http://www.aber.ac.uk/performance/shared/general/pearson.htm
By training I am an archaeologist. Whilst still a student I began to make performances. Prior to my appointment as Lecturer in the University of Wales, Aberystwyth in 1997, I devised, directed, staged and performed professional theatre in Wales and beyond for 25 years.
As a director of, and performer with, a series of companies ? Transitions Community Arts Project (1971-1972), RAT Theatre (1972-1973), Cardiff Laboratory Theatre (1973-1981), Brith Gof (1981-1997) and Pearson/Brookes (1998 - present) ? I have developed and pioneered innovative approaches in the practice, theory, pedagogy and documentation of performance, recognised both by continuous support from the Welsh Arts Council and by international and academic attention.
To the spectrum of Welsh theatre, my work with these companies introduced : * physical theatre * devised performance * workshop practice * site-specific performance * international co-production * international seminars * foreign touring * performance with the physically disabled
I have created over 100 productions, which have been presented at major festivals in Europe and South-America, and I have undertaken collaborative projects with companies in locations from Poland to Hong Kong.
I have organised training schemes and seminars in many of the major academic drama departments in Britain and I have run workshops for students from Venezuela to Norway. I was tutor in Drama at Llanover Hall Youth Arts Centre (1972-76) and guest tutor on the MA Course in Theatre Studies, University, College Cardiff (1975-77).
Since October 1997 I have taught in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television in UW Aberystwyth where I have been undertaken academic teaching, practical classes and the direction of productions, in both English and Welsh , with all three years of the undergraduate programme in Drama and with students on the taught MA schemes ?Theatre and the World? and ?Theatre, Film and Television?. I have supervised PhD? theses both internally and externally.
In 1999 I introduced one of the first undergraduate degree schemes in Performance Studies in Britain and designed and managed the creation of nine course modules that constitute the scheme. (see )
I have published and spoken widely on contemporary performance theory and practice. My most recent published work Theatre/Archaeology (Routledge 2001), co-authored with Michael Shanks, Professor of Classics at Stanford University, constitutes part of an ongoing examination of points of convergence between contemporary performance theory and interpretative approaches in archaeology: an interdisciplinary approach to recording, writing, illustrating and animating the material past.
In April 2002 I was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey and in July 2002 Visiting Lecturer at the Johannes Goethe University of Frankfurt.