Jonathan Meth
Staff details
Position
Lecturer
Department
Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship
j.meth (@gold.ac.uk)
Links
Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups
Jonathan has over 25 years’ experience as a Senior Arts manager working internationally.
Jonathan has worked since 2002 on the MA in Arts Administration & Cultural Policy, Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship. He has also contributed to the MA in Creative & Cultural Entrepreneurship, the MA, Cultural Policy, Relations & Diplomacy and the BA in Arts Management.
Jonathan co-supervises PhDs with Gerald Lidstone.
From July 2013 to January 2015 he also Convened the MA in Writing for Performance and Dramaturgy for the Theatre and Performance Department at Goldsmiths, where he has also taught on the UG Dramaturgy programme and Disability Theatre module.
Jonathan applies his broad dramaturgical experience to the writing of dissertations and essays, and explores how to curate stories which get to the heart of academic writing and new business propositions alike.
Academic qualifications
- BA Hons English & American Literature with Drama, UEA 1983
- Post-graduate Diploma in Theatre Directing, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School 1989
Teaching and supervision
Research interests
Crossing The Line brought together 3 of Europe’s leading theatre companies who make professional touring theatre with learning disabled artists. My chapter in Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy: Case Studies from the Field. Ed. Philippa Kelly, Routledge, (April 2020) investigates this initial 27 month collaboration, (2014-17) which incorporated residency exchanges, the making of new stage productions, wider industry engagement and a culminating 3-day Festival in Roubaix, France. Operating as Project Dramaturg, I argue that learning disabled theatre is not simply a subset of theatre made by physically or sensorily disabled people, but rather calls for different approaches; which could productively include the intercultural.
I pursued this work as Project Dramaturg (2018-21) with an expanded partnership of 6 European companies on 2 overlapping projects: Ogmius, focusing on skills development and Trasna Na Line, which was meant to focus around a 4-day festival in Galway due May 2020, showcasing the production work of all these companies as part of Galway’s European Capital of Culture, but had to be moved online owing to COVID. An important element of this work is the analysis of each company within its cultural context.
The Fence network remains a continuing source of live practical enquiry as to how playwriting landscapes are constructed, curated and navigated in different countries. In Autumn 2023 it celebrates 20 years of network activity at the 30th meeting in Kranj, Slovenia.
Featured publications
2020:
Crossing The Line
Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy: Case Studies from the Field. Ed. Philippa Kelly, Routledge.
Publications and research outputs
Edited Book
Meth, Jonathan and Walling, Michael, eds. 2022. CRE-ACTORS - Training Intercultural Theatre-Makers for a Diverse Europe. Sligo: Border Crossings. ISBN 9781904718123
Book Section
Meth, Jonathan. 2020. Crossing The Line. In: Philippa Kelly, ed. Diversity, Inclusion and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy: Case Studies from the Field. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 69-82. ISBN 9781138334458
Performance
Alston, Adam; Desmarais, Jane H. and Meth, Jonathan. 2021. Decadent Plays. In: "Decadent Plays", The Albany, London, United Kingdom, 10 November 2021.
Conferences and talks
2019:
Crossing The Line
Yale MFA Dramaturgy Programme
2018:
Crossing The Line
University of Reading
2019:
Celebrating Dramaturgy in the UK: The 2019 Kenneth Tynan Award
Soho Theatre
2019:
“Took it as read. Or The Curious Incident of the Fog in the Sightline.” Sarah Kane, Theatre and Mental Health
King’s College London, ‘A Beautiful Mind’- Art, Science and Mental Health programme
Professional Activities
Sept 2021 - Jan 2023 Jonathan was a dramaturg on the Cre-Actors EU Erasmus+ funded project with Border Crossings, Teatro Dell'Argine and Theatre du Soleil
Nov 2018 - October 2022 Jonathan was Project Dramaturg on Trasna Na Line, an EU Creative Europe (CE) funded project and Ogmius, an EU Erasmus+ funded project: for the Crossing The Line partnership.
Nov 2014 - Mar 2017 Jonathan was Project Dramaturg on Crossing The Line - EU CE funded with: Mind The Gap in Bradford, UK. Moomsteatern in Malmo, Sweden and Compagnie de l’Oisesau Mouche in Roubaix, France: three of the world's leading companies making theatre with professional, learning disabled theatre makers.
Jonathan is director/ curator of The Fence, which he set up in 2003 - an international network of playwrights and cultural operators, now based in Stockholm. Over 250 members across 50 countries.
He put together the Janus project (developed out of the Fence), which with EU Culture funding and British Council support translated 16 new plays from across Europe and presented them as staged readings at Festivals in Tampere, Finland; Graz, Austria and Leeds, UK.
He was Director of writernet, a UK based organisation. Over 15 years he created regional, national & international networks, delivered a wide range of targeted playwright development programmes, co-produced new plays, wrote and published a range of guides, reports & articles on many aspects of the broader theatre writing ecology.
• Visiting Fellow at the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading (2017-2020)
• External Assessor for the MA in Scriptwriting, University of East Anglia (2002-2017)
• External Examiner for the BA Drama and Scriptwriting - University of Northumbria (2014-2018)
• Expert Advisor and ex-Trustee at Ambitious About Autism, the national charity for autism education
• Chair of Vital Xposure; previously Vice Chair of ATC and the Playwrights Studio Scotland
• Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts