Bianca Mastrominico is a Lecturer in Drama and Performance, and is also Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Drama in the Media Communication and Performing Arts Division. She is also a member of the Culture in Society Research Centre.
- Overview
- Research Interests
- Research Publications
- Teaching & Learning
Bianca Mastrominico is a performer, writer and theatre maker. She is co-artistic director of Organic Theatre, an international award winning performance laboratory rooted in ongoing training and research for innovative practice and pedagogy. With her company, Bianca has been awarded numerous grants for the arts for artistic projects and creative activities both in the UK and across Europe, involving diverse communities and in partnership with international artists.
Bianca studied Letters and Philosophy at Universita’ Federico II in Naples (Italy), specialising in Theatre History and Literature, whilst contemporarily undergoing training in playwriting, improvisation, biomechanics, Indian dance and martial arts (with Milon Mela), and theatre laboratory practices (with Odin Teatret).
Her professional experience began through working in all aspects of theatre craft in her family theatre in Naples, where for many years she was able to witness and work with some of the most cutting-edge experimental performance makers of the Italian scene, learning through doing and artistic collaboration. This unique apprenticeship has shaped her process-led, exploratory approach to performance creation up to the present.
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Bianca's work is multidisciplinary and intercultural, moving across distinct performative forms and modes, from devised physical theatre to creative writing. Her current focus is on somatic practices, collaborative creation and audience participation.
She has been artist in residence and visiting lecturer in various UK universities before becoming a Lecturer on the Drama programme at Queen Margaret University in 2008.
Her teaching is focused on contemporary approaches to performance and in the classroom she promotes learning through embodied knowledge and enquiry, using practice research methodologies, also developed through her ongoing exploratory practice.
She is co-translator with John Dean of ‘Decroux’s Theatre Laboratory’ by Marco De Marinis (Icarus/Routledge) and is the author of numerous articles on her performance process and pedagogy published by New Theatre Quarterly, Open Page, and Total Theatre Magazine, amongst others.
She has been part of TaPRA (Theatre and Performance Research Association) and is a member of the Practice Research Cluster within the ÎÞÂëȺ½» Centre for Communication Cultural and Media Studies.
Bianca is currently engaged in a process of practical investigation into personal narratives and constructed patriarchal notions of the Self, also looking into how Affect Studies can be applied to live performance and non-virtual audiences.
Research/Knowledge Exchange Centre Membership:
Active Research Interests:
- Research interests include: intercultural and interdisciplinary approaches to performance practices, including masks and identity in processes of transformation, Theatre Anthropology, performance training and the bodymind in performance.
At ÎÞÂëȺ½», Bianca lectures in contemporary performance, somatic and devising practices. She has an interest in technology enhanced learning, and mindfulness in learning & teaching. She contributes to the ongoing development of the Drama & Performance course.
