Dr Richard Talbot
School of Arts, Media and Creative Technologies
Current positions
Senior Lecturer in Performance
Biography
Researcher and Theatre Maker with extensive experience in performance studies, comedy writing, and practice-as-research. Expertise in Japanese theatre, physical theatre, and heritage performance.
Current Role & Responsibilities:
Senior Lecturer in Performance, University of Salford (2014–Present)
Programme Leader, BA Hons Comedy Writing and Performance
Chief External Examiner, Rose Bruford College
LINKTREE https://linktr.ee/richardtalbot
ORCiD https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3042-0984
Professional Artistic Background:
Director, New Heritage Performance CIC
Director, Ridiculusmus Theatre Company Ltd
Actor/Performer training in Viewpoints, Suzuki, and clowning with world-class practitioners.
Co-Artistic Director, Triangle Theatre Company UK (1997–2010)
Selected international touring:
Looking for the Tallyman, The Exhibitionists, The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland.
Film work: Tribute (2003), If My Memory Serves Me (2022).
Heritage Performance: Commedia dell Shopping (2025); If My Memory Serves Me (2022)
Areas of Research
- Japanese Contemporary Theatre and Comedy
2025-2026 Organiser - Online Research and Writing Workshop on Japanese Humour and Comedy https://www.ucc.ie/en/asian/japanese/news/
Member, British Association of Japanese Studies; International Federation of Theatre Studies (Asian Theatre Working Group)
- Digital Performance
Human Idiot Puppet: Experiments with Digital Clowning and Puppetry 2021-2023 Figshare Collection
Comedy and Performance Art Project Assemblage Project (2021-3) Comedy Studies 14:2, Published online: 29 Mar 2023.
- Heritage Performance
The Dunes are Alive:Using Performance To Engage People In Heritage Conservation (funding bid submitted)
Latest Blog:
Suzuki Company of Toga, Summer Season, contribution to Suzuki Talk, 30 August 2025 https://rtalbot9.wixsite.com/ludicresearch/post/さらに奥-ever-deeper-into-suzuki
For more on these projects see: https://rtalbot9.wixsite.com/ludicresearch/
Areas of Supervision
Physical Theatre; Digital Performance; Clowning and Popular Performance; Socially Engaged Theatre
In 2025/26 I am supervising PhDs on adapting Nigerian Theatre and Japanese Yōkai in Manga. I have successfully supervised projects on Selfhood, Sexuality and Spirituality; and Dance and Digital Virtual Environments and Digital Performance.
I work mainly on Practice-Research PhD projects on Northern Comic Identities and Place; Jean Luc-Nancy and the Ensemble; and The Gamification of Theatre, and more ‘conventional’ PhDs such as one on Pinter and Psychoanalysis. I have recently examined Practice-Research PhDs on the Exploration of Mask/Clown and Pedagogy; and on Spontaneity and Repetition.
2025/26
Undergraduate
Level 5: Performance Studies; Physical Theatres
Level 6: Acting for Motion Capture; Performance Research Project; Careers and Professional Portfolio.
Postgraduate Research:
2 PhD supervisions from 2026: Psychoanalysing Identity, Villainy and Yokai-Human Duality in Contemporary Manga; Exploring Contemporary Adaptations of Folktale Narrations in Africa; Studying the Bachama Community in Nigeria.
6 PhD completions, 5 by Practice as Research: Jean-Luc Nancy and The Ensemble; Theatre for the Gamified Society; Psychoanalysis and Harold Pinter; Dancer Training and Motion Capture Technologies; Comedy Practices and Northern Identities; Sexuality, Selfhood and Performance
Independent Chair and Examiner, PhD examinations, University of Salford, 2014-
PhDs Examined - Physical Theatre, University of Limerick University 2021; Physical Theatre, Liverpool John Moores University 2020; Humour Studies, Brunel University 2018
Qualifications
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PG Certificate Higher Education Practice and Research
2010 - 2011 -
PhD Drama, Theatre and Performance
2004 - 2008 -
PG Certificate Research Practice
2004 - 2005 -
MA with Distinction, Theatre Studies
1993 - 1994 -
BA (Hons) First Class, Japanese Studies
1987 - 1991
Recognitions
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Chief External Examiner, Rose Bruford College