Dr Laura Purcell Gates

Personal Statement

Personal Statement

Lecturer: Drama and Performing Arts. School of Music and Performing Arts

BA [Vassar College], MTS [Harvard University], PhD [University of Minnesota]

Personal Statement

Laura joined Bath Spa University in 2011 after completing a PhD in Theatre Arts at the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral thesis examined the intersections of physical theatre pedagogies with constructions of the body and self in France from the late nineteenth century to the present. Her main areas of research concern the performing body as object, particularly the intersections between acting theories and various framings of the body, including the body as material excess or as machine.

She is Co-Artistic Director of Wattle & Daub Figure Theatre, a Bristol-based touring puppetry and visual theatre company; trained at the École Philippe Gaulier and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art; and has over 15 years of experience as an actor, director and puppeteer in New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Minneapolis.

Teaching Interests

Applied Theatre, Puppetry, Physical Theatre, Devising, Mask, Clown, Gender Studies, Performance Studies

Research Interests

Ideologies and constructions of the body and self; embodied critical pedagogy; puppetry and the performing object, particularly intersections with the abject and the uncanny

Publications and Papers Delivered

'Locating the Self: Narratives and Practices of Authenticity in French Clown Training.' Journal of Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, scheduled for publication in upcoming issue 2.2

'The Frozen Face: Ideologies of Mechanization in Neutral Mask Training.' Presented for the Performer Training Working Group at the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Conference at the University of Plymouth, September 2009

'Disorientation of the Theatre Artist: The Haptic Space of Devising.' Presented at the Theatre Noise Conference at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London, April 2009

'Tout bouge: The (Re)Construction of the Body in Lecoq-based Performance Pedagogy.' Presented for the Performer Training Working Group at the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Conference at the University of Leeds, September 2008

'Pedagogy of Proposals: Devising as a Tactic for Individual and Group Identity Reconciliation.' Presented at the University of Exeter's Researching Applied Drama, Theatre and Performance Conference, April 2008

Critical Discourse Analysis of the Body Workshop. Given at the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) Conference at the University of Minnesota, June 2007

'A Happy Mistake: Creative Collaboration as Pedagogical Strategy.' Presented at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's (ATHE) Women and Theatre Program Conference, Feminist Pedagogy Work Group, Chicago, August 2006

Status and Gender Performance Workshop. Given at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's (ATHE) Women and Theatre Program Conference, Chicago, August 2006

Panel Member: 'Who Let the Turgs Out? Dramaturgs and the Community.' Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) Conference, Minneapolis, July 2006

'The Un-Taming of the Shrew: Rewriting Shakespeare, Reconciling Identity.' Presented at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education's (ATHE) Women and Theatre Program Conference, San Francisco, July 2005

'Dance of the Black Madonna: Creating Space for Female Transgression.' Presented on the Religion and Theatre Focus Group Panel at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference 'Bridging Communities, Engaging Creativity', San Francisco, July 2005

'Reflections of Jane: Mirror Trope as Subversive Strategy in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's The Yellow Wallpaper.' Presented at Université de Reims Champagne Ardenne Colloque: 'L'ordre et le chaos/Chaos and Order', March 2005