Kara's Latest Profile Update(s)
Date: 20/10/2010
The School of Performance and Cultural Industries / Staff Profiles / Dr Kara McKechnie
Kara's Latest Profile Update(s)
Date: 20/10/2010
Kara McKechnie
Lecturer in Dramaturgy and Literary Management
Location: Room 1.04
Telephone: 0113 34(38727)
Email: k.mckechnie@leeds.ac.uk
Telephone: 0113 34(38727)
Email: k.mckechnie@leeds.ac.uk
Content:
Dr Kara McKechnie is a Scottish-German hybrid, born in the UK, educated in Germany to MA-level and in the UK from 1998. She has worked in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries since 2000. Kara teaches mainly on the Text and Performance study route on the (BA Hons) Theatre and Performance, but also enjoys working on collaborative performance projects and supervising postgraduate students. Her current main research focus is Opera North, as she is currently writing a monograph on the company and contributes to the partnership between the University and Opera North on a regular basis.
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Research Interests
- Opera Studies
- Adaptation Studies
- Alan Bennett
- Television Drama
- Contemporary German theatre and opera
I welcome PhD enquiries in all the above areas.
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Research Group
Performer Processes
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Current Teaching
- Processes of Performance 1, 3, 4
- Cultures of Performance
- Collaborative Project
- Minor Dissertation
- Some years: Performance Project
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Supervised MA and PhD students
- Jacqueline Bolton (with S Bottoms)
- Jenny Daniel (with R Farnes (Opera North), R Cowgill (Liverpool Hope), B White (Music)
- Adam Strickson (with D Gray (Opera North, R Cowgill (Liverpool Hope), B White (Music)
- Jess Walker (with J Pitches)
- Raolat Abiola
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In preparation: Three Perspectives on Opera Studies: Opera North, Monograph, for publication in 2012, Emerald Publishing.
In preparation: “Britten, opera and television”, journal article for publication in 2011.
“Gloriana – the Queen’s two selves. Agency, context and adaptation studies”, in Voigts Virchow and Pietrzak Franger (eds.) Adaptations - Performing across Media and Genres, Society for Contemporary Drama in English, Wiss. Verlag: Trier, 2009.
“Detached signifiers, dead babies and demon dwarves: Bieito’s Dutchman”, Studies in Musical Theatre Volume 2 Number 1, Intellect, Spring 2009.
Alan Bennett (2007), Monograph. The Television Series, Manchester University Press.
Review: Julie Sanders (2006) Adaptation and Appropriation, Journal for Adaptation in Film and Performance, Intellect, Winter 2008.
“Seilbahnen in Köln, Tamarindensaft und Eiffelturmhalter”, in: Mikula, A and Haag, P Festschrift für Harry Rowohlt, Zürich: Kein & Aber, (2005)
“Sex, Tod und Zahnschmerzen: Martin Amis und die britische Biographieobsession”, in: Der Tagesspiegel, Oct. 7, 2003.
“Northern Women in Sensible Shoes – Alan Bennett and the Pleasures of Provincialism”, in: Middecke, Daewes, Bergmann (eds; 2003) Global Challenges and Regional Responses, Society for Contemporary Drama in English, Wiss. Verlag: Trier.
“Taking Liberties with the Monarch: Mad King and Virgin Queen in the Post-modern History Film”, Monk and Seargeant (eds; 2002) British Historical Cinema, British Popular Film Series, London: Routledge.
“What’s He Really Like?”, in: Alan Bennett, The Lady in the Van, Programme Booklet, West Yorkshire Playhouse, April 2002.
“Mrs Brown’s Mourning and Mr. King’s Madness – Crisis in the Monarchy on Screen”, in: Whelehan, Cartmell, Hunter (eds; 2001) Retrovisions: Reinventing the Past, Film/Fiction Series, London: Pluto Press.
Entries in McFarlane, (ed) (2003) The Encyclopaedia of British Film, London: BFI.
Extended entry ‘Alan Bennett’, in: Bull (ed.;2004) Dictionary of Literary Biography: British and Irish Dramatists since World War II.
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Projects
Project Manager and supervisor for AHRC project “Opera as Adaptation”, two collaborative doctoral awards (Adam Strickson and Jenny Daniel) with Opera North, from 2007.
PI for Visiting Leverhulme Professorship Prof Eckart Voigts-Virchow, Spring 2010.
Director, dramaturg, adaptor: Gesamtkunstwerksverfremdungseffekt (Something German!), (stage one, School of PCI, University of Leeds), October 2008.
Director, dramaturg, adaptor: A Light in the Rhubarb Shed (stage one, School of PCI, University of Leeds), October 2008.
Director, dramaturg, adaptor: The Turn of the Screw (Performance Centre, School of PCI, University of Leeds), March 2006
Translator, dramaturg: WelcomeHomeWorld (Dein Projekt liebt Dich), Johannes Schrettle, JANUS Festival, West Yorkshire Playhouse, May 2006.
Direcotr, dramaturg, singer: Frauen - Brecht - Krieg (on Brecht and women), 1995 to 1996, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg and Munich.
Director: Unveiling (V. Havel), 1995, English Drama Group, Heidelberg.
International Presentations
International Presentations
“Benjamin Britten, television and opera”, Association for Adaptation Studies, Berlin Autumn 2010.
New Writing Workshops, University of Heidelberg, Germany, Summer 2009 and Autumn 2010.
Pre-show talks Nabucco, Balingen, Germany, Autumn 2008.
‘The absence of words, the need for them’ – The Dramaturgy of Samuel Beckett’s Monologues, Konferenz: Nobel Laureates, Anglistisches Seminar, Universität Heidelberg, June 2005.
Regular participation in IFTR and Contemporary Drama in English conferences.
External Activity/Professional links
Ongoing work with Opera North (articles for programmes, pre show talks, production dramaturgy, events (e.g. Heimat, Howard Assembly Room, UoL – Opera North – Leeds International Film Festival)
‘Skeletons under the Settee and Sensible Shoes: Alan Bennett and the Monologue’, Society for Theatre Research, Winter Lecture series, Clothworkers Guild, London, April 2006.
Talking Heads, Lecture for Rose Bruford College Arts Festival, April 2010.
Postgraduate Research Tutor for the School of PCI, 2007 – 2010.
Programme Manager for BA (Hons) Theatre Dramaturgy, 2001 – 2007
PhD thesis: Variations on a Self – Alan Bennett’s works in autobiographical, dramaturgical and narratological interpretations. PhD awarded without alterations.
PhD Bursary Student:, De Montfort University Leicester, 1998 – 2000, supervisors: Prof. Judy Simons, Prof. Peter Davison, Dr Andy Mousley, all DMU.
MA thesis: The Theatre of Alan Bennett, 1st class, University of Heidelberg, 1997.
Research Assistant, Department of English, Heidelberg University (Prof. Meller), 1992 to 1997.
Undergraduate/ MA student, Heidelberg University, 1990 to 1997.
Freelance work for theatre and opera in Germany and the UK as dramaturg, translator, assistant director, stage manager, 1983 to date, companies including Heidelberg Festival, Heidelberg Theatre, State Opera Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Ludwigsburg Festivals, Dorset Opera, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Opera North.
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