An Oak Tree is a bold, absurdist, comic play for two actors - one of them different at each performance - about loss, suggestion and the power of the mind.
This Student Edition is published with a commentary and notes by Seda Ilter, which explore Tim Crouch's notion of audience and their role in theatre; possibilities of transformation and the role of visual art in theatre; the implosion of the real and fictional; and the liminal dramaturgy of Crouch's plays; as well as how this experimental play works in performance.
The edition also includes an interview with Tim Crouch, which sheds further light on his philosophy and process.
Tim Crouch is a UK theatre artist based in Brighton. He writes plays, performs in them and takes responsibility for their production. He started to make his own work in 2003. Before then he was an actor.
Tim works with a number of associates and collaborators to produce his writing. There isn't a company structure; things and people are brought together when they are needed. The starting process has always been a text written by Crouch. Early work was made in response to a self-generated impulse to tell a story or explore a form. This impulse is still the first motivation but, lately, it's become slightly more formalized through the involvement of various commissioning theatres and organizations. Tim's work tours extensively to UK and international venues and festivals.
Jenny Stevens was an Associate Lecturer for the Open University and currently combines educational consultancy work with teaching and writing. She is the co-author with Pamela Bickley of
Essential Shakespeare: The Arden Guide to Text and Interpretation (2013) and
Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama: Text and Performance (2016).
Seda Ilter is a lecturer in Theatre and Performance Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research interests include theoretical and aesthetic implications of new technologies and media culture in theatre, dramaturgy, and new writing for performance. She has published on mediatized theatre, emerging forms of texts in digital performance, big data and theatre, as well as on politics of social media and protest, and contemporary theatre in Turkey.
Chris Megson is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has taught and published widely in the field of modern drama, and is editor of
The Methuen Drama Book of Naturalist Plays. Other works include:
Get Real: Documentary Theatre Past and Present (with Alison Forsyth, 2011),
and
Modern British Playwriting: The 70s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations (2012).
Matthew Nichols graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2003 and has been teaching and leading outstanding Drama and Performing Arts departments for over a decade. Matthew also has extensive experience at a senior level with several exam boards, and was responsible for writing one of the reformed GCSE qualifications in Drama. In addition, Matthew works with schools, colleges, universities and theatres across the country. Matthew is a successful and sought after Drama education consultant, and was one of the founders of Drama Defined, which specialises in delivering high quality Drama education courses to staff and students. Matthew is currently Head of Drama at Manchester Grammar School. You can reach him on Twitter @matthew_drama.
