Scholar-practitioner of early modern drama
I'm a postdoctoral researcher, author, speaker, and theatre-maker, bringing new discoveries about Shakespeare’s theatres to festivals, societies, heritage sites and schools.
My research brings the archaeology of excavated theatre sites together with practice-as-research, asking how the places that early modern plays were staged shaped their writing and performance.
I'm the author of two books: Shakespeare in Shoreditch (Arden Bloomsbury, 2027) and Site-Specific Shakespeare (Cambridge Elements, 2026). I'm also co-editing Fletcher and Massinger's Rollo, Duke of Normandy for the Revels Plays and A Contested Globe for Arden Bloomsbury.
As a director I have staged Shakespeare on the remains of the Curtain and Rose Playhouses, on tour in China and North America, and online with the National Arts Centre of Canada.
Arden Bloomsbury · 21 January 2027
Performance and Place at the Curtain Playhouse, 1597–99
The first sustained account of Shakespeare's dramatic practice at the Curtain Playhouse, made possible by new archaeological evidence from Shoreditch.
Cambridge Elements · 2026
Cambridge University Press
From ruined convents to Zoom calls: how theatre-makers turn unconventional spaces into creative opportunities for Shakespeare.
Talks & lectures
45–60 minute talks with questions, for literary festivals, history and archaeology societies, museums, heritage sites, schools and universities. In person across the UK, or online anywhere.
Shakespeare's career began in Shoreditch, not on Bankside. This talk introduces what the Theatre and the Curtain were like, and which plays were first seen in this thrilling, diverse, and expanding suburb.
What archaeology at the Curtain, the Theatre, the Rose and the Boar's Head has revealed, and how it changes the way we engage with Elizabethan theatre today.
Why performances in ruins, guildhalls and unexpected spaces keep finding something new in the plays, drawn from my book: Site-Specific Shakespeare.
How early modern crowds moved between the playhouse yard and the football field.
Swords, daggers and stage fights: how combat was played at the Curtain, and what the weapons on stage tell us about the plays and their audiences.
Archaeo-PaR: the archaeology of excavated playhouses, tested through performance.
Read more →Thirteen courses, from Chaucer to contemporary Canadian poetry; two teaching awards.
Read more →Productions on the remains of the Rose, across China and with Canada's National Arts Centre.
See the archive →