Richard Allen

Dr Richard Allen is a performance maker, actor and academic who serves as Course Leader for the BA (Hons) Contemporary Theatre and Performance at Wimbledon College of Arts, University of the Arts London. An alumnus of Wimbledon (MA Theatre: Visual Language of Performance, 2007) and Aberystwyth University (PhD ‘Theatre Machines’, 2014), he has presented live work at the National Review of Live Art, Mayfest, Chapter Arts Centre, Bristol Old Vic and in Berlin, and publishes on object-oriented performance and anthropomorphism.

Education

• PhD Performance, Aberystwyth University, 2014 – practice-based enquiry into the performance of objects
• MA Theatre: Visual Language of Performance, Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL, 2007
• BA (Hons) undergraduate studies, University of Exeter (year not specified)

Research & creative practice

Allen’s research interrogates how objects—props, machines, apparatuses, scenographic devices—acquire agency within performance and how their theatricality shapes audience encounters. He interrogates the social, political and ecological reverberations of the non-human in human performance traditions, producing essays, films, sound pieces and live installations.

Recent major works include The Killers (a binaural, site-based re-imagining of Hemingway in a seaside diner), House (rule-based domestic tableaux created with collective Showroom), and Garage Band (suburban memory-play and DIY concert). These projects exemplify his commitment to liveness, site-specificity and the integration of sound design and autobiography.

Academic roles & course leadership

Since 2019 he has led curriculum design and delivery for Wimbledon’s new BA Contemporary Theatre and Performance, while contributing to the parallel BA Acting and Performance pathway. His pedagogy foregrounds practice-as-research, interdisciplinary collaboration and the incorporation of emerging technologies into live art-making.

External engagement

Allen co-edited a special issue of Performance Research On Anthropomorphism with Dr Shaun May (University of Kent) and has written on the bio-objects of Tadeusz Kantor and the scenographic landscapes of Philippe Quesne / Vivarium Studio, situating his practice within contemporary European performance discourse.