Henry Bell

I have been in full time academia since 2016 following a decade long career as a theatre director and community theatre practitioner. As a theatre professional, I focussed on directing Shakespeare, new writing and comedies as well as running the Orange Tree Theatre's Shakespeare For Schools programme between 2009 and 2013 and assistant directing on three productions at Shakespeare's Globe. Between 2013 and 2016 I was the Associate Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough.

I wrote a practical PhD at University of Hull which focussed on how young people respond to Shakespeare in performance, in an in-the-round setting. I have published research on acting Shakespeare in educational environments and have edited an issue of the Journal in Research in Drama Education called 'Teaching Shakespeare: Digital Processes'.

I trained at Hull University where I undertook at BA Drama and then gained an MA (dist.) in Staging Shakespeare at University of Exeter, this included time spent at Shakespeare's Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company. My most research has been focussed on practice based explorations of inter-cultural Shakespeare in partnership with companies in South Africa, Ghana, Brazil and India as well as anti-discrimination performance workshops as part of the NGO yesterday/today/tomorrow in Bosnia, France, Germany, England and Cyprus. My background in new theatre writing has led me to co-author the book, The Theatre of Laura Wade, which will be published by Methuen Drama in 2023.

Prior to my post as Senior Lecturer in Performance at University of the West of Scotland, I was a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University (2016-2021).