Peter M Boenisch is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies and Co-Director of the European Theatre Research Network (ETRN). He is also Director of Internationalisation within the University's Faculty of Humanities.
Before being imported to Kent from Germany in 2004, Peter was a lecturer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, worked as freelance theatre critic and dramaturg, and ran a fringe theatre space near Munich. In 2003/4, he was Leverhulme Visiting Fellow with the theatre department at the University of Huddersfield. - Peter is an editorial associate of Contemporary Theatre Review (published by Routledge), a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, and Chair of the Board of Examiners at London Contemporary Dance School and Northern School of Contemporary Dance as part of their degree validation by the University of Kent.
He is also the co-convenor of the working group Directing & Dramaturgy within TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association), and of the working group Dramaturgy within the German Gesellschaft für Theaterwissenschaft (Society for Theatre Research).

Senior Lecturer, Theatre Studies
Co-Director, European Theatre Research Network
Programme Convenor, MA European Theatre
Programme Convenor, MA Theatre Directing
Director of Internationalisation, Faculty of Humanities

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Books and edited volumes

• körPERformance 1.0. Theorie und Analyse von Körper- und Bewegungsdarstellungen im zeitgenössischen Theater. München: ePodium 2002
• (Ed., with Katharina Keim, Robert Braunmüller) Theater ohne Grenzen. München: Utz 2003
• (Ed., with Ric Allsopp) Bodiescapes. Performance Research Vol. 8, No. 2, London/New York: Routledge 2003.
• (ed., with Lourdes Orozco), Border Collisions: Contemporary Flemish Theatre, for Contemporary Theatre Review, Vol 20, No. 4 (December 2010)

Selected Essays and book chapters

• ‘Frank Castorf and the Berlin Volksbühne: The Humiliated and Insulted (2001)’ and keyword entry ‘transcoding’, in Sarah Bay-Cheng, Chiel Kattenbelt, Andy Lavender, and Robin Nelson, eds, Mapping Intermediality in Performance. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010, 187, 196-202.
• with Christel Stalpaert: ‘Jan Fabres Affirmationsfalle: Von der (Un-) Möglichkeit politischen Theaters im Zeitalter der Toleranz‘, in Forschungszentrum Sound and Movement, ed., Spielart Festival Reloaded. Berlin: Henschel, 2010, 62-88. ISBN 978-3-89487-661-6
• ‘Theaterwissenschaft Global: Zur internationalen Vernetzung von Studium und Forschung‘, in Forum Modernes Theater: Sonderheft Theaterwissenschaft im deutschsprachigen Raum (2010), 47-52
• ‘Towards a Theatre of Encounter and Experience: Reflexive Dramaturgies and Classic Texts’ - In: Contemporary Theatre Review Vol.20(2)2010, Special issue 'New Dramaturgies', ed. Synne Behrndt and Cathy Turner, 162-172, ISSN 1048-6801 (print), 1477-2264 (online)
• 'Thomas Ostermeier: mission neo(n)realism and a theatre of actors and authors’, in Maria M. Delgado and Dan Rebellato, eds, Contemporary European Directors, Routledge 2010, pp. 339-359.
• 'Exposing The Classics: Michael Thalheimer’s Regie beyond the Text”, Contemporary Theatre Review, Special issue 'German Theatre Beyond the Text ', 18:1, February 2008, pp.30-43
• 'Other People Live: Rimini Protokoll and their Theatre of Experts - an interview', Contemporary Theatre Review, Special issue 'German Theatre Beyond the Text ', 18:1, February 2008, pp. 107-13,
• "Multisensuality and Postdramatic Mise-en-Scène: The ro:theater's Proust-Project", in Malgorzata Suguiera, Mateusz Borowski, eds, Fictional Realities/Real Fictions: Contemporary Theatre in Search of a New Mimetic Paradigm. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, pp. 121-134
• "Tanz als Körper-Zeichen: Zur Methodik der Theater-Tanz-Semiotik", in Gabriele Klein, Gabriele Brandstetter, eds, Bewegung in Übertragung, Bielefeld: Transcript, 2007, pp. 29-45
• 'Decreation Inc.: William Forsythe's equations of 'bodies before the name', Contemporary Theatre Review, Special issue 'The Changing Body', Vol. 17, No.2, April 2007
• 'Mediation Unfinished. Choreographing Intermediality in Contemporary Dance Performance' - In: Chiel Kattenbelt, Freda Chapple, eds, Intermediality in Theatre and Performance, Amsterdam: Rodopi 2006, pp. 151-166
• 'Aesthetic Art to Aisthetic Act. Theatre, Media, Intermedial Performance' - In: Chiel Kattenbelt, Freda Chapple, eds, Intermediality in Theatre and Performance, Amsterdam: Rodopi 2005, pp. 103-116
• 'Alienating Realities. Hygiene Heute and the Politics of Sonic Conspiracy' - In: 3xT Tidsskrift for teori og teater, Nr 15&16/2004, 40-49 (www.trete.no).
• 'Theater der Sensationen. Performance als Wahrnehmungs-Labor' - In: Hajo Kurzenberger, Annemarie Matzke [Eds]: Analyse der Störungen. Theaterwissenschaft und Theaterpraxis, Berlin: Theater der Zeit 2004, 257-64
• 'ElectrONic Bodies. Corpo-Realities in Contemporary Dance Performance' - In: Moving Bodies. Performance Research 8.4/2003, 33-41
• 'Theater als Medium der Moderne? Zum Verhältnis von Medientechnologien und Bühne im 20. Jahrhundert' - In: Christopher Balme, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Stephan Grätzel [Eds]: Theater als Paradigma der Moderne? Positionen zwischen historischer Avantgarde und Medienzeitalter. Mainzer Forschungen zu Drama und Theater 28. Tübingen: Francke 2003, 447-456
• 'Realität - Fiktion - Alienation. Hygiene Heute und die Politik der Grenzverschiebung im Performancetheater' - In: Katharina Keim, Peter M Boenisch, Robert Braunmüller [Eds]: Theater ohne Grenzen. München: Utz 2003, 456-64
• 'coMEDIA electrONica. Performing intermediality in contemporary theatre' - In: Theatre Research International, Vol. 28, No. 1, March 2003, 34-45.

 

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Peter M Boenisch is course convenor of the MA European Theatre and the MA Theatre Directing.

Within the Undergraduate Programme, he convenes

• DR317 Texts for Theatre (Year 1)
  
• DR635 Dance & Discourse (Year 3).

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Peter’s primary interest is in the aesthetics and politicity of theatre performance, with inspiration drawn from Jacques Rancière, Slavoj Žižek, and other contemporary critical philosophers. His research specialisms are contemporary European dramaturgy and directing practices; dance and corporeality on stage; and theatre and intermediality. Recent publications discussed the works of Frank Castorf, Michael Thalheimer, Thomas Ostermeier, Guy Cassiers, Jan Fabre, and Rimini Protokoll. The special issue “Border Collisions: Contemporary Flemish Theatre” of Contemporary Theatre Review which he co-edited with Lourdes Orozco has been published in December 2010.

Peter currently prepares a monograph on directing and spectating texts in contemporary theatre and a project on contemporary dance performance, as well as contributing to the forthcoming Cambridge World Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting.

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Peter welcomes proposals for postgraduate research in the following areas:

• European Theatre, especially German and Flemish/Dutch theatre
• Directing and Dramaturgy
• Dance and Corporeality
• Theory and Aesthetics of Theatre and Performance
• Theatre and Intermediality

Please contact him for an informal discussion of potential projects.

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