Sophie Bush

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

Department of Humanities

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

Dr Henry Bell

Publications

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. (2015). My mother said i never should GCSE student guide.

Bush, S. (2015). My Mother Said I Never Should GCSE Student Guide. Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama).

Bush, S. (2015). My mother said i never should GCSE student guide.

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.

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