Ms Sarah Berridge

• Qualifications:PGCert: Psychology of Education - University of Bristol (2016), MA: European Dance Theatre Practice - Laban (2008), PGCE: Drama (1998) BA: Performing Arts, DeMontfort University, (1996)
• Position:Senior Lecturer in Performance
• Department:College of Arts, Technology and Environment
• Telephone:+441173281127
• Email:Sarah.Berridge@uwe.ac.uk
• Social media:

About me

Sarah Berridge is a theatre maker, experimental filmmaker, and Senior Lecturer in Drama, Acting and Performance whose practice centres on innovative devised theatre pedagogies and interdisciplinary performance practice. With more than two decades of professional and academic experience, she currently creates work that blends physical storytelling, gesture, presence, and screen-based media to explore how theatre can illuminate lived experience.

Her artistic practice spans applied theatre, interdisciplinary collaboration, and site-specific performance, developed through long-standing partnerships with arts and community organisations across the UK. She has made experimental films and performance projections that have been screened and exhibited internationally, including at the BBC Short Film Festival, Inbetween Time Festival, Arnolfini, The Place, and Yorkshire Dance Festival (https://vimeo.com/sarahberridge).

As an educator, Sarah is recognised for pioneering approaches to devised theatre training, integrating movement, multimedia processes, and embodied storytelling to support emerging artists. Since joining UWE in 2015, she has led curriculum innovation across the Drama, Acting and Performance programme, and developed initiatives such as ‘Drama Futures’, a festival connecting students with industry and ‘Wellbeing in the Curriculum’, embedding creative wellbeing into undergraduate practice. She currently leads work on UWE’s Climate Action Theatre (CAT) initiative as part of the global Climate Theatre Action network.

Her research investigates how theatre and performance can generate new ways of understanding ecological precarity, water security, and community resilience. She is co-investigator on 'Climate Collaboratorium', a UKRI-ESRC funded international project using applied theatre to explore community responses to climate change, in collaboration with the Centre for Water, Communities and Resilience and acta Community Theatre.

Area of expertise

Alongside her academic work, Sarah is Guest Curator for Exeter Dance International Film Festival (since 2021) and Academic Link Tutor for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (2021-2025). Her expertise includes devised and physical theatre, socially engaged practice, movement training, applied theatre, and experimental screenwork.

Publications

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