Dr. Holly Maples
East 15 School of Acting (University of Essex)
Principal Investigator
Dr Holly Maples is a theatre maker, educator and scholar. She is the Director of Impact and Post Graduate Research at East 15 School of Acting, University of Essex. She has published widely on audience research, immersive performance, commemoration, collective identity, and the performance of history. Her recent performance practice and research particularly investigate immersive performance in the heritage industry. She has created a number of site specific and immersive heritage performances in Ireland and the United Kingdom. She is currently the Primary Investigator on a UK Economic and Social Research Council Project on the impact of COVID-19 on Freelance Arts Workers in the United Kingdom.
Prof. Rosemary Klich
East 15 School of Acting (University of Essex)
Co-Investigator
Professor Rosemary Klich is Director of Research and Head of BA Creative Producing at East 15 Acting School, University of Essex. She specialises in multimedia, immersive, and participatory theatre. Her current research investigates media, sound, and spectatorship, and her teaching expertise is in the theory and making of contemporary performance practice. Her co-authored book Multimedia Performance was published with Palgrave in 2012 and she has since published in journals such as Contemporary Theatre Review, Performance Research, International Journal of Performing Arts and Digital Media, and Body Space Technology. She has also undertaken various practice-as-research projects working in collaboration with performers, videographers, sound designers and photographers. Rosemary holds a PhD from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia and has presented keynote talks at conferences and symposia in Poland, Korea, Belgium and the UK.
Dr. James Rowson
East 15 School of Acting (University of Essex)
Postdoctoral Researcher
James Rowson is a Postdoctoral Researcher at East 15 Acting School, University of Essex. In January 2021, he joined the team on the ‘Freelancers in the Dark’ project. His work draws new light on the experiences of freelance theatre-makers working in the United Kingdom and explores new areas of artistic practice developed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He received his PhD from the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he was supervised by Dr Chris Megson. His primary research examines the revival of new theatre writing in Russia since 2000, in the context of the political, social and cultural background of the Putin era. He is also an editorial assistant for Contemporary Theatre Review.
Dr. Josh Edelman
Manchester Metropolitan University
Co-Investigator
Dr Joshua Edelman is senior lecturer at the Manchester School of Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University. Though his original training is in the anthropology of religion, he has worked for over a decade as a theatre director, largely in Dublin and New York. He is the editor of the journal Performance, Religion and Spirituality (prs-journal.org) and a member of the Project on European Theatre Systems (STEP). His books include Performing Religion in Public (co-edited with Claire Chambers and Simon du Toit, Routledge 2013) and The Problem of Theatrical Autonomy: Analysing Theatre as a Social Practice (co-authored with Quirijn van den Hoogen and Louise Hansen, Amsterdam University Press, 2016). His articles have appeared in Performance Research, Cultural Trends, Amfiteater, Nordic Theatre Studies, Ecumenica and Liturgy.
Dr. Laura Harris
Manchester Metropolitan University
Postdoctoral Researcher
Laura Harris is a sociologist interested in culture, visual art, and hidden labour. Her PhD was a collaboration with Bluecoat, Liverpool’s centre for the contemporary arts, and was a socio-material study of the exhibition making process. Laura is interested in visual methods, particularly film-making, and the overlap between contemporary art practices and sociological methods. She is currently working on the project ‘Freelancers in the Dark’ which explores the social, cultural and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theatre freelancers. Laura is also an arts writer, and often reviews exhibition in the North West.
Dr. Ali FitzGibbon
Queen’s University Belfast
Co-Investigator
Dr Ali FitzGibbon is a lecturer and Subject Lead for Arts Management and Cultural Policy at Queen’s University Belfast. Her research focuses on decision-making and the ethics and ecologies of contemporary cultural production, with a particular focus on performing arts and freelancers/artists. Her doctoral research on the artist as stakeholder in UK theatre was shortlisted for the 2020 ENCATC Research Award and she has published research in a range of international journals. She has over 25 years’ experience as a multi-arts producer, programmer, consultant and policy advisor. In addition to this project, she is a Co-Investigator on ‘Future Screens NI’, part of the UK Creative Industries Clusters Programme.
Dr. Kurt Taroff
Queen’s University Belfast
Co-Investigator
Dr. Kurt Taroff is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Head of the School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s University Belfast. He was Co-Investigator on Living Legacies 1914-18 First World War Engagement Centre, an AHRC-funded project exploring community engagement with the history and legacy of WWI through performance. He has also published on interiority in avant-garde theatre and on adaptation in the Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, Forum Modernes Theater, and Marvels and Tales, among others.
Dr. Allie Young
East 15 School of Acting (University of Essex)
Project Officer
Allie Young has recently completed her PhD at Newcastle University, researching the ‘transformation’ of Medellín, Colombia, through a gender lens. This ESRC-funded research project considered the strategies and experiences of urban change, and creative engagements within the changing urban landscape. Before starting her PhD, Allie worked as Operations Manager at Universal Arts, programming and managing Edinburgh Fringe Festival venues. She has also worked as a Creative Producer, as well as organising events and undertaking research within the charity sector. Allie is currently Project Officer on the Freelancers in the Dark project, alongside teaching at Newcastle University.
Freelancers in the Dark 