Dr Denise Varney
Senior Lecturer, Theatre Studies
Qualifications
BA Dip Ed (Monash) MA PhD (Melb)
Biography
Denise Varney is Senior Lecturer in Theatre Studies. She lectures in feminist theatre, gender in performance, Brechtian theatre, theatre semiotics, and postmodern theatre as well as an inter-disciplinary study of women in the creative arts entitled Nymphs, Sluts and Madonnas.
Current research
Denise is co-author with Rachel Fensham of The Dolls' Revolution: Australian Theatre and Cultural Imagination (Melbourne: ASP, 2005). This new study of Australian theatre focuses on women writers who have changed our ways of seeing Australian culture. The book includes chapters on Hannie Rayson, Joanna Murray-Smith, Jenny Kemp, Katherine Thomson, with chapters on Indigenous women writers by Maryrose Casey and Beatrix Christian by Laura Ginters.
She has published 13 refereed journal articles on topics such as feminism and theatre, Australian theatre, Brechtian theatre, Contemporary German theatre and Performance documentation. She also contributes book reviews in the field.
Denise completed her Ph.D in 1998. Entitled "Feminism and Theatre: Theorising New Modes of Performance in Feminist Theatre", the thesis investigated the relations of history, feminism and performance, and in particular, how meaning is historicised. The thesis also theorised practice as research through its analysis of the author's own direction of two performances: Brecht's The Good Person of Sichuan (1993) and her own devised re-writing of Ibsen's The Doll's House as Doll's House with Doors (1994), both performed in The Open Stage, University of Melbourne.
In 2004, she was awarded an ARC Discovery Grant to research German theatre since re-unification which is her current project.
Denise was Postgraduate Coordinator in The School of Creative Arts 2000-2005 and currently supervises in the areas of feminist performance, contemporary theatre, Australian theatre and European performance studies.
Research student supervisions
| Sarah Austin | MCA | Theatre Studies | completed |
| Georgina Helen Boucher | PhD | Theatre Studies | completed |
| Alyson Campbell | PhD | Theatre Studies | current |
| Jo Clyne | PhD | History / Theatre Studies | current |
| Marco Corsini | MCA | Visual Arts | completed |
| Jennifer Decolongon | PhD | English / Theatre Studies | current |
| Sarah French | PhD | Theatre Studies | completed |
| Paul Monaghan | PhD | Theatre Studies | current |
| Edward Paterson | PhD | Theatre Studies | completed |
| Melissa Perry | PhD | English / Theatre Studies | current |
| Christine Rogers | MCA | Creative Writing | under examination |
| Anna Scheer | MCA | Theatre Studies | current |
| Fiona Sinclaire | MCA | Visual Arts | completed |
| Abigail Ulman | MCA | Creative Writing | current |
| Jena Zelezny | PhD | Theatre Studies | current |
Publications
Books
- Varney, D Ed. (2008) Theatre in the Berlin Republic London: Peter Lang
- Varney, D. and R. Fensham (2005). The Dolls' Revolution: Australian Theatre and Cultural Imagination, Melbourne, Australian Scholarly Press.
Book chapters
- (2008) 'Hurting. Hurting. Hurting: gendered representations of reunification in post-Wende theatre by women' in Varney (ed,) Theatre in the Berlin Republic.
- (2008) 'Introduction: Theatre in the Berlin Republic' in Varney ed 2008
- (2004). Rhizomatic Dramaturgy: Alternative Performance Practices in Alternatives: Debating Theatre Culture in the Age of Con-Fusion. P. Eckersall, Tadashi U & Naoto M. Brussels, P.I.E. - Peter Lang.
- (1998) 'Images of Women in Theatre' bibliographical essay in Amico, Eleanor (ed.) Reader's Guide to Women's Studies Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers
- (1993). 'Feminist performance techniques and Shakespeare' in Philip Mead and Marion Campbell (Eds.) Shakespeare's Books: Contemporary Cultural Politics and the Persistence of Empire Melbourne: English Department, University of Melbourne.
Refereed journals
- (2008) 'Scenographies of the Everyday in Contemporary German Theatre: Anna Langhoff and Sasha Waltz Restage the Family Drama' in Contemporary Theatre Review Vol 18, Issue 1, Feb.
- (2006) "Transit Heimat: Translation, Transnational Subjectivity and Mobility in German Theatre ", TRANSIT: Vol. 2: No. 1, Article 61008. http://repositories.cdlib.org/ucbgerman/transit/vol2/iss1/art61008
- (2006) 'Gestus, Affect and the Post-Semiotic in Contemporary Theatre' in The International Journal of the Arts in Society, Vol 1. http://www.arts-journal.com
- (2005). "Where Culture and Politics Intersect: Heiner Müller and Martin Wuttke stage new images for a time of change." Performance Research 10(2).
- (2005) "Grotesque images and sardonic humour: pain and affect in German drama" in Double Dialogues 6, Winter
- (2003). "Hannie Rayson's Life After George: theatrical intervention and public intellectual discourse." Australian Drama Studies 42: 161-176.
- (2003). "The Desire to affirm and challenge: an interview with Hannie Rayson." Australian Drama Studies 42: 146-160.
- (2003). "Heiner Müller's Germania 3 Ghosts at Dead Man: Atrocity and Pain in German History and Theatre." Double Dialogues 4: 1-9.
- (2003). "White-out: Theatre as an Agent of Border Patrol." Theatre Research International 28(3): 326-338.
- (2001). "Performing Sexual Difference: a Feminist Appropriation of Brecht." The Brecht Yearbook 26: 127-142.
- (2001). Eckersall, P., R. Fensham, E, Scheer & D Varney "Tokyo Diary." Performance Research 6(1): 71-86.
- (2000). "Focus on the Body: Towards a Feminist Reading of Brecht in Performance." Communications from the International Brecht Society 29(1, 2): 29-39.
- (2000). "Rethinking the performance of Brecht: Lines of flight, Becoming and the Female Subject" in The UTS Review: Cultural Studies and New Writing Vol. 6, No 1, May.
- (2000). "More-and less-than: Liveness, Video Recording, and the Future of Performance" in New Theatre Quarterly Vol. XVI Part 1 (NTQ 61) February.
- (1999) Varney, D. and R. Fensham "'Help me, I'm drowning!' calls the Man in Jenny Kemp's The Black Sequin Dress: heterosexual masculinity in feminist performance." Australian Drama Studies 34: 68-85.
- (2008) ‘Being Political in German Theatre and Performance: Anna Langhoff and Christoph Schingensief' in Being There: After-Proceedings of the 2006 Conference of the Australasian Association for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies Edited by Ian Maxwell; ISBN 978-1-74210-012-8