Staff
| Personal Information | ||
| Name | Kennedy, Dennis | |
| College Address | Drama, Beckett Centre 202-205 Pearse St. |
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| Main Department | Drama | |
| College Title | Fellow Emeritus | |
| dkennedy@tcd.ie | ||
| College Tel | +353 1 896 1239 | |
| Web | http://people.tcd.ie/dkennedy | |
| Fax | +353 1 679 3488 | |
| Biography | |
| Dennis Kennedy is Emeritus Professor and Fellow in Trinity College Dublin, where he held the Samuel Beckett Chair of Drama from 1994 to 2006. His latest books are The Spectator and the Spectacle: audiences in modernity and postmodernity (2009), Shakespeare in Asia: contemporary performance (edited with Yong Li Lan, 2010), and The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance (2010, revised edition 2011). Other works include The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance (2 vols., 2003), Looking at Shakespeare: a visual history of twentieth-century performance(second edition, 2001), Foreign Shakespeare (1993), Granville Barker and the Dream of Theatre (1985), and Plays by Harley Granville Barker (1987). He was an advisory editor for The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (2001). His essays have appeared in numerous books and journals and he has delivered papers and lectured widely on theatre and performance subjects around the world, from Los Angeles to Shanghai and from St Petersburg to Kyoto. Previously he was Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh, and has held distinguished visiting professorships at the University of California Santa Barbara, the Chinese Central Academy of Drama, the National University of Singapore, the Salzburg Seminar, McMaster University, the University of Victoria, and the University of Wisconsin, and was Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Karachi in Pakistan. In 2010 he was a Fellow at the international research institute "Interweaving Performance Cultures' in Berlin. He has twice been a fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities in the USA, twice won the Freedley Award for theatre history, received the Chancellor's Distinguished Research Award at the University of Pittsburgh, the Berkeley Fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, and is a member of the Royal Irish Academy and the Academia Europaea (the Academy of Europe). He has organized major international conferences in New York, Dublin, and Singapore, including the large-scale Beckett Centenary Symposium in Trinity College Dublin in 2006. His own plays have been performed in New York, London, and at regional theatres across the US, and he has frequently worked as a dramaturg at such theatres as the Long Wharf in New Haven, the Lyric Hammersmith in London, and the Shaw Festival in Canada. He also works as a professional director and gives workshops in acting Shalespeare around the globe. In 2005 he directed Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Chinese Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, and in 2006 directed and designed Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle in Dublin. He also writes fiction. | |
| Teaching interests and responsibilities | |
| Theatre history and theory, Shakespeare in performance on stage and film, cultural history, the history and psychology of audiences. | |
| Professional Qualifications | |
| Qualification | Institution | Class of Degree | Title of Dissertation | Date Conferred |
| PhD | University of California | Character and disguise in Ben Jonson's comedies | 1972 | |
| MA | University of California, Santa Barbara | 1968 | ||
| BA | University of San Francisco | 1962 |
| Representations |
| Details | Date |
| DISTINGUISHED VISITING APPOINTMENTS:University of California, Santa Barbara, Distinguished Visiting Professor, January-April 2008. Chinese Central Academy of Drama, Beijing, Distinguished Visiting Director, April-June 2005. National University of Singapore, Meyer Fellow, March 2003. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Halls Visiting Scholar, November 1997. University of Victoria, Visiting Orion Professor, February 1995. McMaster University, Hooker Distinguished Visiting Professor, September 1994. | |
| Board of Advisors, Centre for International Theatre and Performance Research, Royal Holloway, University of London | 2010- |
| Board of Advisors, Asian Shakespeare Intercultural Archive (A-S-I-A), a web-based archive of media | 2009- |
| Corresponding Scholar, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada | 1998-2002 |
| Board of Directors, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin | 1996-2003 |
| Administrative Functions | |
| Details | Level | Date From | Date To |
| Head of School of Drama, Trinity College Dublin | 1995 | 2003 | |
| Co-ordinator of Graduate Studies, School of Drama, Trinity College Dublin | 1995 | 2006 | |
| Director of Graduate Studies, University of Pittsburgh | 1983 | 1995 | |
| Director of Studio Theatre, University of Pittsburgh | 1983 | 1987 |
| Membership of Professional Institutions, Associations, Societies |
| Details | Date From | Date To |
| Academia Europaea, American Society for Theatre Research, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Dramatists Guild, International Federation for Theatre Research, International Shakespeare Association, Royal Irish Academy, Shakespeare Association of America |
| Awards and Honours | |
| Award | Date |
| Royal Irish Academy (2005), Academia Europaea (the Academy of Europe, 2004), Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (1998), Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, University of Pittsburgh (1994), George Freedley Award for theatre history (1993, 1985), Office for Advanced Drama Research award for playwriting (1977). |
| Education Details | |
| School/College | Date From | Date To |
| Ph.D. (1972) and M.A. (1968) in English Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara; Graduate Research (1968-69) at Wadham College, Oxford; B.A. (1962) in English and Philosophy, University of San Francisco. |
| Languages |
| Language | Skill Reading | Skill Writing | Skill Speaking |
| English | Fluent | Fluent | Fluent |
| French | Fluent | Medium | Medium |
| Employment Details | |
| Position Held | Job Description | Where | Date From | Date To |
| Samuel Beckett Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies | Trinity College, University of Dublin | 1995 | 2006 | |
| Professor of Theatre Arts | University of Pittsburgh | 1983 | 1995 | |
| Assistant and Associate Professor of English | Grand Valley State University, Michigan | 1970 | 1983 | |
| Distinguished Visiting Professor | Chinese Central Academy of Drama, Beijing | April 2005 | June 2005 | |
| Meyer Distinguished Fellow | National University of Singapore | March 2003 | April 2003 | |
| More Employment Details>>> | ||||
| Description of Research Interests |
| Theatre and performance history and theory, especially in 19th and 20th century Europe. History and theory of the spectator. Shakespeare in performance. Scenography (stage design). Theatre directing and dramaturgy. |
| Research Interests | |||
| Dramatic/Theatre Arts | History and theory of the spectator | History of scenography and directing | Interculturalism |
| Performance Theory | Performing Arts | Political theatre | Theatre History |
| Research Projects | |
| Project title | The Persistence of Orientalism |
| Summary | A philosophical investigation of the nature and meaning of exoticism. While the background is historical and will involve questions about tourism and the touristic, the purpose is to investigate the West’s relation to East and Southeast Asia in cultural and political performance, in and out of the playhouse. |
| Funding Agency | Research Centre 'Interweaving Performane Cultures', Berlin |
| Programme | |
| Type of Project | Long essay |
| Date from | |
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| Person Months | |
| Publications |
| Peer Reviewed |
| Dennis Kennedy , The Oxford Companion to Theatre and Performance, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010 Notes: [A concise, updated edition of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance. ] |
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| Kennedy, Dennis, The Spectator and the Spectacle: audiences in modernity and postmodernity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009 | |
| Kennedy, Dennis, Shakespeare ja stsenograafia: XX sajandi lavastuste ajalugu, trans. Lilja Blumenfeld , Tallinn, Estonian Theatre Institute, 2004 | |
| Histories and Nations (foreword) in, editor(s)Ton Hoenselaars , Shakespeare’s History Plays: Performance, Translation and Adaptation in Britain and Abroad, Cambridge , Cambridge University Press, 2004, [Kennedy, Dennis] | |
| Theatrical style, Alan C. Purves, Encyclopedia of English Studies and Language Arts, New York, Scholastic, 1994, [Kennedy, Dennis] | |
| More Publications>>> | |
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