Profile
Biography
I joined TFTI in 2019 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on the pilot project ‘Staging History at York Theatre Royal: Archives and the History Play’ and the follow on project, ‘The History Play and New Writing in English Regional Theatres: Creating a Network for Impact’ led by Professor Benjamin Poore. I have since become a Lecturer in Theatre at the university where I am the Co-Programme Leader for the MA in Theatre Making and teach theory, practice, and project supervision across the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Theatre.
Previously, I completed an Arts and Humanities Research Council funded PhD at the University of Exeter in 2017 and went on to become an Associate Lecturer in Drama at Exeter teaching across lecture, seminar, and studio based modules. In addition, I have teaching experience from Oxford Brookes University and Bath Spa University.
Experience as a theatre practitioner and dramaturg, specialising in devised theatre and textual adaptation, shapes my research and teaching of both theory and practice.
Research
Overview
Research interests
- Feminist Theatre Practices
- Twenty-first century new playwriting
- Dramaturgy
- The contemporary history play
- Feminist performance analysis
- Community commemoration and performance
- Centenary and anniversary performance work
- British theatre institutions and their wider socio-cultural contexts
My research interests include feminist theatre practices, new playwriting, and acts of commemoration. My work explores how history is used within contemporary society and the gender politics of representations of the past, with a particular focus on new playwriting, theatre institutional identity, and the heritage industry.
My first monograph Feminism, Dramaturgy and the Contemporary British History Play was published in 2024 in Bloomsbury’s Engage series. This book is a feminist intervention into the dramaturgy of newly written history plays in contemporary British theatre investigating work produced at major theatres from 2000-the present. Other key publications comprise The Methuen Drama Handbook of Women in Contemporary British Theatre (2025) co-edited with Marissia Fragkou and a co-authored journal article with Benjamin Poore on the history play for Studies in Theatre and Performance (2023). In addition, my research interests include performance and commemoration particularly concerning the Suffrage Movement and contemporary acts of remembrance connected to the First World War. On this topic, I have a chapter in the Cambridge Companion to First World War Theatre.
My research interests also encompass questions of pedagogy: in 2019 I was a co-investigator on a pedagogical research project titled ‘Reinventing the Lecture Using a Creative Practice Model’. The project investigated how theories of theatre studies can be used to explore lectures as a live event in order to create more inclusive and interactive learning environments. Furthermore, I am part of an ongoing research project started in 2023 titled 'Brave Spaces', which developed out of the Diversifying and Decolonising the Curriculum Working Group in the Theatre Team and through co-creation with students has explored tools to create inclusive spaces for learning and teaching. Both of these projects have been funded by the University of York’s Strategic Learning and Teaching Fund.
Publications
Selected publications
Books
Benzie, R. and Fragkou, M. (eds.) (2025) The Methuen Drama Handbook of Women in Contemporary British Theatre, London: Methuen Drama, Bloomsbury.
Benzie, R. (2024) Feminism, Dramaturgy, and the Contemporary British History Play, London: Methuen Engage Series, Bloomsbury.
Journal Article
Benzie, R. and Poore, B. (2023) ‘History Plays in the 21st Century: New Tools for Interpreting the Contemporary Performance of the Past’, Studies in Theatre and Performance.
Book Chapter
Benzie, R. (2023) ‘Commemorating the War.’ In: Brooks, H. and Hammond, M. (eds.) The Cambridge Companion to British Theatre of the First World War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [invited contribution]
Engagement, Impact, and Dissemination
Benzie, R. (2020) 'Take Time Out Today to Remember', Western Morning News, 11th November.
Benzie, R. and Poore, B. (2020) ‘Team Teaching: academic practice in action’, Forum Learning and Teaching Committee, University of York, issue 47, pp. 10-11.
Benzie, R. (2019) ‘Try Not to Make a Mess When You Smash That Window In Protest.’ In: Williams, N. (ed.) Staging Gendered Violence, Howlround Theatre Commons [Online].
Benzie, R. (2018) ‘In the Engine Room: Representation v Reality of the Female Whip.’ In: Inchley, M. and Vice, J. (eds.) Amending Speech: Women's Voices in Parliament, 1918-2018, London: Hansard.
