Oliver Bray is Head of Performing Arts at Leeds Beckett University. His current research focuses on practical investigations of constraint in performance and the various implications of a theatrical OuLiPo. Oliver’s research interests additionally include speech-making, the art of rhetoric and the performance potential of ’pataphysical post-truth in the 21st century.
Oliver’s well-respected professional practice has toured nationally and internationally to venues and festivals including Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania; In Between Time, Bristol; and the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow. His performance work seeks always to be genuinely innovative and edgy, while remaining unapologetically inclusive, eminently watchable and often quite a bit funny.
Oliver joined Leeds Beckett University in 2006 and has been the Head of Performing Arts since 2014.
Oliver’s current research interests stem from his professional practice in contemporary performance but are necessarily inherently interdisciplinary in nature. As a theatre maker and practice-led researcher, his current interests include methodologies of restriction and constraint, representations of trauma in performance, and the role of ‘the text’ in performance.
Oliver’s well-respected professional practice has toured nationally and internationally to venues and festivals including Sibiu International Theatre Festival, Romania; In between Time, Bristol; and the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow. His performance work seeks always to be genuinely innovative and edgy, while remaining unapologetically inclusive, eminently watchable and often quite a bit funny.
BA (Hons) Performance
- Performance Project 3: The Self
MA Performance
- Performance Matters 1
- Artist Project Minor
- Placement Project
- Festival Project
Selected Publications
Books (1)
- Bray O; Bray P (2013) Voicing Trauma and Truth Narratives of Disruption and Transformation. . .
Conference contributions (3)
- Bray O; Pinchbeck M; Nicklin H (2016) WHERE FROM HERE: 21 Years of Third Angel Leeds Beckett University 20161117. : .
- bray O (2016) Literary and Theatrical Constraint University of Sheffield 20160506. : .
- Bray OP (2012) The Speech Maker Leeds 20120627. : .
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Journal articles (3)
- Bray OP (2016), Playing with Constraint: Performing the OuLiPo and the clinamen-performer. Performance Research: a journal of the performing arts
https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2016.1192866
View Repository Record - Bray OP (2008), First- and last-year experience: assessment, learning and teaching on a top-up degree. Assessment, Teaching and Learning Journal, vol. 4
View Repository Record - Bray OP (2007), Towards an Academic Artist: Recognising Teachers & Learners as Performance Practitioners.
Books (1)
- Bray O; Bray P (2013) Voicing Trauma and Truth Narratives of Disruption and Transformation. . .
Chapters (3)
- Bray OP (2013) 'Why me?' Trauma through a Performance Lens: Performance through a Trauma Lens. In: Bray OP The Strangled Cry: The Communication and Experience of Trauma. : Inter-Disciplinary Press, pp. .
- Bray OP; Bray P (2013) 'Why Can't I Stop Looking?' A Therapeutic and Performative Debate on the Performance of Trauma. In: Bray OP; Bray P . : , pp. .
- Bray OP; Bray P (2011) Fathers and Sons: An Autoethnographic Case Study of Bereavement and Trauma. In: Bray OP; Bray P Traumatic Imprints: Performance, Art, Literature and Theoretical Practice. : , pp. .
Conference contributions (4)
- Bray O; Pinchbeck M; Nicklin H (2016) WHERE FROM HERE: 21 Years of Third Angel Leeds Beckett University 20161117. : .
- bray O (2016) Literary and Theatrical Constraint University of Sheffield 20160506. : .
- Bray OP (2012) The Speech Maker Leeds 20120627. : .
- Bray OP; Bray P (2011) Fathers and Sons: An Autoethnographic Case Study of Bereavement and Trauma Prague, Czech Republic 20110311. : .
Theses or dissertations (1)
- Bray OP (2018), Exercises in Constraint: The Poetics of the OuLiPo in Performance.
