CARRIE ( CAZ ) WESTWATER
Carrie is a writer, theatre artist and academic. With a thirty year career in theatre, film and participatory arts she uses what she calls 'site reflective' theatre and immersive methods to engage audiences in liminal spaces and transformative narratives.
CREATIVE CONNECTIVITY, PARTICIPATION & MY WORK
Involved in arts project evaluation, research and consultancy she draws on a good few decades of experience as a site based performance artist, creative professional, writer and now academic. She is interested in collaborative projects that will inform social justice, deep democracy and increase value in participatory creative industries.
Her research is primarily focused on how theatre and film are conduits to represent trauma but are also effective tools in which to navigate it.
If you are interested in involving Carrie in your project please contact her at WestwaterCA1@cardiff.ac.uk/ carriewestwater@gmail.com or use the 'contact form' below.
Carrie moved to South Wales in 2013 to complete her PhD (successfully awarded) in arts and heritage participation and has since worked on various projects with a variety of local companies: National Museum Wales (Museum Lates: SPACE), Creative Cardiff (Festival of Voice), Cardiff University (Wales for Peace; The Voices Project), tactileBosch (Garden of Earthly Delights, 2016; Lost Vegas Hotel 2017; Basement Borsht, 2018; Jubilee, 2018), Republic of the Imagination (Gravida, 2018); Women Representing Women, 2018), Magpies Immersive Events (Midsummer Nights Dream, 2018; Hub Festival Cabaret Caravan, 2018). She is currently lecturing in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture at Cardiff University where she is Director of the MA Cultural and Creative Industries.
Her practice has a human rights participatory or interactive focus. She uses participatory approaches in how she positions the audience, facilitates community arts and curates events that highlight matters around equality and diversity. At the beginning of her career she adapted Classic, Central and East European texts for performance in contemporary multicultural Britain.
Continuing in this manner she has directed several plays (in translation) and worked for the Scottish Refugee Council on a number of performance projects highlighting the experiences of asylum seekers and refugees (Antigone in New York ( 2008), The Inquisitor ( 2009), The Umbilical Cord ( 2010) and A View from Here ( 2013). Her other intercultural work can be found in her being commissioned by University of Glasgow to create performance based interactive training for translators based on Shaun Tan's The Arrival.
Carrie (also known as Caz) graduated drama school in 2001 before completing an MA Honours in Comparative Literature and Slavonic Studies; an MLITT in Film Journalism and as discussed, a Doctorate (PhD) in the practical application of arts and heritage participatory methods based in theatre for greater transparency and socially just co-creation/ curation. To date, she has conducted arts based research for BBC Taster with Nesta and Connect Studios, Creative Cardiff, Clwstwr, National Museum Wales, Booktrust Cymru, Cardiff University, Historic Scotland, the Gravida Collective, Teatro di Nascosto and Glasgow Museums.
Publications
Westwater, C. and Nikolajev Jones, A. 2023. Gravida, the weight and wait of pregnancy to mothering transformation. In: Šimić, L. and Underwood-Lee, E. eds. Mothering Performance. Routledge, pp. 98-107., (10.4324/9781003231073-11
Westwater. ‘20 Years of Theatre Reportage for Peace’. Peace Journalist, 2022. The Peace Journalist October 2022 by Center for Global Peace Journalism - Issuu
Pending/ in production
Westwater,C (2024) The Othering Museum: A Case for Non-Selective Curation. Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Westwater.C (2024) From Hidden Wars to Hidden Theatre: Theatre Reportage Embodies a World- in Crisis in Cottle., S (ed) Communicating a World - In - Crisis. Peter Laing.
CONTACT
Do you have questions about any of my work? Would you like to collaborate together on a project? Please feel free to get in touch with me today.
Cardiff, South Wales