I joined the University of Kent in 2008 after serving as Academic Coordinator of Theatre Studies at the University of Malta from 2004 to 2008.

My main area of specialisation is actor training. I am also interested in critical theory, especially in psychoanalysis and postmodern thought. In my work I often seek to combine insights from theatre practice with critical theory.

I have been involved in theatre since 1989, working with various directors, mainly John Schranz (1989-2003), Ingemar Lindh (1994-1997), and Lech Raczak (1994, 1996). My solo performance Id-Descartes (1996-2003) was presented in various European contexts.

In the course of my activity in theatre I have developed a way of relating to the work of the actor based on a study of elaboration of acrobatics, plastiques, martial arts, dance, and mime. I have also developed a vocal training process which evolved from the work on physical actions.

In 2001 I founded Icarus Performance Project – a still-ongoing theatre laboratory practice that investigates the space between training and performance processes.

In 2007 I co-founded Icarus Publishing with Odin Teatret (Denmark) and the Grotowski Institute (Poland) with the aim of presenting seminal texts in English by artists and scholars about the practice and vision of theatre as a laboratory.

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Publications and Practice Outputs

Books

• Dramaturgy of a Performance Process (Malta: Icarus Performance Project, 2006). ISBN 99932-0-418-8 (72 pages)
  
• Id-Descartes: Identity of a Dramaturgy, with John J. Schranz (Malta: GHE, 1996). ISBN 99909-68-16-0 (64 pages)

Edited books

• Stepping Stones by Ingemar Lindh (Icarus Publishing Enterprise: Holstebro–Malta–Wrocław), 2010. ISBN 978-83-61835-44-8 (232 pages)
  
• The Second Phase (Malta: Icarus Performance Project, 2004). ISBN 99932-0-308-8 (32 pages)
  
• ICARUS 4 (Malta: Icarus GHE, 2003). ISBN 99932-0-244-4 (24 pages)

Articles

• 'Making Visible the Invisible: Ingemar Lindh's Practice of Collective Improvisation and Etienne Decroux', Contemporary Theatre Review, forthcoming.
• 'Between Laboratory and Institution: Practice as Research in No Man's Land', TDR: The Drama Review, forthcoming.
• 'Of Crossroads and Undercurrents: Ingemar Lindh's Practice of Collective Improvisation and Jerzy Grotowski', New Theatre Quarterly, 27:4 (2011), 299–312.
• Introduction and Glossary of Terms, Stepping Stones by Ingemar Lindh (Icarus Publishing Enterprise: Holstebro–Malta–Wrocław, 2010), pp. xiii–xxv, 211–31.
  
• ‘Tekhne Sessions: Investigating Dynamic Aliveness in the Actor’s Work’, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 1:2 (2010), 157–71. [Routledge journal]
• ‘Of Pounds of Flesh and Trojan Horses: Performer Training in the Twenty-first Century’, On Training special issue, Performance Research, 14:2 (2009), 26–34. [Routledge journal]
  
• ‘Collective Improvisation: The Practice and Vision of Ingemar Lindh’, The Drama Review, 52:3 (T200) Winter 2008, 82–97. [Massachusetts Institute of Technology journal]
  
• ‘“To Push the Actor-Training to Its Extreme”: Training Process in Ingemar Lindh’s Practice of Collective Improvisation’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 18:1 (2008), 425–42. [Routledge journal]
  
• ‘Hospitality and the Ethics of Improvisation in the Work of Ingemar Lindh’, New Theatre Quarterly, 24.3 (2008), 246–59. [Cambridge University Press journal]
  
• ‘Exploring the Liminal: Engaging the Space between Training and Performance Process’, International Theatre Movement Conference: At the Moscow Art Theatre School, April 2007, ed. by Bruce Wooding (London: Central School of Speech and Drama, 2008), pp. 27–30.
  
• ‘I can still feel his eyes on me’, an interview by Elzbieta Stelmaszczyk, in Pogranicza (Polish journal) 1/2003 (42), pp. 29–43. A substantial part of this interview has also been included in a book by Juliusz Tyszka (Szczecin: Studio 69, 2002), pp. 80–88.
  
• ‘Gisem l’Isem: Il-Kitba tat-Teatru f’Malta’, in Il-Kitba Teatrali f’Malta: Hemm xi Krizi?, conference proceedings, eds. V. Cremona, M. Galea, I. Mifsud (Malta: Malta University Press, 1998), pp. 76–83.

Performance work: Devised, performed, and directed

The Queen Project (2006–2008)

• Duration 56 (May/June 2008), Icarus Performance Project, Malta.
  
• RISK: El Riesgo de La Reina (July/August 2007), Icarus Performance Project, Malta.
  
• La Reina: A Vocal Structure (August 2006), Icarus Performance Project, Malta.

Cain Project (2001–2005)

• Lamentations of Cain (August 2005), Icarus Project Third Phase presentation, Malta.
  
• Amargo TWO (Oct 2004), Icarus Project Second Phase presentation: trio fused with a chorus, Malta.
  
• TWO.2 (August 2004), Icarus Project Second Phase presentation: duo fused with a solo, Malta.
  
• TWO (April 2004), Icarus Project Second Phase presentation: two solos fused as a duo, Malta.
  
• ICARUS 4 (2003), Icarus Project First Phase presentation: four solos, Malta.
  
• Amargo: The Tragedy of the Man Doomed to Die (2002–03), solo performance, Malta.

Other projects

• Tekhnē Sessions has been presented in various contexts, either as a full or as a conference presentation, including Malta (2003, 2004), Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland, 2004), University of Exeter (UK, 2006), Moscow Art Theatre School (Russia, 2007), University of Evora (Portugal, 2007), and University of Plymouth (UK, 2009).
• Id-Descartes, solo performance co-created with John J. Schranz: Malta (1996, 1997, 2001), Sassari (Sardinia, 1996, 2000), Urbino (Italy, 1997, 2002), Biella (Italy, 1997), Rome (1998), Tartu (Estonia, 1999), Edinburgh (1999), Thessaloniki (2001), Poznan (Poland, 2002), Ragusa (Sicily, 2003). equivalent to a published monograph

Performance work: Performed 

• La Pietra e il Dolore, directed by Lech Raczak, Urbino (Italy), 1996.
  
• Inkontri Possibbli, directed by John J. Schranz, Malta (1995, 1996), Rome (1995), Pontedera (1996).
  
• La Vita di S. Giovanni, directed by Lech Raczak, Urbino (Italy), 1994.
  
• Berlin! Berlin!, directed by John J. Schranz, Malta, 1992.

Audio-visual publications

• D56, DVD (Canterbury: Icarus Performance Project and Foreign Body Films, 2009).
  
• Lamentations of Cain, DVD (Malta: Icarus Performance Project, 2007).
  
• ‘Structure/Improvisation: Investigating the Performative Condition’, in The Changing Body Symposium, DVD-ROM (Exeter Digital Archives: Arts Documentation Unit, University of Exeter, 2006).
  
• Tekhnē Sessions 2004, DVD (Malta: Icarus Performance Project, 2005).

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My teaching at the University of Kent is mostly practice based. I teach a first year module in Performance Skills, a second year module in Physical Theatre training, and masters level modules in Physical Actor Training and Performance. I also contribute sessions and lectures in other modules, including European Theatre and Modern Theatre.

All my teaching is informed by my practical and academic interest in training and performance processes.

Theatre practitioners such as Jerzy Grotowski, Eugenio Barba, Etienne Decroux and Ingemar Lindh, inform the way I go about approaching the work of the actor.

Likewise, subjects such as interculturalism, improvisation, and ethical contexts, constitute an integral part of my research and teaching interests

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My principal research and supervision interests are in

• the practice and theory of performer training processes;
• improvisation in actor training and performance;
• European laboratory theatre, in particular Jerzy Grotowski, Eugenio Barba, Etienne Decroux, and Ingemar Lindh.

Parallel to this I am interested in:

• interdisciplinary research methods, specifically those drawing on critical and cultural theory,
• documentation of practice.

Current and past research students include:

• voice in contemporary theatre practice,
• Butoh in a western context,
• early 20th century Russian theatre practice,
• collective improvisation and Ingemar Lindh,
• photography and the actor’s work.

I am very interested in supervising MAs and PhDs in these and related areas and welcome queries on possibilities of postgraduate study. Prospective students should feel free to contact me for a chat about their postgraduate plans and aspirations.

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