School of English, University of Leeds | staff pages
Dr Mark Taylor-Batty
Senior Lecturer in Theatre
Studies
email: m.j.taylorbatty@leeds.ac.uk
tel: +44 (0) 113 343 4725
fax: +44 (0) 113 343 4774
room: WT G05
Dr Mark Taylor-Batty BA, PhD, Hull.
For a list of publications since 2001 click here
For a list of publications since 1994 click here
Research Interests
My key areas of interest include the career of Harold Pinter, the theatricality
of Samuel Beckett and aspects of Twentieth-century French theatre. I am interested
in issues pertaining to translation for the stage and the director's role in
the process of play authorship. Specifically I am interested by what constitutes
'theatricality' as generated by specific playwrights and how one might seek
to define and manipulate it in useful practical terms. As a consequence of this
I am fascinated by the relationship that can develop between a director and
a living playwright and by the inevitable authorial position that any director
takes in respect to a dramatic text. I am also interested in the relationship
between an author and their work in process, in compilation and in rehearsal.
My research on the rehearsal processes of Roger Blin and his artistic relationships
with Adamov, Artaud, Barrault, Beckett, and Genet came to fruition in my book
Roger
Blin: Collaborations and Methodologies (Peter Lang).
My interest in Harold Pinter's writing and activity has resulted in two books:
Harold
Pinter for the Northcote House 'Writers and their Work' series was
published in 2001 and About
Pinter: The Playwright and The Work (Faber and Faber) was published
in 2005. I participated in compiling material for two subdirectories of the
official Harold Pinter
website. I am currently an Associate Editor (UK) for The
Pinter Review: Collected Essays. In 2007 I was voted vice-president
of the Harold Pinter Society.
I am currently compiling a book on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot,
in collaboration with my wife Juliette Taylor-Batty, as part of the Continuum
Modern Theatre Guides series.
I currently supervise PhD students working on Harold Pinter’s politics
and other aspects of twentieth-century drama.
Recent Activities
In May 2007 I gave a plenary paper on ‘The Male church: Betrayals and
Bonds in Pinter’s Plays and Screeplays’ and Pinter’s screen
relationships’ at the Harold Pinter: Encontros conference at the University
of Lisbon.
In April 2007, I organised the 'Artist
and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter' conference, commemorating 50
years of the author's stage activities. Guests included Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard,
Antonia Fraser, Henry Woolf, Michael Billington, James Clarke and the Belarus
Free Theatre.
I was a guest speaker at the 15th Chichester Film festival, 8 September 2006.
I played the role of Richard/Max in Harold Pinter’s The Lover at Studio
Salford, June 2006.
I gave a paper on ‘Kullus and Pinter’s creative process’ during
the ‘Pinter: Passion, Poetry & Prose’ sessions as part of the
events surrounding Pinter’s receipt pf the tenth European Theatre prize,
in September 2006.
In June 2003, I organised the 'Page and Stage: 50 Years of Performing Beckett'
conference alongside my colleague David Pattie of University College Chester.
The conference combined both practical workshops and traditional papers.
Teaching
Undergraduate
Surrealism and the French Stage
Harold
Pinters Drama
Postgraduate
Theatres
of Cruelty
If you have entered our site at this page, please click here to go to our main pages.