, and sexual politics. She is acknowledged as a major playwright in the English language and a leading female writer...
’s bleak investigation of refugees, Far Away (York Theatre Royal, 2005) and Mad Forest (York Theatre Royal, 2006). Her comedy reviews, directed with Mike Cordner, have proved big local hits and have spawned the popular Comedy Lab.
Luckhurst’s plays include The Woman of Shallott (Cambridge 1990), translations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature...
’s Emilia Galotti (London, 1993) and Elisabeth Bouchaud's A Contre-Voix (London, 1994), and Kretschmer's Diary (Prague, 1999).
Works
- Playing for Real: Actors on Playing Real People. Co-editor with Tom Cantrell. (Palgrave, 2010)
- The Creative Writing Handbook. Co-editor with John Singleton. (Palgrave, 1996; 2nd edition, 1999) ISBN 0-333-79226-2
- On Directing: Interviews with Directors. Co-editor with Gabriella Giannachi. (Faber & St Martin's Griffin, 1999) ISBN 0-312-22483-4
- On Acting: Interviews with Actors. Co-editor with Chloe Veltman. (Faber, 2001) ISBN 0-571-20656-5
- The Drama Handbook : A Guide to Reading Plays. With John LennardJohn LennardJohn Lennard is Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and a freelance academic and writer.-Biography:...
. (OUP, 2002) ISBN 0-19-870070-9 - Theatre and Celebrity, 1660–2000. Co-editor with Jane Moody. (Palgrave, 2005)
- Dramaturgy: A Revolution in Theatre (CUP, 2005) ISBN 0-521-84963-2
- A Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama 1880–2005. Editor. (Blackwell, 2006) ISBN 1-4051-2228-5
- A Concise Companion to Contemporary Drama in Britain and Ireland. Co-editor with Nadine Holdsworth. (Blackwell, 2007).
- 'Julia Pascal's Theresa: Guernsey, the Holocaust, and Theatre Censorship in the 1990s' in Edward Batley & David Bradby, eds, Morality and Justice: the Challenge of European Theatre (Rodopi, 2001)
- 'An Embarrassment of Riches: Women Dramatists in the 1990s' in Bernhard Reitz & Mark Berninger., eds, British Drama of the 1990s (Universitatsverlag Winter, 2002)
- 'Political Point-scoring: Martin Crimp's Attempts on her Life' in Contemporary Theatre Review 13.1 (2003)
- 'Selling-(Out) to the English: Martin McDonagh's Lieutenant of Inishmore' in Contemporary Theatre Review 14.4 (2004)
- ‘A Wounded Stage: Drama and World War One’ in the Blackwell Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama 1880–2005 (Blackwell, 2006) ISBN 1-4051-2228-5
- ‘Torture in the Plays of Harold Pinter’ in the Blackwell Companion to Modern British and Irish Drama 1880–2005 (Blackwell, 2006) ISBN 1-4051-2228-5
- ‘Revolutionising theatre: Brecht's reinvention of dramaturgy’ in Peter Thomson & Glendyr Sacks, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Brecht (2nd ed., CUP, 2007)
Luckhurst also translated (with Gabriella Giannachi and John Lennard
John Lennard
John Lennard is Professor of British and American Literature at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and a freelance academic and writer.-Biography:...
) Laura Curino’s performance-text Passione, as Passion, in Lizbeth Goodman
Lizbeth Goodman
Prof. Lizbeth Goodman is the Chair of Creative Technology Innovation and founder director of the and the MAGIC Multimedia & Games Innovation Centre, formerly at the University of East London, England, and elsewhere, now at University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland.Lizbeth Goodman founded the...
, ed., Mythic Women/Real Women: Plays and Performance Pieces by Women (Faber, 2000). ISBN 0-571-19140-1