The singer-actor as creator and collaborator: a model for performer-led new music theatre works

This study sets out to consider alternative creative, collaborative and career possibilities for the classically trained singer in current industry practice. By means of three music theatre works written, or co-written, co-produced and performed by the author/ researcher, the thesis maps and interrogates the process of creating and producing the projects under industry conditions, from inception through to performance and final evaluation. The dissemination of these dual creative and professional processes is tracked via the methodological framework of the Pro-Create cycle, a model conceived by the researcher and presented as a new contribution to integrated practice-led performance research. Current models, for example Robin Nelson’s and Melissa Trimingham’s, map and analyse the creative process on its own terms; the researcher’s model, by contrast, tracks and reviews not only the cyclical developmental progress of the creator and the creative work itself, but the dialogic dynamic of how that work’s production is affected by the external factors of industry acceptance and promotion.

Through the trajectory of the three self-created performance projects, the Pro-Create model concurrently examines the singer-actor’s collaborative and agential journey, the interaction between the singer-actor’s autobiography with the authorial process, and links between creative responsibility and enhanced performer agency. Finally, the thesis explores the inherent tension between creative autonomy and professional agency for the singer-actor as independent producer, in current industry conditions.