Neil Mackenzie

Senior Lecturer
Drama and Contemporary Performance

In addition to my lecturing role, I also have an extensive record as a festival director, performance curator and theatre maker.

I was the Artistic Director of the Flare International Festival of New Theatre across Manchester from 2011-2019, the Performance Programmer at Axis Arts Centre in Crewe from 2009-2019, the Director of Plane Performance theatre company from 2000-2017, the director of the Manchester International Student Theatre (MIST) Festival (2007), and the curator of the Live0 series of graduate showcases (2001-2007) in Manchester. Since 2023 I’ve been curating the Future Flares Festival, and working in community arts contexts across South Manchester.

I’m regularly invited to international theatre festivals across Europe, I sit on the board of directors of Reckless Sleepers performance company, I’m a trustee of the Didsbury Arts Festival, and I’m an Associate Member of Live Art UK.

Academic and Professional Qualifications

MA Contemporary Theatre Practice, Lancaster University
BA (Hons) English and Drama, Leicester University

Previous Employment

Senior Lecturer Contemporary Arts
Manchester Metropolitan University

Senior Lecturer/Chair of Performance Arts
Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education

Lecturer Performance Arts
Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education

Programmer
Shaftesbury Hall Theatre, Cheltenham

Membership of Professional Associations

Live Art UK - Associate Member

LANWest - Member

Undergraduate Teaching

BA (Hons) Drama and Contemporary Performance offers students a unique opportunity to make, study and perform innovative new theatre and performance, in the centre of Manchester. Drama and Contemporary Performance at Manchester Met is all about your development as a theatre artist, performer, thinker and professional, and in close contact with the city's vibrant theatre and performance scene. Working with leading theatre academics, artists and professionals, and drawing on established local, national and international networks, you will be part of a close knit course community, working in one of the most vibrant sectors of a city internationally acclaimed for its creativity. Drama and Contemporary Performance has a unique focus on cutting edge practices across contemporary performance and dramatic theatre. Combining artistic practice, academic enquiry and professional development, the degree has close relationships with Contact Theatre, HOME, The Royal Exchange and other Manchester-based theatre venues and organisations, as well as a number of international partners. Focused on finding exciting connections between different contemporary perspectives and theatrical/performance practices, the course builds on many years of experience in the teaching of Drama and Contemporary Theatre and Performance (CTP), and in the development of artists, performers, producers and teachers, in related fields and at all levels. When you leave you will have been introduced to a range of possible futures, and you will have actively engaged with some relevant career paths. You will also be part of a network of emerging and established practitioners, and have developed the skills and confidence that comes with the wealth of artistic, academic and collaborative experiences on offer. But above all you will have greatly enhanced your creative practice, your understanding of theatre and your intellectual potential, and you will take with you a real world appreciation of how to make the most of it all.

Postgraduate Teaching

MA/MFA Performance is a taught masters programme that offers a practical, versatile and interdisciplinary approach to performance-making and training. The programme provides you with an advanced and practical understanding of current performance practices, drawing on a broad range of artistic and theoretical influences. The development of new creative practice is at the core of the programme, as well as how this work might be developed and profiled in a professional context.

Furthermore, MA/MFA Performance offers you the chance to specialise in either of the distinctive areas of laboratory theatre or contemporary performance. The experience of these options is fed through a further process of critical and professional contextualisation, before you embark on the creation of your own major project as the culmination of the degree. The Laboratory Theatre specialism focuses on performer training, dramaturgy and socially-engaged cultural actions. The Contemporary Performance specialism focuses on the creation of innovative and experimental performance practice, within or across the categories of radical theatre, contemporary dance and performance art/live art.

The programme draws particularly on the acclaimed interdisciplinary ethos and context of the Manchester School of Art and Manchester's international arts networks.

Postgraduate Research Supervision

Crouch, Jason PhD (completed) Mediated Messages: Constructions of intimate communication through the use of digital technologies, and the extent to which such encounters can be conceptualised as one-to-one performance.