David Coates

David is an Assistant Professor in the School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures at the University of Warwick. He is a cultural historian with a particular interest in theatre and performance in the long nineteenth century. David holds a BA (Hons) and MA by Research in Theatre a Performance Studies from the University of Warwick, with his MA dissertation on the subject of private theatricals at Chatsworth House: 1880-1914. In 2017 he submitted his PhD thesis titled The Development of Amateur Theatre in Britain, 1789-1914. This work is currently being adapted and expanded into a monograph, likely due for publication in 2027. Between January 2022 and January 2027 David is co-investigator on the European Research Council funded project 'Performing Citizenship: Social and Political Agency in Non-Professional Theatre Practice in Germany, France, Britain, Sweden and Switzerland (1780-1850)'.

Alongside this project work, as an early career academic, David is working on a number of research outputs. He is preparing to submit a proposal to publish his writings on amateur theatre in the long nineteenth century as a monograph. He is also working on a number of journal articles, including one which considers grave hunting as part of a theatre historian's research methodology, and another which grapples with queer subcultures in nineteenth century amateur theatre. David also has a longstanding interest in the Shelley Theatre in Boscombe, Dorset, and would like to return to work on this after initial plans for a project were scuppered by the covid-19 pandemic.

David is an active member of a number of associations. He's been a member of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR)'s Historiography Working Group since 2013, and was the Administrator for the IFTR Warwick World Congress in 2014. He's also a long-standing member of the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) and the Society for Theatre Research (STR), and has served on the Executive Committee of both organisations. For the former, he is the Theatre and Performance Histories Working Group Convenor (2022-2025) and will lead the organisation of the 2025 annual conference, due to take place at Warwick between 27-29 August 2025. For the latter, he founded the New Researchers’ Network (NRN), serving as its Chair between 2012 and 2015, and now sits on the STR's Research Grants sub-committee.

Alongside David’s PhD, he worked in Arts Administration at Warwick Arts Centre in various departments, including Programming and Business Development.

Research interests
British and European theatre in the long nineteenth century
Amateur theatre histories
Elite entertainments, country house society and culture and private theatricals
The aristocracy or royalty and theatre
Theatre and performance historiography and archives
Queer theatre and performance histories
Cemeteries, gravehunting and ‘theatrical tourism’