Neil Sissons

Senior Lecturer in performance

I first started teaching at Sheffield Hallam University in 2010 and became a full-time lecturer in 2011. I teach • performance • approaches to text • performance for radio • performance for TV.

Before this, I spent the whole of my working life in the professional theatre, and directed just under 100 professional productions.

I was the artistic director of Compass Theatre Company from 1982 until 2007. Compass’ repertoire focussed mainly on the classics, aiming to make lucid, emotional and intelligent productions that engaged with the heart of the text in a contemporary manner. This work toured to small, medium and large scale theatres throughout the UK. The company also toured internationally, including work throughout Europe, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia.

Additionally, amongst other freelance work, I was associate director of Hull Truck Theatre Company for eight years. Of the many shows I directed for Hull Truck, three played in the West End. I have an ongoing association with the new John Godber Company.

This has given me experience in both the subsidised and commercial theatre sectors.

During this time I have written a number of new plays, adaptations and created new translations of Ibsen’s 'A Doll’s House' and Chekhov’s 'The Proposal' and 'The Evils of Tobacco'.

Alongside my theatre work I have run workshops and master-classes in a number of colleges and universities across the country.

Shelley O'Brien

Principal lecturer in screen studies

I developed my love of film at a very early age, encouraged by my parents. I was finally able to study the subject seriously when I gained a place at Sheffield City Polytechnic. I graduated in 1992 with a BA (Hons) History of Art, Design and Film, and began teaching film classes in 1992. I gained an MPhil award from Sheffield Hallam in 2000, for my thesis entitled Body Horror Movies: Their Emergence and Evolution.

Although teaching was not initially my intention, I discovered that I enjoyed being able to put my passion for film to good use.

My main areas of research and interest are horror cinema, Japanese cinema, and film music. Recent conference papers have looked at the so-called 'torture-porn' cycle, and the art of sound in movies.

I have recently written a book chapter to be included in the McFarland publication, Roman Catholicism in Fantastic Film, entitled 'Killer Priests: The Last Taboo?'

Jon Bridle

Senior lecturer

I am the co-course leader for the BA Scriptwriting with Screen Studies and teach a range of modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level including • introduction to screenwriting • the screenwriter in film history • contemporary British TV • screenwriting and professional practice.

I gained a BA in English and Creative Writing from the University of Derby in 2001, an MA in Writing for Performance and Publication from the University of Leeds and a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education from Sheffield Hallam University in 2011. I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I am also a television/radio comedy writer and have written sketch and stand-up material for a range of shows such as • That Mitchell and Webb Look • That Mitchell and Webb Sound • Scallywagga • School of Comedy • Ask Rhod Gilbert • Bearded Ladies. More recently, I have successfully developed and sold a sitcom pilot, co-written a feature film treatment for Warp Films and am currently developing a sitcom with Little Comet productions.

My teaching/research interests include screenwriting and British television history and I am especially passionate about helping my screenwriting students follow their ambitions and get their work out into the ‘real world’!

Phil Charles

Senior lecturer in screenwriting

I lecture and script workshop on second and third year screenwriting modules in the department of stage and screen. Working at Sheffield Hallam on a part-time basis, I'm a commissioned scriptwriter who's written for TV series Shameless, Murphy's Law and Doctors. I've also had an original comedy drama series transmitted on BBC radio. I presently have various original TV and film projects in development. Before discovering my love for screenwriting I worked as a copywriter at various advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson.

I am totally passionate about screenwriting and very much enjoy working with new writers, helping them to develop their ideas and craft their screenplays to an industry standard. Being a working writer means I have links with the TV and film industries and am able to pass on to students up-to-date information.

James McNicholas

Lecturer in performance

I began teaching at Sheffield Hallam University in 2009. I have both current and past experience of performing and teaching in both the UK and also USA, crossing the areas of acting, dance choreography and music. My previous training includes being under the tutelage of some extremely experienced and energetic theatre professionals, such as Opera North Co-Founder Paul Wade and Choreographer Eddie Copp of Momentum Dance.

My teaching ranges from text-based performance, through to devised physical theatre. I expect a high level of dedication from my students, and enjoy working on poignant and dynamic performances with them. Alongside my teaching, I am also completing a PhD in theatre improvisation and intercultural theatre practice. One of my most recent research interests includes a growing relationship with emerging all-female devised theatre company; The Paper Birds. My research work also includes my teaching and performance work.

Dr Sophie Bush

Lecturer in performance

My background includes teaching, research and theatre making: three areas I am delighted to be able to unite in my position at Sheffield Hallam.

Broadly speaking, my research and teaching interests lie in contemporary theatre history and practice, and the processes of playmaking. I am currently adapting my doctoral research on the playwriting of Timberlake Wertenbaker for a monograph for Methuen, and have published several articles and delivered numerous conference papers on this topic.
 
I also run a small female ensemble (Bread&Roses), with whom I devise original work. I began teaching at Sheffield Hallam in 2010 and became a full-time member of staff in 2012.

Teaching interests
• contemporary British theatre
• theatre history and historiography
• women's theatre and playwriting
• theatre criticism
• studying, interpreting and creating texts

Publications

• (2010) Review of International Dramaturgy: Translation and Transformations in the Theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker by Maya E. Roth and Sara Freeman (eds.). Modern Drama, 53(2).

• (2010) ‘Battered if tenuously optimistic’: Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Female Bodies. Bodies of Work [online]. (http://www.bodiesofwork.info/Battered.html)

• (2010) Interview with Valerie West. British Library Theatre Archive Project [online]. (http://www.bl.uk/projects/theatrearchive/westv4.html)

• (2009) ‘The inevitable need to speak in order to be’: On the loss of voice in two plays by Timberlake Wertenbaker. FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, 9 [online]. (http://forum.llc.ed.ac.uk/current_issue/09/Bush.php)

Suzanne Speidel

Lecturer

Phone: 0114 2256222
E-mail s.speidel@shu.ac.uk

I currently teach modules on film adaptation and film narrative. I also enjoy teaching courses on British cinema and European cinemas. I am the module leader for the MA module, adaptation reloaded, which covers adaptations across film, literature, theatre, television, radio, comic book and computer game.

My teaching reflects my academic background in English literature, and my particular interest is in developing modules on the BA English and Screen Studies.

My research is interdisciplinary across film, literature and television. I am very interested in relationships and comparisons between mediums, in the ways that one narrative may influence another, and in how stories are adapted across media.

I am currently writing a book, Adapting Forster, on film adaptations of the novels of E. M. Forster, which is due to published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2011. This book is a new departure for me, in that it has a special focus on screenwriting.

Other publications include 'The Ending Is Out There,' in The X-Files and Literature, Sharon Yang (ed.) (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007), 'Film Form and Narrative,' in An Introduction to Film Studies (Fourth Edition), Jill Nelmes (ed.) (Routledge, 2007), and 'Post-impressionism and the cinema: how we are 'made to see' in Conrad's Victory' in Joseph Conrad and the Performing Arts, Katherine Baxter and Richard Hand (eds.) (Ashgate, 2009).

I can offer expertise in film adaptation, costume drama, contemporary American television and German cinema.

Sheldon Hall

Senior lecturer

Sheldon Hall lectures on film history and criticism in the department of stage and screen. His research interests are primarily in American and British cinema, especially large-scale films of the 1950s and 1960s, but he has also been known to enjoy subtitled continental conversation pieces. He recently talked to the BBC's Timewatch about epic movies.

He is the author of Zulu: With Some Guts Behind It (2005), co-author of Epics, Spectacles and Blockbusters: A Hollywood History (2010) and co-editor of Widescreen Worldwide (2010), and has written numerous articles for a wide variety of books and journals.

A journalist and film reviewer in a former life, he has also recorded DVD commentaries and contributed to Channel Four documentaries. As well as leading the MA in Film Studies at Sheffield Hallam, Dr Hall organises extra-mural courses at Sheffield's Showroom Cinema and is external examiner at Kingston University.

Martin Carter

Principal lecturer

After a career in IT I decided to do something interesting with my life and follow my passion for film by taking a degree and masters in film studies at Sheffield Hallam.

I have been lecturing here for more than five years, specialising in • British cinema • Hollywood • documentary. I love teaching, especially encouraging students to engage with film from places and periods that are unfamiliar to them. Seeing students discover films that change their lives is an unforgettable experience, and one that we hope every student will have whilst studying here with us.

Teaching interests
• British cinema – classic and contemporary
• The history of documentary filmmaking
• Hollywood on Hollywood
• British science fiction – film and TV

I have presented numerous academic papers at conferences over recent years and am a contributor to Vertigo magazine.

Research interests
• British cinema – particularly 1930s and 1940s
• Hollywood – film noir, political cinema and independent film production
• Documentary – the work of Dziga Vertov, Humphrey Jennings, Chris Marker and Werner Herzog
• European horror cinema of the 1960s and 1970s

Ashley Barnes

Lecturer

E-mail ashley.barnes@shu.ac.uk
Phone 0114 225 6220

I have taught performance at Sheffield Hallam University since 2007 and formerly at the University of Leeds. However, my work firmly bridges both academia and professional practice as I am also the founder and artistic director of Dead Earnest Theatre.

Dead Earnest is an applied theatre company working with clients from across the country to use theatre techniques to engage, inspire, empower and consult. Most of Dead Earnest's work is in the fields of creative learning and health and wellbeing.

The clients I have worked with include the
• General Medical Council
• Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (CAFCASS)
• The Child Workforce Development Council
• Creative Partnerships
• hospitals and primary care trusts (PCTs)
• councils

Applied theatre is tailoring theatre interventions to specific audiences and for specific goals, and I am interested in developing the range of techniques that can be used to measure its success in achieving behaviour change.