Dr Sarah Peters

Senior Lecturer in Drama

College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences

place Humanities (251)
GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, South Australia

Dr Sarah Peters (she/her) is Senior Lecturer in Drama at Flinders University and book reviews editor for Australasian Drama Studies. Sarah is a playwright and theatre practitioner specialising in verbatim theatre and community-engaged theatre making, most recently with youth arts organisations in South Australia such as D’faces of Youth Arts (2019), Expressway Arts (Carclew) (2019-2021) and Prospect Theatre for Young People (2022). She was a commissioned writer on State Theatre Company South Australia and ActNow’s 2020 Ruby Award winning project Decameron 2.0, and Theatre Republic’s 2023 Future:Present project.Her verbatim plays (published online with Australian Plays Transform) engage with communities to tell the shared stories of experience, such as women living with Alopecia in bald heads & blue stars (2014), young people navigating mental health and wellbeing in twelve2twentyfive (2015) growing up in rural communities in Eternity (2017) and pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago looking for belonging in Blister (2019). Her research investigates collaborative theatre making processes within an ethic of care, dramaturgies of theatre based on lived experiences, and the socio-political and inter-personal outcomes of arts engagement for community participants. Through Sarah’s current work in progress An Incomplete Encyclopedia of Hugs she is exploring solo performance dramaturgies and this workhas had public readings with South Australian Playwrights Theatre (2022) and the Adelaide Fringe (2023). Her co-authored monograph, Verbatim Theatre Methodologies for Community-Engaged Practice was published with Routledge in 2023.

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Southern QLD, 2016

Acting Masterclass with Matt Scholten, Empire Theatre Toowoomba, 2016

Small Screen Masterclass - screenwriting with Linden Wilkinson, Springfield, 2015

Master of Arts - awarded with distinction, University of Southern QLD, 2012

Verbatim Theatre Masterclass with Alana Valentine, Sydney Theatre Company, 2012

Bachelor of Drama/Bachelor of Education - awarded with distinction, University of Southern QLD, 2007

Honours, awards and grants

CHASS Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2022.

CHASS Early Career Research Excellence Award, 2020.

Veronica Kelly Prize for Best Postgraduate Paper, Australasian Association for Theatre, Drama and Performance, 2015

1st Place in Pitch Club Challenge, University of Southern QLD, 2015

Australian Postgraduate Award, 2013

Geoffrey Milne Bursary, Australasian Drama Studies Association, 2013

Bid O'Sullivan Teaching Scholarship, 2004

Key responsibilities

Research Section Head: Creative and Performing Arts (2022-2023)

NTRO committee chair (2022-present)

Book Reviews Editor Australasian Drama Studies (2021-present)

Equal Opportunity Contact Officer CHASS (2021-2022)

Topic coordinator
DRAM2200 Adaptation and Audiences
DRAM3016 Community Engaged Arts Practice
CREA7100 Research Methods in the Creative Arts