Tom Gorman
Assistant Professor, Acting
Coventry University
I am an academic and theatre director currently based at Coventry University. I studied
English Literature and Language at Queen's University Belfast before going on to complete a
PhD in Theatre and Media at the University of Ulster. In 1990, after working for some time as a freelance actor with various theatre companies, I co-founded Sightlines Theatre Company, Belfast and worked with this company as Artistic Director for six years mixing multimedia with live performance in a variety of touring productions. From 1997 onwards, I became Strand Leader in Drama at the University of Birmingham, moving on to become Course Director of the BA Drama Studies degree at Bath Spa University in 2006. From 2007, I have been working as Course Director/Assistant Professor on the BA
Theatre and Professional Practice and Acting: Stage and Screen degrees at Coventry University.
I am currently engaged in a long-term research/teaching project in conjunction with the University of Tampere, Finland and ESADIB (Palma De Mallorca), using advanced videoconferencing technology, bespoke network connections, rear-projection and immersive sound design to create immersive rehearsal spaces. This project was the recipient of a Gold Award (Arts and Humanities) from Reimagine Education in 2016 and in December 2018 it received the Gold Award for best Arts and Humanities project and the Gold for Hybrid Learning at the 2018 Reimagine Education awards and was one of the 10 highest scoring projects out of 1,184 entries. In 2020 it was awarded the Internationalisation Award in the Guardian University Awards and was Highly Commended in the 2018 Times Higher Education Awards. It was shortlisted for the Music and Drama Education Awards in 2023 and 2024 and is shortlisted for Study abroad and exchange experience of the year in this year's PIEoneer Awards. I am a member of the Nordic Centre for Digital Presence (https://tnt.riksteatern.se/ncdu-in-english) and sit on the organising committee for Network Performing Arts Production Workshop (https://npapws.org/about/).
