Ms Ava Hunt
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Job title: Senior Lecturer & Admissions Tutor for Theatre Arts
Email: a.hunt@derby.ac.uk
Personal website: www.avahunt.co.uk
Phone No: 01332 594254
Room: Derby Theatre Office
Recent publications
- Article for Mailout - using drama in education, August 2008.
- Article for Arts Industry - use of drama, professional practice in Sri Lanka, October 2008
Experience in Industry
I have worked as a professional actor, director, programmer and producer for 30 years some of the companies that I have worked with include: Shared Experience, Hull Truck Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, Salisbury Playhouse, Half Moon, Language Alive, Tangere Arts. As well as my television work including: Coronation Street, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale, Touch of Frost, Dangerfield, The Royal Today etc.
Faculty: Arts, Design and Technology
School: School of Humanities
Subject Area: Theatre
Senior Lecturer in Theatre Arts and also Admissions Tutor for the Single and Joint Honours Theatre Arts courses.
Teaching responsibilities
- Applied Drama 1,2,3
- Professional Development
Professional interests
I trained as an actor and regularly work in theatre, film, commercials and television. I'm also an associate Director of Tangere Arts specialising in using theatre for young audiences and drama in an educational setting working with young offenders and young people in areas of social deprivation, whilst also creating my own work.
In 2007 I have set up Uncontained Arts the new graduate theatre company and directed their first production The Little Mermaid in partnership wtih Buxton Opera House and Tangere Arts touring nationally to sell out audiences throughout summer 2009.
During 2009 I created a new one woman show exploring the relationship between film and live performance, using documentary material. I'm No Hero toured venues throughout Nottingham and Derbyshire. Material draws on key historical events during the Holocaust and a contemporary story in Palestine. This work has continued and I am currently in receipt of Arts Council funding and University of Derby Research funding to travel to Israel and Palestine, work with theatre practitioners and young people, film my experiences and then use this material to create a new one woman show based on Michael Morpurgo's The Kites Are Flying in summer 2013.
Research interests
In 2008 I visited Sri Lanka with the University working with young people, and their teachers, using drama as an educative tool in areas affected by the 2004 tsunami, attending a British Council meeting with wide range of professional artists sharing practice.
I will be travelling and working with theatre practitioners in Israel continue my research on Applied Drama methodology reflecting on my practice and writing up my findings.
Membership of professional bodies and advisory committees
- Equity
- Fellow of HEA
Recent Conferences
Presentation at LTA Conference, UOD Buxton, July 2008 - Employability and PDP's
Postgraduate qualifications
- MA in Drama in Education, University of Derby
- PGPLT - Teaching in Higher Education, University of Derby
