Theatre and Television:
Adaptation, Production, Performance
a University of Westminster conference, marking the end of the
AHRC-funded research project ŒScreen Plays: Theatre Plays on British
Television¹,
Alexandra Palace, Thursday 19 and Friday 20 February 2015

This conference is the culminating event of the AHRC-funded research project
ŒScreen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television¹. It will be held at
Alexandra Palace on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 February 2015.

The programme is packed with a rich variety of talks from leading scholars
in the field, including a keynote lecture from Professor Stephen Lacey of
the University of South Wales and a special event in which Greg Doran,
Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, talks about
Shakespearean productions on television and the cinema screen. In addition,
the public version of the Screen Plays database will be launched and a
walking tour of Alexandra Palace as the birthplace of television will enable
the topic to be grounded in its earliest production contexts.

The £40 conference fee includes all refreshments, a wine reception and lunch
on the second day of the conference. Early booking is advised as numbers are
strictly limited to 50 seats. To register, please contact Dr Amanda Wrigley
on [log in to unmask]

Further information will be posted on the conference website at
http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com/conference-2015.

Provisional programme


Thursday 19 February 2015
The conference opens at 1pm (with coffee, registration and welcome) and runs
to 7pm, followed by an informal dinner (not covered by the conference fee).
 
Keynote lecture + discussion
Stephen Lacey, Emeritus Professor, the Centre for the Study of Media and
Culture in Small Nations, University of South Wales
Œ ³All drama which owes its form or substance to theatre plays is OUT² (Troy
Kennedy Martin): conflicting ideas about ³theatricality² in UK television
drama¹
 
Panel 1. Early television and intermediality
Charles Barr, Professorial Research Fellow, St Mary¹s University
ŒStages of theatricality: some connections between early cinema, early sound
cinema, and early television¹
 
John Wyver, Senior Research Fellow, University of Westminster; Producer,
Illuminations
Œ ³A play a day²: the riches and intermedial relationships of theatre plays
and other drama on pre-war television¹
 
Lez Cooke, Senior Research Officer, Royal Holloway, University of London
            ŒAnastasia (BBC, 1953): a phoenix rises from the ashes¹
 
Panel 2. Early drama on the small screen
Amanda Wrigley, Research Fellow, University of Westminster
            ŒMystery plays on television¹
 
Susanne Greenhalgh, Principal Lecturer, University of Roehampton
            ŒWomen dipped in blood: televising sex and violence in
Middleton¹s tragedies¹
 
Varsha Panjwani, Lecturer, Boston University (London); Research Associate,
University of York
ŒCo-authorship in theatre and television: The Changeling as a case-study¹
 
Special event + wine reception
Greg Doran, Artistic Director, Royal Shakespeare Company
ŒTheatricality in Shakespeare productions on television and the cinema
screen¹
                        Interviewed by John Wyver, University of Westminster
 
Friday 20 February 2015
Day 2 opens at 8.30am with coffee. The first panel begins at 9am. The
conference closes at 5.30pm.
 
Panel 3. Politics
Sos Eltis, Fellow and Tutor in English, Brasenose College and the University
of Oxford
ŒHow did television adaptations of plays by Wilde and Shaw reflect or stand
aside from the political, critical and technical developments of the 1980s?¹
 
David Warren, Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and De
Montfort University
ŒHow did theatre plays on British television between 1946 and the early
1980s reflect the political and social environment of the British theatre of
that period?¹
 
Sally Shaw, PhD candidate, University of Portsmouth
ŒFrom radical black theatre production to television adaptation: Black Feet
in the Snow (1974, BBC)¹
 
Launch of the Screen Plays database


Panel 4. British plays from stage to screen
Billy Smart, Research Officer, Royal Holloway, University of London
            ŒThree television reconfigurations of John Osborne¹
 
James Charlton, Director of Programmes, Media Arts, Middlesex University
ŒIf a thing's worth doing, it's worth doing on public television ­ Joe
Orton¹s plays on television¹
 
Kate Iles, Lecturer in Screenwriting and Production, University of
Roehampton
            ŒMy Boy Jack, adapted from stage to screen¹
 
Lunch
 
Alexandra Palace as the birthplace of television: a walking tour
 
Panel 5. Broader contexts I
Jonathan Bignell, Professor of Television and Film, University of Reading
            ŒRights, performance and adaptation¹
 
Leah Panos, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Reading
            ŒTelevising theatre plays on Full House (1972-73)¹
 
Panel 6. Broader contexts II
Laurence Raw, Department of English, Baskent University, Ankara
            ŒShakespeare as national icon: King Lear on British and Turkish
television¹
 
Tom Cantrell, Acting Head of Theatre, University of York, & Christopher
Hogg, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, Sheffield Hallam
University
            ŒSiân Phillips: theatre on television ­ an actor¹s perspective¹
 
End of conference and end of project reflections


*With apologies for cross-posting*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Amanda Wrigley, Research Fellow
Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television
University of Westminster
http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com <http://screenplaystv.wordpress.com/>
http://amandawrigley.wordpress.com <http://amandawrigley.wordpress.com/>
@amanda_wrigley on Twitter




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