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Mr Jason Benson

Job: Lecturer in Performing Arts

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Humanities and Performing Arts

Address: ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH

T: 0116 366 4580

E: jason.benson@dmu.ac.uk

 

Personal profile

Jason joined the Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities at ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ in January 2020. He trained and worked as a theatre actor and director before becoming involved in education.
Jason has taught in a range of contexts, from secondary school level through to postgraduate, the core principle with his teaching remains the same; utilising drama and performance practices to empower students with opportunities to explore themselves and the world they live in and to offer them a voice in that world.

Whilst being a committed educator, he has continually sought engagement with professional actor training which has enhanced his own learning and continues to inform his reflexive pedagogy in drama and performance training. These have included physical approaches to theatre such as Gaulier, SITI (Suzuki & Viewpoints), Grotowski and Volcano Theatre as well as more traditional approaches such as Stanislavski.

Jason is currently a PhD candidate at Aberystwyth University, his study is on Volcano Theatre Company and their relationship to political aesthetics and Frankfurt School theory.

Research group affiliations

Institute of Drama, Dance and Performance Studies

Research interests/expertise

  • collaborative devising
  • performance & philosophy
  • contemporary theatre practice
  • performance training
  • physical theatres

Areas of teaching

  • Deconstruction and Performance
  • Devising
  • Physical Theatre
  • Critical Perspectives on Performance
  • Performance Making
  • Contemporary Music Theatre
  • Postdramatic Theatre

Qualifications

  • BA(Hons) Theatre – Bretton Hall College
  • PGCE – University of Huddersfield
  • MA Advanced Theatre Practice (Directing) – Central School of Speech & Drama

ÉëÒ÷Ö®Íõ taught

Undergraduate:

Performing Arts BA (Hons)

  • PERF1053 Deconstruction
  • PERF1054 Physical Theatre
  • PERF2010 Perspectives on Performance and Digital Arts
  • PERF2054 Contemporary Music Theatre

Postgraduate:

MA Performance Practices

  • PERF5003 Performance Making

Membership of professional associations and societies

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy