Dr Molly Flynn

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Overview
Overview
Biography
Molly Flynn is a Lecturer on the BA Theatre & Drama and BA Theatre Studies & English, MA Text and Performance, and MA Dramaturgy programmes.
Her primary research is on twenty-first-century Russian and Ukrainian theatre, with a particular focus on documentary forms and political performance practice. She is the author of Witness onstage: Documentary theatre in twenty-first-century Russia (Manchester University Press, 2020). Molly’s work has appeared in journals such New Theatre Quarterly, RiDE: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, Problems of Post-Communism, Open Democracy, and Calvert Journal.
Her current research project analyses the political, ethical, and aesthetic valences of different forms of theatre practice in contemporary Ukraine and is supported in part by the Leverhulme Trust.
Qualifications
- PhD, University of Cambridge, 2016
- MA, Brown University, 2008
- BA, New York University, 2006
ORCID
0000-0003-0569-4454 -
Research
Research
Research overview
In addition to her monograph, Witness onstage: Documentary theatre in twenty-first-century Russia (Manchester University Press, 2020), Molly has also recently contributed chapters to the collections New Drama in Russian: Performance, Politics, and Protest in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus (Bloomsbury, 2020) and Contemporary European Playwrights (Routledge 2020).
In April 2019, Molly co-organised the international symposium Depicting Donbas: Creative and critical responses to the war in Ukraine, a series of events which brought artists and academics into dialogue to explore the role creative practices play in times of conflict. The series included presentations from leading Ukrainian artists and scholars as well as two performances by the Theatre of Displaced People.
Before arriving at Birkbeck, Molly worked as a post-doctoral researcher on the AHRC funded project For Love or Money? Collaboration between amateur and professional theatre, based in the Department of Drama, Theatre, and Dance at Royal Holloway. Her work on the project explored the impact of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages initiative.
In addition to her work as a researcher, Molly is also a performer and maker of documentary theatre. From 2008-11 she lived and worked in Moscow during which time she performed the role of Gerda in the Joseph Beuys Theatre production, Legacy of Silence at Moscow’s Sakharov Centre. Since relocating to the UK, Molly has continued to work with many leading documentary theatre artists from Russia and Ukraine as a dramaturg, performer, and producer.
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Teaching
I teach on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate theatre studies modules including the BA Theatre Studies, MA Dramaturgy, and MA Text and Performance.
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Flynn, Molly (2017) School # 3: the heartfelt documentary listening to the kids of war-torn Donbass. Calvert Journal
- Flynn, Molly (2017) Twenty-First Century amateurs and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages initiative. Contemporary Theatre Review: Interventions
- Flynn, Molly (2017) Amateur hour: culture, capital, and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages initiative. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance 22 (4), pp. 482-499. ISSN 1356-9783.
- Flynn, Molly (2016) Show us your papers. Problems of Post-Communism 63 (1), pp. 16-26. ISSN 1075-8216.
- Flynn, Molly (2015) Lights up: for Teatr.doc, Russia’s most controversial theatre company, the show must go on. Calvert Journal
- Flynn, Molly (2014) The trial that never was: Russian documentary theatre and the pursuit of justice. New Theatre Quarterly 30 (4), pp. 307-317. ISSN 0266-464X.
Book
- Flynn, Molly (2019) Witness onstage: documentary theatre in Twenty-first Century Russia. Theatre: Theory – Practice – Performance. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526126191. (In Press)
Book Section
- Flynn, Molly (2020) Ivan Vyrypaev and Natalia Vorozhbyt: language, memory, and cultural mythology in Russian and Ukrainian new drama. In: Delgado, M. and Lease, B. and Rebellato, D. (eds.) Contemporary European Playwrights. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138084216.
- Flynn, Molly (2020) Stages of change: Ukraine’s theatre of displaced people. In: New Drama in Russian: Performance, Politics and Protest. Library of Modern Russia. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781788313506. (In Press)
Monograph
- Nicholson, H. and Holdsworth, N. and Flynn, Molly (2016) For love or money? Collaborations between amateur and professional theatre in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Open Stages Programme. AHRC, University of Warwick, Royal Holloway University of London.
Other
- Flynn, Molly (2015) Migrant voices onstage in London. openDemocracy Russia.
- Flynn, Molly (2014) Belarus Free Theatre: Molly Flynn interviews ‘Red Forest’ director Nicolai Khalezin. Central and Eastern European London Review.
- Flynn, Molly (2014) ‘Maidan: Voices from the Uprising’. Molly Flynn interviews Natalya Vorozhbit about her new documentary theatre piece. Central and Eastern European London Review.