I was much in awe of Mike and it was difficult for us to negotiate our mutual reticence until the day he sat in my office, on the eve of a trip to Japan to study Noh Theatre and shared his extreme anxiety about the challenge of taking the appropriate presents for his teacher – given the complexity of Japanese protocols about such things. Tributes to his more than fifty years of achievement are flooding in from European theatre makers, academics, colleagues and friends and there are surely books to be written about this modest man, who did so much and was still fully engaged with his different projects to within a few days of his death.īut, in the shock and sadness of Mike’s departure, I can only write about the man I have known since the 1970s when I arrived to work in the drama department of the Welsh Arts Council. In the fullness of time I, like many others, will be able to write about the legacy of Mike’s seminal theatre work (Cardiff Laboratory Theatre Brith Gof: Pearson/Brookes) and his influence on generations of young students at Aberystwyth University as Professor of Performance Studies there. The range and compass of contributions gathered below from collaborators, fellow directors, actors, composers and teachers reflect the range, integrity, curiosity and unflagging energy of a supremely gifted theatre maker, teacher, academic and all-round inspiration. Later he became co-director of Cardiff Laboratory Theatre alongside Lis Hughes Jones, with whom he founded the Brith Gof Theatre Company in 1981.īetween 19, he became first a lecturer and then professor of performance studies at Aberystwyth University, where his wife Heike Roms also taught. Tributes have been paid to Mike Pearson, one of the most influential figures in Welsh theatre in the past half century, who passed away last week.Īs a groundbreaking theatre practitioner and academic Mike Pearson had a long and remarkable career which began at RAT Theatre and Transitions Trust community arts project in 1971, after initially training as an archaeologist at University College Cardiff.
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