Biography

My training and background have been transdisciplinary, weaving through Theatre and English, Visual Cultures, Critical Theory and Performance Studies. Prior to returning to postgraduate study I was a collaborative theatre-maker for a decade touring nationally and internationally. My interests are focused by contemporary experimental theatre practices and new performance methodologies developed in live art and performance since the 1980s. I am especially interested in cross-disciplinary conversation - between visual, literary, choreographic and live art practices, for example. From 2004-2009 I worked as Creative Advisor with the Bristol-based theatre collective, The Special Guests - http://www.thespecialguests.co.uk/. I obtained a BA Honours in Theatre and English from Lancaster University (1985-1988) and my Masters and PhD from Tisch School of the Arts, New York University (NYU) in the Department of Performance Studies (1997-2003) where I was a Fulbright Scholar. Prior to joining Sussex as a Senior Lecturer (October 2007) I taught Theatre and Performance at the University of Bristol (2003-2007) and at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU (1999-2003). I also taught seminars in Creative and Critical Writing at both NYU and Barnard College (Columbia University), and worked as a Writing Consultant. I continue to spend time in New York observing and writing about the work of Elevator Repair Service and other US companies and artists.

Role

Reader in Theatre and Performance Studies

My research is concerned with ways of reading theatre, performance and visual art practices through a philosophical lens and my recent book, Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure (Routledge, 2010), exemplifies this. I am interested in rehearsal as a mode of critical enquiry and in examining the reflexive relations between ideology and live performance. Other areas of research include: the influence of the city and the everyday on the development of performance vocabularies; feminism and art practice; durational art; histories of performance art. Influenced by 7 years in New York, my writing and teaching focuses on a number of US companies including Elevator Repair Service, Goat Island, Richard Maxwell/New York City Players (US), Reza Abdoh/Dar a Luz,  and Cupola Bobber. I am interested in the way critical theory opens up the space of practice and the way in which practice helps to expand our understanding of theory. I write texts for performance and other creative projects and I am an honorary scholar at the Institute of Failure (http://www.institute-of-failure.com/), an ongoing project initiated by Tim Etchells and Matthew Goulish dedicated to the documentation, study, and theorisation of failure. In 2006/07 I was visiting artist/scholar at the Goat Island Summer School, Department of Performance, School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I am a contributing editor for Women & Performance: a journal of feminist theory (Routledge) and write for a range of international journals, web-based theatre and collaborative writing projects (see http://1001.net.au/main/ and www.thelastperformance.org/). I make videos, performance and text-and-image based work, and I am an Artistic Assessor for Arts Council England in the areas of live art, experimental theatre and performance.

I am interested in supervising research projects that intersect with any of the above and in the following areas: contemporary experimental theatre (UK, US and Europe); the historical avant-garde; Live Art, visual art and body-based practices; performance and critical theory; autobiography and the 'self' on stage; urban cultures and performance; feminist approaches to representation; writing for performance.

Bailes, Sara Jane (2010) Performance Theatre and the Poetics of Failure. Routledge Theatre and Performance . Routledge. ISBN 9780415585651

Bailes, Sara Jane (2010) Elevator Repair Service: Cab Legs (1997) to Gatz (2006). Reversing the ruins: the power of theatrical miscomprehension. In: Making contemporary theatre: international rehearsal processes. Manchester University Press, pp. 81-100. ISBN 9780719074929

Bailes, Sara Jane (2007) Some slow going: considering Beckett and Goat Island. Performance Research, 12 (1). pp. 35-49. ISSN 1352-8165

Bailes, Sara Jane (2005) Between people - Rufus Norris interviewed by Sara Jane Bailes. PAJ: A Journal of Performance And Art, 27 (3). pp. 62-73. ISSN 1520-281X

Bailes, Sara Jane (2005) Struggling to perform: radical amateurism and forced entertainment. Theatre Forum, 26 (1005)). pp. 56-65. ISSN 1060-5320

Bailes, Sara Jane (2004) Report on a process: being in waiting. Frakcija Performing Arts Magazine, 32. pp. 1-7. ISSN 1331-0100

Bailes, Sara Jane (2004) This America : a conversation with John Collins about elevator repair service. In: Writing the essay: art in the world, the world through art. McGraw Hill, Boston, pp. 511-521. ISBN 9780073388274

Bailes, Sara Jane and Derno, Maiken (2002) Trafficking Boundaries: Introduction. Women and Performance, 12.2 (24). pp. 7-20. ISSN 0740-770X

Bailes, Sara Jane (2001) Goat Island performance group: profile. New Art Examiner. pp. 44-49. ISSN 0886-8115