Oxford professor Ros Ballaster is to work with Northampton’s Royal and Derngate over the next 12 months as a knowledge exchange fellow.
She will provide additional research and resources for the venue’s Made in Northampton productions.
Her work has started with the current production A Tale of Two Cities, for which Professor Ballaster has researched and written articles for the programme, offering actors and audiences a historical insight into events in Paris and London at the time the novel and play are set.
Ros Ballaster is a literary historian with a particular interest in the history of narrative and performance. She edited Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility for Penguin Classics.
Royal and Derngate’s artistic director James Dacre commented, “We’re delighted to have Ros working with us for the next year. She’ll provide invaluable help in preparing in-depth background information for cast members, creating online resource packs and looking at our productions from a different perspective.”
The next production Ros Ballaster will be supporting is a French farce, Every Last Trick, by Georges Feydeau in a new version by Tamsin Oglesby.