Goldsmiths - University of London

Cass Fleming BA, MA

I currently convene Theatre Making 3 and teach the Devised Performance pathway on this course, I also teach the Play option on Performance Theory/Practice for second year students and I coordinate the BA Personal & Professional Development Programme for the department.  The Devised Performance pathway practically introduces students to a range of devising processes and places them in a socio-historical and critical framework.  Students on this pathway have created varied and innovative devised productions and many of them have taken this work, and the collaborative partnerships they have formed on this course, into the professional sector when they have left Goldsmiths.  The Play option is based on my own research as a practitioner and it draws on the embodied play practices of Suzanne Bing and Jacques Copeau, Michael Chekhov and Joan Littlewood.  The BA Personal and Professional Development Programme has been developed with colleagues in the Institute of Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurialism and the Careers Service and we deliver bespoke workshops for our Drama & Theatre Arts students to help enhance your learning experience and prepare you for work in the cultural industry after graduation.  In previous years I have also convened, and taught on, Theatre Making: Processes & Performance; Theatre Making: Scenography & Technologies; Theatre Making: Summer Term Projects; Performance Theory/Practice and Theatre Making 2.  At postgraduate level I also taught on the MA Applied Drama for a number of years. 

I am a Theatre Director and teacher of acting, directing and devising.  I trained for five years at the Weekend Arts & Technology College, Goldsmiths, and the Central School of Speech and Drama. Over the past twenty five years I have undertaken training in a wide range of physical performance practices, including acting, dance, mime, mask, yoga and also Chekhov technique with Graham Dixon and David Zinder.  I initially worked as a performer in film, dance-theatre, mime and devised performance before becoming a director of devised theatre.  I spent two years working with English National Opera’s Education, Community and Outreach team and have worked extensively as a freelance lecturer/ teacher of actors, directors and devised theatre-makers at Central School of Speech & Drama, Rose Bruford College and Brunel University.   My production experience as a director has ranged from dance-theatre, to radical adaptations of texts, and devised embodied theatre.  My production of Jarman Garden (2004) at the Riverside Studios won critical acclaim in the UK and Passed Between Us (2002-2006) was performed in both the UK and Australia.  Much of my current work is based on Michael Chekhov Technique and I am part of the Michael Chekhov Centre UK.  Ongoing work includes Depth of Field, a joint practice-as-research project exploring Francesca Woodman’s photography and performativity and a genealogical study of the practices of Michael Chekhov and Suzanne Bing/Jacques Copeau. I am also very interested in the work of Joan Littlewood and Theatre Workshop. 

Teaching

Lecturer in Theatre & Performance Practice
Convenor, Theatre Making 3
Tutor, ‘Play’ option, Performance Theory / Practice
Coordinator, BA Personal & Professional Development Programme
International Liaison Tutor (undergraduate)

Research interests

• The use of play in relation to actor training, analysis and theatre making, in particular the techniques developed by Michael Chekhov, Suzanne Bing and Joan Littlewood
• Contemporary and historical physical theatre/embodied approaches to performance
• European directorial practices of the twentieth/twenty-first centuries
• Devised performance
• Identity, agency and ego in the creative process
• Practical research methodologies
• Cross-arts performance
• Multi-media practice and radical uses of text in performance

Recent research

Current research takes the form of a genealogy investigating the embodied theatre practices of Suzanne Bing / Jacques Copeau, and Michael Chekhov.  In particular her research focuses on the use of embodied play in relation to actor training, analysis and theatre-making.  She also has a particular interest in the work of Joan Littlewood and the Theatre Workshop.

Selected recent research as a practitioner:

Depth of Field – Co-director / Co-devisor (ongoing).  A joint research project with Caoimhe McAvinchey and Katja Hilevaara exploring Francesca Woodman’s photography and performativity. 

Rubicon: Voyages - Director / Project Leader, Rubicon Performance Company (ongoing)

Jarman Garden - Co-director / Co-deviser, Flaming Theatre
Riverside Studios London, February – March 2004

Passed Between Us - Director / Co-deviser, Rubicon Performance Company
La Mama, Melbourne Australia, 2006
Battersea Arts Centre, Chats Palace, The Jerwood Space, 2002

Recollections - Director / Co-deviser, Rubicon Performance Company
The Cockpit Theatre London, 2001
The Gym London, 2001

Selected reviews on Jarman Garden

A garden full of many delights" - TIME OUT "...an intriguing portrait"- METRO
"One of the 5 Best Shows in London" - BBC LONDON RADIO
"takes us on a rollercoaster ride of sensations... It's a sublime interdisciplinary sensual assault." - THE TIMES
"A beautifully integrated performance...Presenting an elegy that skilfully mixes media and styles, this company have given Jarman an appropriate, posthumous birthday present." - ROGUES & VAGABONDS website.

Selected publications

Forthcoming publications

‘Michael Chekhov’s Embodied Play’ in Franc Chamberlain and Andrey Kirillov (eds), ‘Michael Chekhov in the Twenty-first Century: New Sources, New Contexts, New Perspectives.’ Theatre, Dance & Performance Training. Special issue 4.2, London: Routledge, 2013.

‘The Michael Chekhov Centre UK Past, Present and Future: an Inter-Generational Dialogue.’  An edited selection of interviews with Sarah Kane, Graham Dixon and Martin Sharp.  Co authors: Tom Cornford, Cass Fleming and Sinéad Rushe in Franc Chamberlain and Andrey Kirillov (eds), ‘Michael Chekhov in the Twenty-first Century: New Sources, New Contexts, New Perspectives.’ Theatre, Dance & Performance Training. Special issue 4.2, London: Routledge, 2013.