Dr Meg Mumford
BA Hons (First Class, U.N.E.); PhD (Bristol, UK)
TimeSlips Certified Facilitator (2023)
I am Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies in the School of the Arts and Media at 麻豆社madou Sydney.
I specialise in modern and contemporary German theatre as well as socially engaged performance.听 Currently I am researching Bertolt Brecht's approach to comedy and ageing as well as intersections between theatre and older people, including creative storytelling in aged care.听听My research focuses on the way in which theatre responds to socio-historical contexts, ideologies and habitual modes of perception, behaviour and relationship.听 This focus underpins my work on the following topics:听the theory and practice of German playwright-director Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956); sex-gender ideology and intercultural encounter in听German drama, performance and dance theatre since the early twentieth century; and the engagement with cultural diversity and ageing bodies within innovative Theatre of Real People from both German- and听English-language countries. My research advances disciplinary understanding of theatre鈥檚 capacities and strategies for engaging with social inequity, complex cultural identities and vulnerability.
My key publications include the award-winning book Bertolt Brecht in the Routledge Performance Practitioners series.听 I am co-author (with Ulrike Garde) of the monograph听Theatre of Real People: Diverse Encounters from Berlin's Hebbel am Ufer and Beyond (Bloomsbury, 2016) and co-editor (with Garde and Johannes Birgfeld) of听Rimini Protokoll听Close-Up: Lekt眉ren听(Wehrhahn, 2015).听 These two books address a current fascination with people presenting aspects of their own lives on stage, and explore how听innovative documentary theatre seeks to offer fresh ways of perceiving diverse and unfamiliar people.
My contributions to research include听my research training work as School Postgraduate Research Convener, and as supervisor for over 17听and examiner for over 9 Higher Degree Research students.听I have also acted as Asia-Pacific Book Reviews Editor for Theatre Research International, and am currently a member of the editorial board for The Brecht Yearbook / Das Brecht Jahrbuch.听听
听
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Awards
- Research Activities
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
ARC LIEF Grant: LE140100024 AusStage, Phase 5: researching Australian live performance 鈥 national culture, global markets, aesthetic transmission: 听four interviews with Australia-based theatre-makers involved in Rimini Protokoll & the City of Melbourne Arts and Participation Program鈥檚 100% Melbourne and Rimini Protokoll鈥檚 100% Darwin, 2015-16.
Goethe Institut, Sydney, for Ta(l)king Pleasure in German Culture symposium, October 2007
Goethe Institut, Glasgow, for 鈥楤recht Fest鈥 1998 and Purgatory in Ingolstadt 1999
Bertolt Brecht (London and New York: Routledge, 2009) was included in Choice magazine's international list of Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009. A revised version was re-issued 2018.
Overseas Research Students Award, Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals, UK, 1992
Keith and Dorothy Mackay Travelling Scholarship, University of New England, Australia, 1991
University Medal in Theatre, University of New England, Australia, 1991
BOOKS
Garde, Ulrike & Meg Mumford, Theatre of Real People: Diverse Encounters from Berlin's Hebbel am Ufer and Beyond (London: Bloomsbury, 2016).
Birgfeld, Johannes, Ulrike Garde & Meg Mumford (eds),听Rimini Protokoll听Close-Up: Lekt眉ren听(Hannover: Wehrhahn, 2015).
Mumford, Meg, Bertolt Brecht (London and New York: Routledge, 2009). [Included in Choice magazine's list of Outstanding Academic Titles for 2009. Revised edition re-issued 2018.]
听
ARTICLES听
Mumford, Meg & Ulrike Garde, 'Staging Real People: On the Arts and Effects of Non-Professional Theatre Performers', Performance Paradigm, 11 (2015): 5-15, http://www.performanceparadigm.net/index.php/journal/article/view/167
鈥楻imini Protokoll's Reality Theatre and Intercultural Encounter: Towards an Ethical Art of Partial Proximity鈥, Contemporary Theatre Review, 23.3 (2013): 153-65.听
鈥楶ina Bausch Choreographs Blaubart: A Transgressive or Regressive Act?鈥, German Life and Letters, LVII, 1 (2004): 44-57.
鈥楤arthes on Brecht鈥檚 Tableau: Fetish meets Flux鈥, Communications from the International Brecht Society, 32 (June 2003): 42-7.
Mumford, Meg & Alison Phipps, 鈥楾ranslating the Strange, Performing the Peculiar: Marieluise Flei脽er's Fegefeuer in Ingolstadt鈥, Studies in Theatre and Performance, 22, 2 (2002): 69-81.
鈥楪estic Masks in Brecht鈥檚 Theatre: A Testimony to the Contradictions and Parameters of a Realist Aesthetic鈥, The Brecht Yearbook, 26 (2001): 143-71.
鈥楤recht on Acting for the 21st Century: Interrogating and Re-Inscribing the Fixed鈥, Communications from the International Brecht Society, 29, 1 & 2 (June 2000): 44-9.
鈥楤recht Studies Stanislavski: Just a Tactical Move?鈥, New Theatre Quarterly, 11, 43 (1995): 241-58.
听
CHAPTERS听
Gibson, Janet and Meg Mumford, 'Care Aesthetics and TimeSlips Storytelling in Dialogue: Facilitating More Equitable Sensory Artistry within a Dementia Unit', in Kate Maguire-Rosier, R茅ka Polonyi and James Thompson (eds), Care Aesthetics and the Arts (Routledge, c. 2024),听manuscript under review.听
Mumford, Meg, 鈥榁alentin, Brecht and Comical Inelasticity: Ridiculing Rigidity as an Impediment to Change鈥, in Josephine Gray and Lisa Trahair (eds),听Second Nature: Comic Performance and Philosophy (London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2023), pp. 89-112.
Mumford, Meg, 鈥楳odels for Epic Theatre from the Munich Years: Wedekind and Valentin鈥, in Stephen Brockmann (ed.), Bertolt Brecht in Context (Cambridge: C.U.P., 2021), pp. 26-33.
Meg Mumford, 鈥楪etting the Gist of Gestus鈥, in David Barnett (ed.),听Bertolt Brecht: Critical and Primary Sources, vol. 2 (London: Bloomsbury, 2020).
Mumford, Meg, "Brecht's Perspectives, Then and Now: Class, Gender and the Social Stakes of Performance", in David Barnett (ed.), The Great Stage Directors, vol. 2 (Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht) (London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama,听 2018).
Mumford, Meg, '100% City and Popular Factual Television: A New Game Plan for Managing Proximity to People?', in Johannes听Birgfeld, Ulrike Garde & Meg Mumford (eds),听Rimini Protokoll听Close-Up:听Lekt眉ren听(Hannover: Wehrhahn, 2015), pp. 278-301.
Birgfeld, Johannes, Ulrike Garde & Meg Mumford, 'Introduction: Diverse and Close-Up Navigations of Rimini Protokoll's Theatre', in听Johannes听Birgfeld, Ulrike Garde & Meg Mumford (eds),听Rimini Protokoll听Close-Up:听Lekt眉ren听(Hannover: Wehrhahn, 2015), pp. ix-xxv.
Mumford, Meg, 'Toward Transculturality in Reality Theatre from Berlin and Sydney: A Study of the Nomad in Rimini Protokoll's Cargo Sofia-X and the "Spiritual Medium" in Fast Cars and Tractor Engines by Urban Theatre Projects', in Alan Corkhill and Alison Lewis (eds), Intercultural Encounters in German Studies (St. Ingbert: 搁枚丑谤颈驳, 2014), pp. 181-196.
Garde, Ulrike & Meg Mumford, 鈥楶ostdramatic Reality Theatre and Productive Insecurity: Destabilising Encounters with the Unfamiliar in Theatre from Sydney and Berlin鈥, in Jerome Carroll, Steve Giles and Karen J眉rs-Munby (eds), Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance (London: Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama), 2013), pp. 157-64.
鈥楩luid Collectives of Friendly Strangers: The Creative Politics of Difference in the Reality Theatre of Rimini Protokoll and Urban Theatre Projects鈥, in Gerhard Fischer & Florian Va脽en (eds), Collective Creativity: Collaborative Work in the Sciences, Literature and the Arts (Amsterdam & New York: Rodopi, 2010), pp. 329-43.
鈥Aftershocks: Voices from a Shaken Community', in Paul Brown (ed.), Verbatim: Staging Memory and Community (Currency Press: Sydney, 2010), pp. 37-48.听
Wake, Caroline, Meg Mumford & Ulrike Garde, 鈥楢 Short History of Verbatim Theatre', in Paul Brown (ed.), Verbatim: Staging Memory and Community (Currency Press: Sydney, 2010), pp. 9-17.
Mumford, Meg & Alison Phipps, 鈥楨ncountering Stories from Contemporary German Theatre鈥, Contemporary German Cultural Studies (London: Arnold, 2002), pp. 219-40.听
鈥淒ragging鈥 Brecht鈥檚 Gestus Onwards: A Feminist Challenge鈥, in Steve Giles and Rodney Livingstone (eds), Bertolt Brecht: Centenary Essays (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998), pp. 240-57.
OTHER PUBLICATIONS听
Panel Discussion Transcripts
Mumford, Meg & John Severn (eds.), 'Putting Real People on Stage: Helgard Haug (Rimini Protokoll) in Conversation with Australian Practitioners and Academics', Performance Paradigm, 11 (2015): 101-15, http://www.performanceparadigm.net/index.php/journal/article/view/165
Mumford, Meg (ed.), panel discussion transcript, 'Panel Discussion 100% Melbourne: Contemporary Documentary Performance that Puts "Real Melbournians" on the Stage', in Johannes Birgfeld, Ulrike Garde and Meg Mumford (eds), Rimini Protokoll Close-Up: Lekt眉ren (Hannover: Wehrhahn, 2015), pp. 302-17.
Conference Publication
鈥楶olykulturelle Akteure im 鈥淩eality Theater鈥 von Rimini Protokoll und Urban Theatre Projects', in Ortrud Gutjahr, Deniz G枚kt眉rk, Alexander Honold (eds), Interkulturalit盲t als Herausforderung und Forschungsparadigma der Literatur- und Medienwissenschaft, section 21 in Franciszek Grucza (ed.), Akten des XII. internationalen Germanistenkongresses Warschau 2010. Vielheit und Einheit der Germanistik weltweit, vol. 12 (Frankfurt am Main et al.: Peter Lang, 2012), pp. 191-5. 听 听
Entries on 鈥榓gitprop鈥, 鈥榖ourgeois theatre鈥, 鈥榠llusionism鈥, and 鈥榁erfremdung鈥, in Dennis Kennedy (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, vols. 1 & 2 (Oxford: O.U.P., 2003).
PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
Mumford, Meg, film review of The Threepenny Opera, director Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Nero-Film/ Tobis /Warner Bros., 1931, in Michelle Langford (ed.), Directory of World Cinema: Germany 2 (Bristol: Intellect, 2013), pp. 210-12.
Garde, Ulrike & Meg Mumford, 鈥楻imini Protokoll Presents 鈥淩eal鈥 Experts: 100% Melbourne and Radio Muezzin鈥, Kultur, Magazine of the Goethe-Institut in Australia, 23 (2012): 16-17.听 See also: [accessed September 2012]
Garde, Ulrike & Meg Mumford, performance review of Radio Muezzin, by Rimini Protokoll, Everest Theatre, Sydney Festival, January 2012, in 鈥楨xperts of the Everyday: Rimini Protokoll鈥, RealTime, 108 (2012): 26.听 See also: [accessed May 2012]
Aurin, Andreas & Meg Mumford, performance review of Baal, director Simon Stone, a co-production of Sydney Theatre Company and Malthouse Melbourne, Wharf 1, Sydney Theatre Company, May 2011, in Communications from the International Brecht Society, 40 (2011): 58-62. 听
BOOK REVIEWS听
Insecurity: Perils and Products of Theatres of the Real. By Jenn Stephenson (Toronto, Buffalo and London: University of Toronto Press, 2019). In Theatre Research in Canada, 42, 2 (2021): 320-322.
Contemporary Theatres in Europe: A Critical Companion. Edited by Joe Kelleher and Nicholas Ridout (London & New York: Routledge, 2006). Review in [Issue 4, 2008]
Women and German Drama: Playwrights and Their Texts, 1860-194. By Sarah Colvin (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2003). Review in Theatre Research International, (Summer 2005).
Brecht Sourcebook. Edited by Carol Martin & Henry Bial. London & New York: Routledge, 2000. Review in Theatre Research International (Autumn, 2000).
Schauspielerinnen im Europa des 18. Jahrhunderts: Ihr Leben, Ihre Schriften und Ihr Publikum. By Ruth Emde (Amsterdam-Atlanta: Rodopi, 1997).听 In Theatre Research International (Summer, 2000).
German Expressionist Theatre: The Actor and the Stage. By David F. Kuhns (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997). Review in Theatre Research International (Autumn, 1998).
German Theatre: A Bibliography from the Beginning to 1995. By Michael Patterson听(Leicester: Motley Press, 1996). Review in Theatre Research International (Winter, 1997).
The Shocking Ballad Picture Show. By Tom Cheesman (Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1994).听 Review in Theatre Research International (Autumn, 1997).
TRANSLATION
Dr Barbara Panse, 鈥楥ensorship in Nazi Germany: The Influence of the Reich鈥檚 Ministry of Propaganda on German Theatre and Drama, 1933-45鈥 in G眉nter Berghaus (ed.), Fascism and Theatre: Comparative Studies on the Aesthetics and Politics of Performance in Europe 1925-1945 (Providence US and Oxford UK: Berghahn Books, 1996), pp. 140-56.听
Editorial board member for The Brecht Yearbook / Das Brecht Jahrbuch 2016-
Asia-Pacific Book Reviews Editor for Theatre Research International 2016-7
Symposium Ta(l)king Pleasure in German Culture: A Day in the Dialectical Playground organised by Dr Meg Mumford and Dr Michelle Langford, 20 October 2007, Webster Building and Io Myers Studio, 麻豆社madou.
Member of:
Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance Studies
International Brecht Society
International Federation for Theatre Research
Performance Studies International
听
Examiner for:
7 PhD theses and 1 MA.
听
My Research Supervision
听
Negative Dialectical Experience in Contemporary Theatre of the Real: Resisting Identity Thinking through Nonidentical Dramaturgy
Workshopping the Real: Co-designing Playtexts with Community
The Cultural Topography of Entertainment: The Sydney Theatre District 1880-1940
My Teaching
UNDERGRADUATE CONVENORSHIP IN 2024
Term 1
ARTS1120 Experiencing Theatre
ARTS2122 Performance Production
ARTS2127 Great Plays
Term 2
ARTS2125 Acting and Performing
听