Tom Drayton

Dr Tom Drayton

Senior Lecturer

Contemporary Theatre

Acting, Performance and Directing , School of Arts and Creative Industries

Tom’s teaching across our Postgraduate Performing Arts suite of courses focuses on contemporary performance making, metamodernism, artistic research projects, and creative project management. His primary research interests focus on metamodern cultural forms, theatre and culture of the millennial generation, and contemporary political performance.

He is a General Editor for Studies in Theatre and Performance Journal, and has written extensively on metamodern culture and performance in Journals and books. His research fuses praxis and critical scholarship, encompassing workshops, performances and publications. Professionally, Tom has acted and directed with the award-winning theatre company Pregnant Fish Theatre since 2010. His work with them has been described as 'precisely what theatre should try to be' (Empire of the Will).

Qualifications

  • PGCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, The University of East London, 2022
  • PhD ‘Towards a Listening Theatre: Metamodernism, Millennials and Contemporary Political Performance’, University of East London, 2020
  • MA Theatre Directing, University of East London, 2014
  • BA (Hons) Drama & Performance, University of Worcester, 2012

Areas Of Interest

Tom’s primary research interests focus on metamodern cultural forms, theatre of the millennial generation, and contemporary political performance.

Modules developed by Tom include: contemporary performance making and mental wealth – practitioners & praxis.

Tom is open to discuss potential doctoral projects.  Current and previous doctoral supervisees have undertaken projects on: hauntology in performance; postdramatic theatre;  community theatre; theatre for audiences with PIMD; metamodern performance; autoethnographic comedy; and contemporary Shakespeare.

Tom Drayton

OVERVIEW

Tom has worked at UEL since 2015, and joined as a full-time staff member in 2020, teaching on – and then leading – our MA Theatre Directing and MA Directing for Stage & Screen programmes. Tom is originally a graduate of our MA Theatre Directing programme, and returned to UEL to study his doctorate alongside professional theatre work before working across academia full-time.

With Pregnant Fish Theatre, Tom coordinated two national tours, three Edinburgh Fringe productions, seven professional London productions, six interactive family productions touring UK schools and outdoor spaces, and an audio drama. He also facilitated applied theatre workshops for London pupils affected by the high levels of deprivation and trained PGCE students and NQTs in applying drama throughout the primary and secondary curricula. As associate artist for Phakama from 2018 to 2023, Tom coordinated and facilitated applied theatre programmes to develop emotional resilience for families affected by HIV and children with special educational needs.

Tom now focuses on our Postgraduate community within the Performing Arts department in the School of Arts & Creative Industries. 

External roles

Research and impact

Tom’s research interests focus on metamodern cultural forms, theatre of the millennial generation, and contemporary political performance. His writing has been published in Performance Philosophy, ArtsPraxis and The European Journal of Theatre & Performance, and he is the author of the first book about metamodern theatre - Metamodernism in Contemporary British Theatre: A Politics of Hope/lessness (Bloomsbury 2024). He is currently co-writing Performance and Postdigital Extremism: Conspiracy, Influencers and Gaming (Bloomsbury 2026) with Dr Joseph Dunne-Howrie, which uses metamodernism and performance studies as critical lenses in order to interrogate how extremist ideologies are performed in postdigital spaces. He is also co-editing My Impossible Soul: The Metamodern Music of Sufjan Stevens (Lexington 2026), the first international and interdisciplinary analysis of the music, lyrics, performance process and cultural impact of indie musician Sufjan Stevens.

Most recent research

This is the first book to focus on metamodernism and performance, offering a pioneering framework by which to identify and understand metamodern theatre.

44:52

PUBLICATIONS

Visit the UEL research repository to view a full list of publications.

Publications

Browse past publications by year.

Full publications list

Visit the research repository to view a full list of publications

Research repository

  • Drayton, T. (2023)

    Notes on [a] Metamodernism [conference] in: Drayton, T.The Really Fantastic and the Fantastically Real: Doing Circus Now. Cardiff, UK: Metamodern Festival, pp.8 - 12

    Book chapter

Teaching