Alison Forsyth

Background

Alison Forsyth was born on January 28, 1961, in London, United Kingdom. She is the daughter of John Johnstone and Catherine (Docherty) Forsyth.

Education

Alison Forsyth began her studies at the University of Surrey where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in 1986. She continued her studies at the University of Edinburgh and obtained a Master of Arts degree in 1987. Later she got a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Stirling in 1997.

Career

Alison Forsyth, before receiving her doctor's degree, began her teaching career at the University of Stirling where she became a part-time lecturer in English in 1992. Five years later in 1997, she joined the University of Bahrain in Manama where she was a lecturer in drama till 1998. In 1998-2001, Forsyth held the position of a lecturer in the modern European theater at Aberystwyth University. Then she became a lecturer in drama and theater arts at Staffordshire University, later becoming a professor.

Besides teaching, she coordinates modules on Shakespeare in performance, documentary theatre, adaptations of the classics, and contemporary American theater, as well as contributing to MA modules and exploring subjects such as memory and performance. Her key areas of research focus on varying ways to convey the real on stage, and this led her to two lines of ongoing inquiry – adaptations (in particular adaptations of ancient Greek drama) and documentary theater.

Her publications include Gadamer, History and the Classics: Fugard, Marowitz, Berkoff and Harrison Rewrite the Theatre, the co-edited Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present, and various articles and chapters. She also edited The Methuen Drama Anthology of Testimonial Plays. She contributed to books, including The Professions in Contemporary British Drama, and co-edited an issue of the Intellect journal, Performing Ethos, titled "Acting Out: Trauma and the Ethics of Remembrance."

Achievements

• Alison Forsyth is an outstanding educator known as a professor in the department of theatre, film, and television studies at Aberystwyth University. She also became famous after the publication of her book, Gadamer, History and the Classics: Fugard, Marowitz, Berkoff and Harrison Rewrite the Theatre, which received a wide response.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Gadamer, History and the Classics: Fugard, Marowitz, Berkoff, and Harrison Rewrite the Theatre

    (Should The Merchant of Venice be staged post-Holocaust? H...)

    2002
  • Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present

    (Over the past two decades, theatre practitioners across t...)

    2009
  • The Methuen Drama Anthology of Testimonial Plays

    (This diverse anthology features eight contemporary plays ...)

    2014

Views

Particular dramatists that Alison Forsyth has a current interest in include Ariel Dorfmann and Harold Pinter.

She also has a particular interest in how people receive art and hermeneutics.

Quotations: "I write because I am a research-active academic. Also, I feel compelled to combat (in a small way) the overwhelming canon-bashing standpoints that have taken hold in academe."

"My work is loosely cultural materialist, so I am motivated by a desire to investigate art (theater especially) within a wider socio-political context."

Membership

Alison Forsyth is a member of the European Society. She is also a member of the Institute of Qualified Private Secretaries of the London Chamber of Commerce.

Interests

• theater, ballet, gardening, walking, collecting porcelain

• Writers

  Ariel Dorfmann and Harold Pinter

Connections

Father:

John Johnstone Forsyth

Mother:

Catherine (Docherty) Forsyth