Dr Sophie Bush
Principal Lecturer
Summary
As Head of Stage and Screen, I manage the teams responsible for delivering our Acting & Performance, Film Studies and Screenwriting & Film degrees. My own research and teaching is in theatre and performance, with a particular focus on new writing by women in the twentieth and twenty-first century. I have published on Timberlake Wertenbaker, Caryl Churchill, Charlotte Keatley, Alecky Blythe and Martin Crimp, and am currently working on a new monograph on Laura Wade.
About
My research career began with a comprehensive doctoral study of the playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, which became the basis for my first monograph The Theatre of Timberlake Wertenbaker (Bloomsbury). From this basis, I have been commissioned to produce several student-facing texts and editions of plays by Wertenbaker, Caryl Churchill and Charlotte Keatley; and have continued to publish related research in internationally recognised, peer-reviewed journals. As a body of work, my publications seek to make visible and to celebrate the work of contemporary women writers, to uncover and examine lesser-known plays within their oeuvres, and to suggest a genealogy of women's playwriting, which is too often ignored in mainstream theatre criticism. I continue this work with my latest project on the theatre of Laura Wade.
Specialist areas of interest
Contemporary British theatre history, British women playwrights, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Charlotte Keatley, theatre and politics, tenderness.
Teaching
College of Social Sciences and Arts
Subject Area
Stage and Screen
Courses
BA Acting & Performance
Modules
Acting Ensemble
Acting with Texts
Change Makers' Festival
Talent Accelerator.
Research
Current Projects
The Theatre of Laura Wade (co-authored monograph).
I am currently working with Dr Henry Bell (University of the West of Scotland) on a co-authored monograph, which will provide the first book-length study of the work of contemporary playwright, Laura Wade. The book will examine Wade's oeuvre from a range of critical and performance perspectives, and include insights from several of Wade's key collaborators.
Collaborators and Sponsors
Publications
Journal articles
Bush, S. (2019). Cruelty, tenderness and anger: ensuring the Women of Trachis speak to our times. Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, 12 (1-2), 5-18. http://doi.org/10.1386/jafp.12.1-2.5_1
Bush, S. (2017). Putting on the red boots: role-play as ‘coping work’ and ‘creative work’ in the theatrical representation of prostitution. Studies in Theatre and Performance, 1-16. http://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2017.1311507
Bush, S., & Daniels, M. (2015). No flowers: performative interventions 'at the moment of' Margaret Thatcher's passing. TDR/The Drama Review, 59 (2), 103-113. http://doi.org/10.1162/DRAM_a_00452
Books
Wertenbaker, T. (2020). Our Country's Good Based on the novel 'The Playmaker' by Thomas Keneally. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Bush, S. (Ed.). (2018). Top Girls (Student Edition). Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama).
Bush, S. (Ed.). (2015). My Mother Said I Never Should (GCSE Student Edition). Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama).
Bush, S. (2015). My Mother Said I Never Should GCSE Student Guide. Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama).
Bush, S. (2013). The theatre Of Timberlake Wertenbaker. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama.
Theses / Dissertations
Haley, C.J. (2021). The politics of neo-burlesque:an investigation into theperformer–audience relationship. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Bush, S., Abulhawa, D., O'Brien, S., & Pateman, M. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00464
Other activities
SCUDD Rep External Examiner, BA Drama & Theatre Practice, University of Hull.
Postgraduate supervision
I am available to supervise research projects on contemporary theatre and performance history and/or practice. I am particularly interested in projects that seek to uncover and/or explore work by women and/or other minoritised groups.
Current supervision: Claudia Haley - The Politics of Neo-Burlesque: an investigation into the performer-audience relationship.