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Dr Pete Phillips

Senior Lecturer in Theatre

Peter Phillips

About

Dr Pete Phillips is an artist researcher and senior lecturer in the Theatre Department, leads on MA Performance & Environment and is the department admissions tutor.

Pete has a BA (Hons) in Acting from Bretton Hall, an MA in Advance Theatre Practice (Performing) from Central School of Speech and Drama and a PhD awarded by the University of Chichester. Pete’s research interests include performance and ecology, collaborative duo practices and the relationship between sport and contemporary performance, reflected in his PaR PhD thesis ‘Sports Commentary and the Performance Event: How Neoliberal Ideology Reframes Spectacles of Participation’ (2017).

Pete is subject leader for acting skills and teaches on a range of subjects within the department including; devising, productions, directing for the contemporary ensemble, practice-as-research, and playwrighting

Pete’s artistic practice is undertaken as part of collaborative live art duo, Search Party. Formed in 2005 Search Party’s work has encompassed theatre, live art, durational performance, participatory art, home video and performative writing. Search Party’s work has been performed throughout the UK including performances at Bristol Old Vic, Arnolfni, The Exeter Pheonix, South Hill Park, The Barbican, Arts Depot, Batersea Arts Centre, The Bluecoat, the ICA, Northern Ballet, Modern Arts Oxford, Colchester Arts Centre and the Manchester Royal Exchange. Search Party have also performed internationally, including at Culturegest (Lisbon, Portugal), The National Review of Live Art (Glasgow, UK), ANTIfestival (Kuopio, Finland), Plateux (Frankfurt, Germany), Nuit Blanche (Amiens, France), PAD (Mainz, Germany), InTacto (Vitoria de Gadiz, Spain), ArtBatFest (Almaty, Kazakstan) and Junction Arts Festival (Launceston, Australia).

Search Party have been engaged in artist led support networks and collaborative making and were members of the Family Activist Network (FAN), a group of artists, academics and their families formed to consider family life and climate change through a variety of art activist formats and Residence, an artist led organisation based in Bristol. Search Party have been associate artist at a number of institutions and have delivered performance making workshops within a variety of professional contexts. For further info see www.searchpartyperformance.org.uk

Pete has also worked as a performer for Action Hero, Uninvited Guests and Flexer and Sandiland. Pete also regularly works with Dance Company Flexer and Sandiland to offer dramaturgical support.

Forthcoming Publications

Co-Editor: ‘Mothers, Mothering, Nature & Land’, Demeter (2025).

Hawkes, J & Phillips, P, (2024) ‘Playing Kate: Encroaching and enclosing the maternal commons’, in Encountering Environments through the Arts: Interdisciplinary Embodiments, politics and Imaginaries, Edited by Shirley Chubb and Victoria Hunter, Routledge.

Hawkes, J & Phillips, P, (2024) ‘Commoning the maternal: Matricentric feminism and Motherworks Festival’, in The Mother Wave: Matricentric Feminism as Theory, Activism, and Practice, Edited by Andrea O’Reilly, Victoria Bailey, and Fiona Joy Green, Demeter

Publications

A selection of recent publications and artistic research:

Hawkes, J & Phillips, P (2019) Postcards from Paris for The Fourth Chapter: On Ecologies for Something Other. https://somethingother.blog/category/the-fourth-chapter/

Hawkes, J, Hornsby, I, Phillips, P, (2019) Drawing Hope for The Eight Chapter: On Solidarity for Something Other. https://somethingother.blog/category/the-eighth-chapter/

Hawkes, J, Phillips, P (2019) I’m Still Standing for the Live Art Almanac Vol.5, LADA

 

Hawkes, J, Phillips, P Family Portrait (2017) for Brood: Art and parenting in an age of austerity, Townley and Bradbury (UK).

Phillips, P. (2015) Search Party vs…: sports commentary, participation and the sport/art event. In ‘Contemporary Theatre Review’ Backpages 25.3. (Article)

Hawkes, J, Francombe, B & Phillips, P (2011) Save Me: A Conversation across the City Arnolfini, Bristol, UK,

Hawkes, J & Phillips, P (2010) In Time: a Collection of Live Art Case Studies http://www.liveartuk.org/downloads

Recent Performances

STORM (2020) Derelict, Uclan Preston (UK), Salt Festival of the Environment and the Sea, Quarterhouse, Folkestone. R&D and residency (2018) supported by Royal Court Theatre, London.

Landfill and Other Climate Games for Families (2019), Salt Festival of the Environment and the Sea, Quarterhouse, Folkestone.

Playing Kate (2019) Motherworks Festival, Cambridge Junction.

For more on performances – see www.searchpartyperformance.org.uk

Conference Papers

Dr Jodie Hawkes, Dr Pete Phillips in collaboration with Chat GPT, Care-Making in a Careless and Uncaring Environment (2023) University of Chichester Research Conference

Hawkes, J, & Phillips, P, Maternal Care-Making in a Careless and Uncaring Environment, Maternal Bodies: Individual, Collective, Other Symposium (2023) University of Birmingham

Hawkes, J, Hornsby, I & Phillips, P (2019) 12 Hopeful Acts: Drawing Hope at Graphic Brighton.

 

Phillips, P. (2017) The Performance of Sports Commentary, Sporting Heritage: Photography and TV conference, National Science and Media Museum, Bradford (UK)

Phillips, P. (2017) Stories in Sports Commentary, Narrative and Alternative Stories Conference, University of Chester (UK)

My Son and Heir at The Application of Performance and the Maternal conference at the University of South Wales (2016).

Toys r us at Performing Place 2 symposium at the University of Chichester (2016

Research Output

Articles

Phillips, P. (2015) Search Party vs. . . : Sports Commentary, Participation, and the Sport/Art Event. Contemporary Theatre Review, 25 (3). pp. 455-459. ISSN 1048-6801 10.1080/10486801.2015.1049879

Conference or Workshop Items

Phillips, P. (2018) And everyone is running for a reason…: performances of sports commentary, mass participation marathons and neoliberal ideology. In: Sport/Spectacle: Performing, Labouring, Circulating Bodies Across Sport, Theatre, Dance, and Live Art, 14-15 Sept 2018, Kings College London. (Unpublished)

Phillips, P. (2017) The Performance of Sports Commentary: Post-dramatic theatre as a model to examine the performance of the sports commentator. In: Sporting Heritage, Photography and TV Conference, 28-29 Nov 2017, National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, UK. (Unpublished)

Phillips, P. (2017) Stories in sports commentary: How narrative strategies of sports commentary reframe fun-runners in the Big City Marathon. In: Narrative and Alternative Stories Conference, 11-12 Sept 2017, University of Chester, UK. (Unpublished)

Books

Francombe, B., Hawkes, J. and Phillips, P. (2011) Save Me: A Conversation Across the City. Arnolfini, Bristol. ISBN 9780956888624

Theses

Phillips, P. (2017) Sports Commentary and the Performance Event: How Neoliberal Ideology Reframes Spectacles of Participation. Doctoral theses, University of Chichester.

Shows/Exhibitions

Phillips, P. (2012) Save Me. [Shows/Exhibitions]

Other department members

Abigail Conway
Senior Lecturer
Andy Roberts
Andy Roberts
Showroom Administrator - Theatre (Performing Arts)/Dance
Ben Francombe
Dr Ben Francombe
Head of Department of Theatre

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