Maria Delgado - Biography#
Maria Delgado is an academic, critic and curator. Co-editor of the Taylor & Francis journal Contemporary Theatre Review, and two book series for Cambridge and Manchester University Presses, she has published widely in the area of Spanish-language theatres and film and contemporary European theatre. Her work has been published in seven languages and includes two monographs (with a third in press), nine co-edited volumes, over 75 articles and book chapters.
She previously taught at Queen Mary University of London (where she was a founder member of the Drama department), Hull University and Manchester Metropolitan University. She has had visiting fellowships and residencies at the Universities of Queensland, Stockholm and UC-Davis, she inaugurated the Gerzsten Family Foundation lecture series at the University of Virginia in 2014 and has given over 60 lectures at universities and cultural institutions across Europe, Asia, North and South America and Africa. Conference keynotes include: the International Federation for Theatre Research (2013), Women in Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies (2014) and the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland (2015).
She is a member of the Leverhulme Trust’s Advisory Panel and HEFCE’s Strategic Advisory Committee for Research and Knowledge Exchange. Her extensive experience of research management and leadership includes membership of a range of AHRC committees and panels, including its BGP2 Expressions of Interest and Moderating Panels (2012-13) and its Strategic Reviewers’ Group (2011-13), as well as overseas consultancy work and assessment (e.g. European Science Foundation and Portuguese Scientific Foundation). She was a member of the panel for Drama, Dance and the Performing Arts for the Research Assessment Framework [RAE2008] and chaired the panel for Music, Drama, Dance and the Performing Arts for the Research Excellence Framework’s REF2014.
Her professional work within the creative industries involves translations for the stage, theatre and film criticism for print and broadcast media (including a range of BBC Radio programmes), film programming, consultancies for a range of private and public bodies and advisory work on productions, eg. Bijan Sheibani’s The House of Bernarda Alba, Almeida Theatre (2012) and Damned for Despair, National Theatre (2012), and Peter Sellars’ Ainadamar (2008-11).
Her translations of plays by Susana Torres Molina, Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Mario Benedetti, and Bernard-Marie Koltès have been staged at a range of venues in the UK, Europe and the USA, including: Southwark Playhouse (2012), de Singel Theatre, Antwerp (2009); the Centre Dramatique National de Orléans (2008), Avignon Festival (2006), and Arcola Theatre, London (2004).
Her film work includes eighteen years as a programme advisor on Spanish and Latin American cinema to the London Film Festival, and curatorial projects for the BFI Southbank, the London Spanish Film Festival and the Argentine Film Festival London. She has conducted over 150 Q&As with leading filmmakers and actors, including Pedro Almodóvar, Javier Bardem, Alfredo Castro, Isabel Coixet, Penélope Cruz, Benicio del Toro, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sergi López, Viggo Mortensen, and Carlos Saura.
She is Chair of the Board of Actors Touring Company [ATC], an Artistic and Quality Assessor for Arts Council England, and writes on film and theatre for a range of publications including Sight & Sound, Plays International and European Stages.
