Pablo Pakula

Pablo Pakula is a live artist, performance-maker, event producer and pedagogue whose work moves across live art, devising, dramaturgy, contemporary ensemble practice, site-specific performance and auto/biographical performance. Born and raised in Spain, with Spanish, German and Polish heritage, Pablo describes himself as a “European Mongrel”, a term he uses to reflect the hybridity of his cultural identity and artistic practice. In 2005, Pablo co-founded Accidental Collective with Daisy Orton. Supported by Arts Council England and various local authorities, the company has created full-length stage performances, promenade works, immersive environments, one-to-one experiences and celebratory events in theatre and non-theatre spaces across the UK. Their work often takes site-specific, interactive and community-based approaches, treating each project according to its own context and demands. Pablo completed an AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Kent in 2010 as part of Professor Paul Allain’s three-year British Grotowski Project. His research examined the impact and influence of Polish director Jerzy Grotowski on British theatre, tracing a history from Grotowski’s first contact with the UK stage in 1966 and his work with the RSC on Peter Brook’s US, through to the practices of companies and performers associated with the British alternative and fringe theatre scenes. His thesis was titled Jerzy Grotowski’s Influence on British Theatre, 1966–1980: Histories, Perspectives, Recollections. Alongside his artistic practice, Pablo has extensive experience in higher education and community-based pedagogy. Between 2006 and 2016, he worked as an Associate Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Kent, teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has also taught at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Canterbury Christ Church University as an associate and visiting lecturer. Since 2017, he has been a permanent Teaching Fellow specialising in practice at the University of Birmingham’s Department of Drama and Theatre Arts. His pedagogy is eclectic, embodied and conceptually inquisitive, often working through Practice as Research.