Our staff
Dr Neal Swettenham
Tel: +44 01509 222963
Role: Lecturer in Drama
Email: N.Swettenham@lboro.ac.uk
Room NN.0.19, Martin Hall Building, East Park
Publications
Research
My primary research interests are in the areas of narrative in performance, the theatre of Richard Foreman, contemporary Shakespeare in performance, and radical texts for performance. Recent publications include 'Irish Rioters, Latin American Dictators and Desperate Optimists' Play-boy' in New Theatre Quarterly (21.3), 'Categories and Catcalls: cognitive dissonance in The Playboy of the Western World' in Performance and Cognition, eds. McConachie and Hart (New York: Routledge, 2006), and ‘The Actor’s Problem: performing the plays of Richard Foreman’ in New Theatre Quarterly (24.1). I am currently writing a book about Richard Foreman's work in Europe, and teaching an undergraduate module which explores these highly unusual texts.
Richard Foreman Research Archive
I curate the Richard Foreman Research Archive, held at the University, which includes DVD recordings of the majority of his plays staged by the Ontological Hysteric Theatre Company over the last fifteen years, together with other production materials and full video documentation of Foreman's visit to the University in May 2006. (An edited documentary of his work with the students here, Trust Me, can be purchased from the Department.)
Teaching
My PhD thesis was an examination of the role and status of narrative in performance and I have presented papers based on this research at conferences both nationally and internationally. I teach across a range of theoretical and practical modules at Loughborough, in connection with my research interests, including 'Eternal Drama' and 'Contemporary Shakespeare'.
Professional experience
I am a professional actor and musical director, and have appeared at theatres across the country, including two seasons at the Leicester Haymarket, and as a regular performer with Riding Lights Theatre Company; on television – in programmes as varied as Miss Marple and Eastenders – and on the radio.