Christopher O'Shaughnessy

I hold an MA in Religious Education from Surrey University and an MA in Theatre (Playwriting) from Royal Holloway, University of London. Recently I have achieved a practice-as-research doctorate in Theatre and Performance at Goldsmiths College, University of London, having defended my thesis successfully.

My thesis is 'Finding Spirituality: a critical revaluation of  English drama since 1935 through the medium of the dramatic text'. The first practice-as-research component is a new verse drama, based on the life of Ruth Ellis, which explores, illustrates, embodies and interrogates the theories and findings of the thesis. The play was well-received in performance at the George Wood Theatre at Goldsmiths on July 8 and 9, 2014. The second practice-as-research component is  'Servants', a ninety-minute one-act play about Virginia Woolf and her servant, also well-received in performance at Goldsmiths on November 5 and 6, 2015, with Stephanie Briggs as Virginia Woolf and Katie Turner as her servant, Millie.

I have presented my findings on spirituality in dramatic texts at several conferences and symposiums at Goldsmiths, including the annual Graduate Festival, three sessions of which I have helped to curate, and at the annual Faith and Civil Liberties symposiums at Goldsmiths in 2013 and 2014. A podcast of my presentation 'Human and non-human bodily imagery as a means of evoking spirituality in a dramatic text' is held at Goldsmiths. I presented at Tapra's 'Missing Performance' symposium in March and at the New Scholar's Forum at IFTR's World Congress at Warwick on July 30, 2014. 

My paper 'Walter de la Mare's Language of Music and Mystery' was presented to the Walter de la Mare Society on October 9, 2014, at Southend House, with readings of illustrative poems by members of local group Penge Partners, and was published in the November, 2015, edition of the Walter de la Mare Society magazine. My paper 'Walter de la Mare's Ghosts and Demons' was given at the Bridge House Theatre during the 2016 Penge Festival and was published in the 2017 edition of the Walter de la Mare Society Magazine. My paper 'Liminal Worlds and Horror Thresholds in the Work of Walter de la Mare' was presented at the 'Reading Walter de la Mare' conference at Cambridge University in September, 2018.

I have reviewed plays for Onestoparts and Whatspeenseen and academic books for Platform magazine. My verse dramas 'The Strokes' and 'Red' have been published in Platform magazine, as has an accompanying essay to the latter 'The Politics of Creativity', and both plays have been performed at Goldsmiths (Studio 3) and at the Amersham Arms performance centre, respectively.

My plays are listed on Doollee. 'Eyes, A Monologue', was performed by David Bibby at the Hen and Chickens Theatre in Islington, 2016, and again by Alexander Pankhurst at the launch of the 'Authenticity' edition of RHUL's Platform magazine, where it was published, in December 2017. 'The Strokes' was performed, with Jane Lowe as the Mother and Lewis Rae as the Son, and directed by Guy Retallack at the Bridge House Theatre on June 19, 2018, as part of the Penge Festival, supported by performances of 'Fin' and 'Eyes'.