Dr Petronilla Whitfield

Teaching

• Voice Skills, Level 4 and 5: Vocal anatomy, voice production, expressive voice, Shakespeare and classical theatre, storytelling, phonetics, accents, transformation through the voice, character voice, sight-reading and presentation skills.
• Shakespeare Unit, Level 5: Methods of acting Shakespeare, practical exercises, work on assessed monologues and presentation of scene studies of Elizabethan/Jacobean classical plays.
• Professional Practice, Level 6: Lectures about self-presentation, self-confidence, agents, casting directors, preparation of curriculum vitae and acting. Teaching and directing of performance of audition pieces. Arranging for professional directors and agents for workshops/and mock auditions with the students.
• Academic writing and research methods
• Professional Contexts, Level 5: Lectures on how to write an academic essay, research methods and conducting a research project with a written essay hand in.
• In past years, I have also taught the acting units, Psychological Realism and Contemporary Playwrights.
• Postgraduate-PhD supervisor – 2016-present:
• 2016-2024 – Director of Studies and PhD supervisor. PhD student Laurence Rushby. Thesis title: ‘Art as Education; Redefining a Live-Art Practice as a Pedagogical Tool, and its Perception and Place in the Learning Environment’..
• 2020 – Director of Studies and PhD supervisor. PhD student Laura Blake. Thesis title: '(How) can performative/artistic exploration inform the development of a pedagogy that enables authentic transformation and progression'
• 2021 – Supervisor and assessor of MRes student Dana Halliwell. Thesis title: 'A dyslexic perspective on exploring individuality in an assessed reflective essay: developing an alternative submission for assessment within an acting course'.

Previous Posts

Before joining Arts University Bournemouth, previous posts include:

• The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (voice and acting tutor for 2nd year Acting)
• East 15 Drama School (Voice Tutor for the Contemporary Theatre BA Acting course. Taught phonetics, speech/voice, acting in Shaw, Wilde and Shakespeare).
• Mountview Theatre Academy of Theatre Arts (Voice Tutor for MA Postgraduate Acting and Musical Theatre students. Taught sight-reading, audition pieces, practical voice, accents and vocal support in performance).
• Bath Spa University ( Voice Lecturer for BA Performing Arts students. Taught practical voice, expressive voice, text and movement. Directed scripted and devised presentations).
• English and Literacy Teaching
• Westminster Adult Education College ( Literacy Tutor for adult refugees. English teacher for various levels and differing nationalities).

Intensive School of English (English Tutor in pronunciation, phonetics, business English language and English conversation)

House of English (English Tutor in grammar and speaking skills).

Publications



• Whitfield, P., (2021), Ed.: 'Inclusivity and equality in performance training: teaching and learning for neuro and physical diversity'. London: Routledge.
• Whitfield, P. (2019). 'Teaching strategies for neurodiversity and dyslexia in actor training: Sensing Shakespeare'. London: Routledge.
• Book chapter. Whitfield, P. (2018). Entanglement in Shakespeare’s text: the use of interpretive mnemonics by acting students with dyslexia. In: ed. Prior, R. 'Using art as research in learning & teaching: multidisciplinary approaches across the arts'. Bristol: Intellect Books.

Journal Articles and Scholarly Writing

• Whitfield, P. (2023). Review of Shakespeare and Meisner: A Practical Guide for Actors, Directors, Students and Teachers by Aileen Gonsalves & Tracey Irish. The Voice and Speech Review Journal. Published online: 07 Jul 2023.
• Whitfield, P. (2019). Finding one’s teaching identity through change and innovation in voice training. In: ed. Thomaidis, K. Theatre, Dance and Performance Training Journal reviewed article/ blog online
• Whitfield, P. (2017). The Micro Grasp and Macro Gestus Strategy as a facilitation of dyslexia in actor training: reconstructing the written text when performing Shakespeare. Theatre, Dance & Performance Training. 8 (3),329-347
• Whitfield, P. (2016). A Facilitation of Dyslexia through a Remediation of Shakespeare’s Text. Research in Drama Education. The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. 21 (3), 385-400.
• Whitfield, P. (2015b). Towards an Emancipatory Praxis of Pedagogy: Supporting Acting Students with Dyslexia When Working On Shakespeare. Voice and Speech Trainer’s Review. 9 (2/3), 113-138.
• Whitfield, P. (2009). Shakespeare, Pedagogy and Dyslexia. In: R. Cooke., ed. The Moving Voice: The Integration of Voice and Movement. The Voice and Speech Trainer’s Review. USA: University Readers. 6, 254-262. Published in 2013 on Taylor & Francis/Routledge Voice and Speech Trainer’s Review website
• Whitfield, P & Jowett, J. (2012). Ask an expert. In: Olive, S., ed. Teaching Shakespeare, 2. British Shakespeare Association, (2), 11

Professional Practice (Voice Coaching)

• Royal Shakespeare Company, Memorial Theatre, Stratford ‘Great Expectations’ production - Voice Coach for child actors
• 

BBC Television Documentary ‘Can’t Sing Singers’ – Voice Coach for participants


• ‘Make The Most of Your Voice’ Agency – Voice Coach for mixed nationalities

I am a peer reviewer for external funding bids for the Arts and Humanities Research Council

I serve on the Editorial Review Board of the Arts Praxis journal. 2023-ongoing.

I serve on the Review Board of the Journal of Applied Arts and Health (Intellect Books) from 2017-21, peer-reviewing many of the journal articles.

I am peer reviewer for the Research in Drama Education and Applied Theatre Journal (RiDE). Theatre, Dance and Performance Training journal, Arts Praxis journal and for Auto/Biographical Review Journal for the British Sociological Society – ongoing


Conference Presentations

• Keynote speaker: ‘Developing authentic learning strategies towards inclusivity in actor- training (with a focus on dyslexia) and new questions over student vulnerabilities post-COVID’. The Drama HE annual conference: ‘ Performance, Pedagogy and Practice’ at Staffordshire University, June 2023.
• Speaker as the first winner of the Transformative Research Prize (TaPRA) : ‘Transformational processes for teaching dyslexic acting students: building understanding, inclusivity, and personal agency for those with dyslexia’ at the TaPRA annual conference at Essex University, September 2022.
  
• ‘Communicating and sharing teaching strategies for Acting students with dyslexia: Embodied cognition and visual mnemonics’ at the VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers’ Association) conference ‘Connectors, Communicators & Culture’ at Orlando, Florida, USA, August 2019.
• ‘Innovative strategies for teaching acting students with dyslexia: Embodied cognition and visual interpretive mnemonics’ at the Advance HE Teaching & Learning conference ‘Teaching in the Spotlight: Innovation for Teaching Excellence’, at Northumbria University, July 2019.
• ‘Grounding the text through epistemic artefacts, actions and engineering’ at the ‘Applying Shakespeare II’ conference , at Surrey University/Guildford School of Acting, June 2019.
  
• ‘Methodology; educational action research merged with case study’ at the ‘Research Methodologies Conference’ at the Arts University Bournemouth, May 2018.
• ‘Exploring learning style preferences to advance a grounding of Shakespeare’s language for acting students with dyslexia’ at the ‘Applying Shakespeare ’ conference, at The Shakespeare Institute/Birmingham University, March 2018.
• 'Towards accessing Shakespeare’s text for those with dyslexia: strategies to support the challenges and strengths of acting degree students with dyslexia' at the British Educational Research Association (BERA ) international conference, at Sussex University, September 2017.
• Key speaker: ‘Interacting with Shakespeare’s text through a dyslexic perspective; interpretive mnemonics as a pedagogical strategy for facilitation of dyslexia in actor-training’ at the Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, and Actor Training Symposium at the The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, April 2017.
  
• ‘Developing interpretive mnemonics as a tool for acting students with dyslexia towards performing Shakespeare’s text’ at the Creative Pedagogies Research Conference, at the Arts University Bournemouth, April 2017
• ‘Interpretive Mnemonics as a facilitation of dyslexia in actor-training: reconstructing the written text into Tableaux Vivants towards a performance of Shakespeare, at the TaPRA annual conference, at Bristol University, September 2016.
  
• ‘Deconstructing and re-constructing meaning towards the performative action; supporting acting students with dyslexia in their acting of Shakespeare’ at the Arts as Research in Teaching and Learning International symposium, at Wolverhampton University September 2016.
• ‘Grasping towards meaning: an investigation into the use of Stanislavski’s method of active analysis to enable acting students with dyslexia to access, identify and experience what is contained within the words of Shakespeare’s text’ at ‘The S Word: Stanislavski and the Future of Acting’ international symposium, at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, March 2016.
• ‘Sensing Shakespeare through technology, adaptation and visualization-supporting the dyslexic student in accessing text’, at the British Shakespeare Association international conference ‘Sources and Adaptations’, at Cambridge University, September 2011.
  
• Presentation of my research about my dyslexic acting students and computer program to the MSC SpLD students, at the School of Education Southampton University, 2011.
• Key Speaker : Excavating Text through Technology: pronouncing words visually, kinaesthetically and sensorially’ at the Teaching and Learning Conference, at Arts University Bournemouth, June 2010.
• ‘Pedagogy, Dyslexia, Shakespeare’, at the Teaching and Learning Conference, at Arts University Bournemouth, June 2008.
• ‘Shakespeare and Syllabus in Actor Training in Higher Education’ at the Teaching and Learning Conference, at the Arts University Bournemouth, July 2007.