Peter Wynne-Willson

United Kingdom °1959
research interests: Applied Theatre, Theatre-in-Education, Cross-cultural collaboration, multi-lingual theatre, Theatre for Young Audiences, Anglo-Korean Collaboration, Drama in Early Years, Sarah Kane
affiliation: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Performance Research Hub
en

Peter currently runs the Applied Theatre course at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, having worked for 38 years as a playwright, director and performer in the field of  Applied Theatre and Theatre for Young Audiences.  His 42 plays include Heads or Tails, Roy and Homeland for Big Brum TIE, Princess and Ginger and The Shooky for Birmingham Repertory Theatre, The Broken Peace for Greenwich YPT and The Bridge and Looking for Yoghurt  for Hanyong Theatre Co.  He was Visiting Professor of TYA at the Korean National University of the Arts during three spells from 1999-2005, and has pioneered research in collaborative work between UK and Korea in the field of Theatre for Young Audiences.  

research

research expositions

  • Orange Polar Bear - a cross-cultural performance piece for teenagers in Seoul and Birmingham (2020) author(s): Peter Wynne-Willson published in: Research Catalogue
    Orange Polar Bear (2014-19) is an innovative bilingual theatre project created by Hanyong Theatre, the National Theatre Company of Korea and Birmingham Repertory Theatre. The main research aims were to develop a methodology for devising and presenting bilingual work in a way that maintains equality between collaborative partners, and, by focusing on the experience of teenagers in Seoul and Birmingham, to consider what young people can teach adults about bridging cross-cultural and language divisions. The research resulted in a novel methodology for devising bilingual theatre leading to a cross-cultural performance for young people in two languages, presented in the same form in South Korea and the UK. It was unique among Anglo-Korean collaborations for its focus on the experience of teenagers, and conscious balance of languages, cultures and practices. Additionally, the research demonstrates the value of adopting a child-led approach to creating cross-cultural theatre and has created new insights into long-term approaches to developing fair and equal cross-cultural partnerships.
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