Dr Richard Talbot
School of Arts, Media and Creative Technologies
Current positions
Senior Lecturer
Biography
I joined the University of Salford in 2010 with a background as a theatre maker and performer. With Triangle Theatre I devised the award-winning museum performance project Whissell & Williams and have toured internationally, as well as in repertory theatres (The 101 Dalmatians, Belgrade Theatre) and at the Edinburgh Festival (Looking for The Tallyman, The Singing Nun, På Genhør Med Nina og Frederik). Over the last 10 years I have collaborated with Ridiculusmus, winners of the Herald Archangel Award 2019, appearing in The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland, and working on Total Football, Goodbye Princess, How To Be Funny, and The Exhibitionists. We have performaed at the ICA, London, Royal Court Theatre, National Theatre Studio, and on tour in Malawi for the British Council. In 24/25 we hope to be working with Crescent Moon Theatre, Thailand (funding application submitted!). My Film and TV work includes Tribute (dir. Debbie Isitt) and Noble & Silver (Ch4). My AHRC funded PhD (Roehampton University, 2008) investigated clowning and archival practices after which I was the Leverhulme Trust Artist-in-Residence at Roehampton University working on the Olympiad related participatory project Knickers & Vests. I was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund to create performances as part of the First World War commemorations through to 2018 ('Tank Tram' - an interdisciplinary project with engineers, historians and performers). Through the Connected Communities project and UnLtd Social Enterprise I established a contemporary devised performance group for older people and received a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust award in 2016 to develop online clowning practices for older people in Swinton, especially those living with a diagnosis of dementia. Through the pandemic I investigated the comedy of language learning, language labs and memory leading to a pop-up performance series, 'Café Delay' in collaboration with older people's groups in Sefton Borough, Liverpool and Kendal. In 2023 I returned to experiments with digital clowning and puppetry in virtual spaces: 'Human-Idiot-Puppet' involved a residency at Studio Kura, Itoshima, Japan working with puppeteers and visual artists, funded by the Great Britain Sasakawa Fund.
Areas of Research
I have worked on numerous interdisciplinary projects with staff in the School of Health and Society at Salford University and including Modelling Interactive Clown Practices for Virtual Game Design Applications in Dementia Care, with the Salford Institute for Dementia. I have published critical analysis of Immersive Theatres, the work of Ridiculusmus and have chaired a number of public engagement events around their trilogy of work about mental illness, with Sick! Festival Manchester, and have published articles about their performances.
For more projects see: https://rtalbot9.wixsite.com/ludicresearch/
Areas of Supervision
Physical Theatre; Dance and Digital Performance; Applied and Socially Engaged Theatre; Clowning and Popular Performance.
I am currently supervising PhDs on Selfhood, Sexuality and Spirituality; and Dance and Digital Virtual Environments and Digital Performance.
I have supervised successful Practice-Research PhD projects on Northern Comic Identities and Place; Jean Luc-Nancy and the Ensemble; and The Gamification of Theatre, and a more ‘conventional’ PhD on Pinter and Psychoanalysis. I have recently examined Practice-Research PhDs on the Exploration of Mask/Clown and Pedagogy; and on Spontaneity and Repetition.
I am the Programme Leader for the degree in Comedy Writing and Performance and my teaching activities include practical supervision, practical workshops and seminars.
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNTl51qI7yo
I am also interested in ‘in-role’ teaching and I have taught Immersive Museum Performance methods at universities, and museums in the UK Northern Ireland, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney and the National Trust.
Teaching and supervision for 2022/23
(I teach through a fractional post, the rest of my time is spent on producing, directing and performing):
MA Contemporary Performance Practice modules: Creative Interactions, Key Contexts and a workshop for Developing Your Practices.
Undergraduate modules:
Physical Theatres Level 5
Performance Studies Level 5
Comedy Writing and Performance Level 5
Qualifications
-
PG Certificate Higher Education Practice and Research
2010 - 2011 -
PhD Drama, Theatre and Performance
2004 - 2008 -
PG Certificate Research Practice
2004 - 2005 -
MA with Distinction, Theatre Studies
1993 - 1994 -
BA (Hons) First Class, Japanese Studies
1987 - 1991