Dr Sam Beale

Biography

Over the last 25 years, I have regularly collaborated in the UK and internationally as a comedy writer, director, producer, teacher and workshop facilitator. I work with comedians, theatre companies, community groups and performance festivals to create stand-up comedy and comedy-theatre performances and produce comedy events. I am co-founder and co-director of PalCom (Palestine Comedy Club), an international collaborative performance, knowledge exchange and practice research project working with artists and community groups in Palestine and the UK.

Teaching

As Senior Lecturer in Theatre I teach across our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, specialising in stand-up comedy, solo performance, and autobiographical performance.

Current modules taught:

THE2035 The Solo Performer (module leader)

THE2525 Performance Project (module tutor) 

THE3035 Solo: Stand-Up Comedy (module leader)

THE3535 Theatre Festival (project supervisor)

THE3045 Theatre Lab (project supervisor)

THE4010 Exploring Practices (module tutor)

THE4020 Extending Practices (project supervisor)

I currently supervise postgraduate performance research and written projects and welcome new research proposals on topics including (but not limited to) the contemporary practice and history of stand-up comedy, women and comedy, comedy and marginalised communities, applied and socially engaged performance, 19^th-century British music hall performance, popular performance history, solo performance and autobiographical performance.