Skip to main content

Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin

Menu Search


Trinity College Dublin By using this website you consent to the use of cookies in accordance with the Trinity cookie policy. For more information on cookies see our cookie policy.

      
Profile Photo

Professor Brian Singleton

Fellow Emeritus (Drama)
      
Profile Photo

Professor Brian Singleton

Fellow Emeritus (Drama)

 bsnglton@tcd.ie

 


Brian Singleton is Fellow Emeritus in Drama at Trinity College Dublin, and until 2025 he was Samuel Beckett Professor of Drama & Theatre, and Academic Director (and co-founder) of The Lir " National Academy of Dramatic Art. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Rose Bruford College (UK) in 2011 in recognition of his `outstanding international contributions to theatre research, scholarship, and drama education". He has published widely on orientalism and interculturalism in performance from the 19th century onwards. His research on Irish theatre includes the monographs Masculinities and the Contemporary Irish Theatre and ANU Productions: The Monto Cycle (Palgrave Macmillan), and his most recent journal articles appeared in Orbis Litterarum and Contemporary Theatre Review. Brian is former Senior Editor of Theatre Research International (Cambridge University Press) and former President of the International Federation for Theatre Research. In 2012 he and Janelle Reinelt won the ATHE Excellence in Editing Award for their 40-volume book series `Studies in International Performance" published by Palgrave Macmillan. He also edited with Elaine Aston a further 24-volume book series `Contemporary Performance Inter Actions" for Palgrave Macmillan. His monograph Theatre and Performance in Neoliberal Ireland: the Decade of Centenaries was published by Palgrave Macmillan in July 2026. He is currently writing an essay on David Bowie.
  Cultural History   French Theatre   History of scenography and directing   Interculturalism   Irish theatre   Opera/Musical Theatre   Popular theatre   Set/Theatre Decoration/Design   Television   Theatre History
Project Title
 ANU Productions: The Monto Cycle
From
2015
To
2016
Summary
Current monograph project analysing four productions of the celebrated and award-winnning Irish company, ANU Productions, and their four-part series 'The Monto Cycle'.

Language Skill Reading Skill Writing Skill Speaking
English Fluent Fluent Fluent
French Fluent Fluent Medium
German Medium Medium Medium
Details Date From Date To
International Federation for Theatre Research 1990 present
American Society for Theatre Research 1995 present
Irish Society for Theatre Research 2008 present
Brian Singleton, Theatre and Performance in Neoliberal Ireland: The Decade of Centenaries, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2026, xii + 343pp, Book, PUBLISHED
Interculturalism in, editor(s)Brad Kent and David Kornhaber , The Cambridge Companion to Modernist Theatre, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2025, pp267 - 284, [Brian Singleton], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
Interculturalism and Migration in Performance: From Distant Otherness to the Precarity of Proximity in, editor(s)Yana Meerzon & S. E. Wilmer , The Palgrave Handbook of Theatre and Migration, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2023, pp91 - 101, [Brian Singleton], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
Riotous Assembly: Performing Gender and Social Justice in thisispopbaby's RIOT in, editor(s)J. Paul Halferty & Cathy Leeney , Analysing Gender in Performance, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp241 - 257, [Brian Singleton], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED  URL
Brian Singleton, Standing by Small Acts of Citizenship: Contemporary Irish Theatre at the Faultlines of Social Change, International Federation for Theatre Research Annual Conference, National University of Ireland Galway, 12-16 July, 2021, NUIG/IFTR, Invited Talk, PRESENTED  URL
Brian Singleton, Finding the Intracultural, or How Kavalam Narayana Panikkar Found Me, Sangeet Natak, LV, (1-4), 2021, p238 - 250, Journal Article, PUBLISHED
Brian Singleton, Holding the Irish Queer Archive: An Interview with Louise Lowe and Lynnette Moran on ANU Productions' Faultline, Contemporary Theatre Review, 31, (1-2), 2021, p204 - 211, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Brian Singleton, ANU Productions and the Performance of Otherness, Orbis Litterarum, 76, (6), 2021, p301 - 311, Journal Article, PUBLISHED  DOI
Ariane Mnouchkine: Activism, Formalism, Cosmopolitanism in, editor(s)Maria M. Delgado & Dan Rebellato , Contemporary European Theatre Directors, 2nd revised edition, Abingdon & New York, Routledge, 2020, pp39 - 60, [Brian Singleton], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
Lily Brayton: A Theatre Maker in Every Sense in, editor(s)Maggie B. Gale & Kate Dorney , Stage Women 1900-50: Female Theatre Workers and Professional Practice, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2019, pp191 - 215, [Brian Singleton], Book Chapter, PUBLISHED
  

Page 1 of 9
Brian Singleton, States of Play: an interview with Professor Brian Singleton (Samuel Beckett Chair of Drama and Theatre, TCD) on labour and value in the neoliberal university', Hard Graft: Performance, Labour and Value, Queens University Belfast (online), 28-29 May, 2021, Irish Society for Theatre Research, Invited Talk, PUBLISHED

  


Award Date
ATHE Excellence in Editing Award 2012
Honorary Fellowship, Rose Bruford College 2011
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin 1998
Japan Foundation Artists Fellowship 1992
British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship 1988
Main research interests are in the field of orientalism and interculturalism in performance, with a particular specialism in Irish, British and French cultural history. In addition he publishes in the area of contemporary devised performance.