I’m Me is an AHRC funded project lead by Professor Matthew Reason that will work with learning disabled and autistic artists as peer and creative researchers to explore questions of … Continue reading
Welcome
Matthew Reason is Professor of Theatre and Director of the Institute for Social Justice at York St John University.
This site incorporates an incomplete archive of projects.
Current Projects
Edited by Matthew Reason, Lynne Conner, Katya Johanson and Ben Walmsley. Forthcoming 2021. Without an audience there is arguably no performance. Yet for a long time the serious and systematic … Continue reading
Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts
Projects Archive
A portfolio of research and practice in the areas of audiences, narrative, theatre and dance.
During a conference in Melbourne in March 2018, Anne Kershaw of Deakin University asked me to do a video interview for their PG arts management students. Questions: Tell us about … Continue reading One of my earliest pieces of research into theatre audiences explored young people’s perceptions of liveness in performance. Theatre is frequently defined by its ‘liveness’: that is by how it … Continue reading As a result of the collaborative partnership with Imaginate, and developing from the research into how children watch theatre, two resources were produced designed to help school classes enhance their … Continue reading Qualitative audience research frequently produces large amounts of unruly data. For myself the process of beginning to make sense of or find routes through the unordered mass of material that … Continue reading The International Centre for Arts and Narrative (ICAN) is a collaborative project between York St John University and York Theatre Royal. The focus of ICAN is to develop research and … Continue reading Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Kaori Nakayama, my book The Young Audience has been translated and published in Japanese (2018). To mark this publication the book has … Continue reading Storyknowing describes a series of activities, workshops, articles and conferences explores how we know in and through story. For two years between 2013-15, the International Centre for Arts and Narrative … Continue reading The Doodle Book was developed through the course of 2019/20 in collaboration with Mind the Gap, artist Brian Hartley and a group of learning-disabled artists. The objective was to create … Continue reading Edited by Matthew Reason, Lynne Conner, Katya Johanson and Ben Walmsley. Forthcoming 2021. Without an audience there is arguably no performance. Yet for a long time the serious and systematic … Continue reading After watching a dance performance with friends we often leave the theatre and find ourselves asking each other, ‘What did you think?’ Or perhaps, alternatively, ‘Did you enjoy it?’ That … Continue reading I’m Me is an AHRC funded project lead by Professor Matthew Reason that will work with learning disabled and autistic artists as peer and creative researchers to explore questions of … Continue reading Over the past decade the work of disabled performers in theatre and dance has received an increasingly high profile, wider audiences and presentation in established venues and festivals. At the … Continue reading Matthew Reason with photographs by Chris Nash Photography has long been utilised as a medium that allows us to capture, see and reflect upon the world around us. This is … Continue reading Intellect, 2014 Edited Dee Reynolds and Matthew Reason A key interdisciplinary concept in our understanding of social interaction across creative and cultural practices, kinesthetic empathy describes the ability to experience … Continue reading Archive, Empathy, Memory: The Resurrection of Joyce Reason This paper uses the prism of archival, ancestral research to consider the nature of our relationship to the lives of the … Continue reading Applied Practice: Evidence and Impact in Theatre, Music and Art engages with a diversity of contexts, locations and arts forms – including theatre, music and fine art – and brings … Continue reading Promotional slogan, mystical evocation, or marker of ontological difference? ‘Liveness’ in contemporary performance is a highly contested term. Experiencing Liveness in Contemporary Performance, edited by Matthew Reason and Anja Molle … Continue reading Drawing is at once immediate, and yet takes time. The marks on paper – pencil, crayon, ink, pen – appear instantly, they are real and absolute, but the process as … Continue reading Suitcase Stories is a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded public engagement project that used storytelling to explore climate adaptation with young people. When we talk about climate change and … Continue reading 5 Soldiers, by the Rosie Kay Dance Company, is a contemporary dance performance that looks at how the human body remains essential to war, even in the 21st century. In … Continue reading
Video Interview, Deakin University (Aus)
Young Audiences and Live Theatre
Resources for Schools and Teachers
Interactive Mind Map
International Centre for Arts and Narrative
The Young Audiences – Japanese Translation & New Forward
Storyknowing
Doodle Book (part 1)
Routledge Companion to Audiences and the Performing Arts
Creative Writing and Audience Research
“I’m Me”: Peer and Creative Research with Learning Disabled and Autistic Artists
Theatres of Learning Disability
Photography & the Representation of Kinesthetic Empathy
Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Contexts
Archive, Empathy, Memory
Applied Practice: Evidence and Impact in Theatre, Music and Art
Experiencing Liveness in Contemporary Performance
Drawing and Audience Research
Suitcase Stories
5 Soldiers Audience Research
Matthew Reason 