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Phillip Webster

@pdwebster.bsky.social
479 followers 400 following 18 posts

Director of Theatre at Thomas More University. Artistic Director of Southbank Shakespeare. PhD Student at the Institute of Historical Research, researching 19th c. forms of reenactment and reconstruction and Cincinnati's Pike's Opera House.

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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
If anyone's in the NKY/Cincy area this weekend, Southbank Shakespeare has three more FREE performances of Twelfth Night at the Thomas More University Observatory Lawn. Bring a chair or blanket and the show starts at 7pm.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
A clipping from The Buffalo Daily Republic Apr 19, 1859 talking about Pike's Opera House, demonstrating the 19th century's enduring love puns and wordplay! Honestly, this one's not bad :)
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School of Advanced Study, University of London @sas-news.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Congratulations to the team behind RESHAPED, SAS's online training platform, who have been recognised as runners up for the 2026 Roger Mills Prize for Innovation in Learning and Teaching sponsored by the Centre for Online and Distance Education, University of London. www.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...
sas.ac.uk
RESHAPED is recognised at the 2026 Roger Mills Prize for Innovation in Learning and Teaching
Congratulations to the team behind RESHAPED, which has been named the runner up for the 2026 Roger Mills Prize for Innovation in Learning and Teaching.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Dr. Julia Platt, who had her career cut short as a research scientist, but instead left an indelible legacy in Monterey Bay through public policy. She helped create the Hopkins Marine Life Refuge, which was significant to the Bay's eventual recovery decades later.
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
An amazing night @ihr.bsky.social making toy theatres as part of @beinghumanfest.bsky.social 2025! Led by @pdwebster.bsky.social, we explored toy theatres as heritage reconstruction - and staged the shows of our dreams! So much joyful creativity in the room & lots of first-time visitors to the IHR.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Do the bathroom cleaning robots in Heathrow look like Daleks or am I hallucinating?
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 03/10/2025
Your best ever night at the #theatre? Join us @ihr.bsky.social on Thurs 13 Nov to recreate it - or stage the show of your dreams - & discover the use of #toy theatre in #heritage #research! From my fab PhD student @pdwebster.bsky.social. @beinghumanfest.bsky.social www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
history.ac.uk
A Night at the TOY Theatre!
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
I may have mentioned it before... but my new #history book is available for pre-order now. You can look inside & read the Intro + first chapters on the Penguin website. Pre-orders are a big boost for a new book, so please forgive another plug - and thank you 🙏. www.penguin.co.uk/books/461263...
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Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 28/06/2025
"Something ineffable happens when you write down a thought: You think something you did not know you could or would think and it leads you to another thought… the process of writing itself leads to previously unthought thoughts [and] crystallizes half-formulated or unformulated thoughts" - Lynn Hunt
historians.org
How Writing Leads to Thinking (and Not the Other Way Around) – AHA
Writing is stressful. Sitting in my computer chair my neck and shoulder muscles almost immediately tense up as I dig around in my brain for the best phrase or even any coherent string of words.
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
TOMORROW, Weds 28 May, online - it's going to be great! My PhD student @pdwebster.bsky.social is one of the speakers - using 19th-century modes of reconstruction (toy theatres!) to recreate the lost Pike's Opera House, Cincinnati. Imaginative methods & thought-provoking questions... Sign up free 👇
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Featuring the research of my PhD student @pdwebster.bsky.social! Phillip is working on the lost Pike's Opera House, Cincinnati, exploring #reconstruction through non-digital 19th-century practices (toy theatres, extra-illustrated books, parlour theatricals etc). A brilliant project. All welcome.
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Institute of Historical Research @ihr.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
We are increasingly concerned about the crisis in UK Higher Education. Read our joint statement with @royalhistsoc.bsky.social , History UK and the @histassoc.bsky.social buff.ly/4hSg16N #history #skystorians
buff.ly
More than ever, history and historians need a collaborative and co-ordinated approach
26th February 2025
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Catherine Clarke @cathamclarke.bsky.social · 13/02/2025
Congrats to my @ihr.bsky.social PhD student @pdwebster.bsky.social on passing his MPhil to PhD progression today, for his project on the lost Pike's Opera House, Cincinnati, using 19th-century modes of creative reconstruction. Many thanks to examiners @helennicholson1.bsky.social & Cynthia Johnston.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
I hope this is the new logo for all the IHR merch.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
I've never noticed any Pony Express adverts in the Cincy papers, so I was excited to find this today in the Daily Commercial, Apr 1, 1861. Although, it only existed for 1.5 yrs it survived in the collective imagination in dime novels and Wild West stories of all kinds in the 19th/20th centuries.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Please enjoy John Leech's delightfully odd depiction of Faustulus discovering Romulus and Remus from Gilbert Abbott à Beckett's "The Comic History of Rome." Leech, also created the illustrations for "A Christmas Carol". Stumbled upon when looking through the Lincoln family's book collection.
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Centre for the History of People, Place & Community @chppc.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Who are we? Part of @ihr.bsky.social, we support research into #place & #history across the UK, with an emphasis on collaboration and engagement. We're home to @vchlondon.bsky.social & @layersoflondon.bsky.social. We run events & training. Follow us for news & info! www.history.ac.uk/research/cen...
history.ac.uk
Centre for the History of People, Place and Community
The Centre for the History of People, Place and Community fosters engaged, innovative research into placed histories across all regions and periods.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Looks like we might be snowed in again here. I know how I'm going to stay entertained...time to get crazy with some fireside games and giant puppets! #parlorgames #snowedin #winterwonderland
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Breaking out the toy theaters for New Years as is tradition.
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 21/12/2024
If anyone's looking for an 'artistic' hair cut in Cincinnati I've got a great recommendation for you. Daily Dramatic Review, Feb.4, 1861 #cincinnatihistory
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Don't forget about "Lucky Stiff"!
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Just down the street at Wood's you could see the inimitable Maggie Mitchell in a new play entitled The Attorney and the Actress. Mitchell was a huge star for the latter half of the 19th c. and counted both J.W. Booth and Abraham Lincoln among her admirers. (2/2) #cincinnatihistory #theatrehistory
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
OTD in 1859 renowned tragedian and master elocutionist James Murdoch was appearing at Pike's Opera House in The Stranger, in a company managed by Charles Barras who would go on to fame a few years later as the creator of The Black Crook on Broadway. (1/2)
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
The Gale Sisters, who would all die tragically the following year in one of the most gruesome stage accidents in history, were performing a pas de deux. And in Pike’s exhibition hall Frederic Edwin Church’s iconic landscape "The Heart of the Andes" was on display as part of its national tour. (2/)
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
OTD in 1860 was a great night to visit Pike’s with Emma Waller portraying Ophelia a few years before she’d portray the melancholy Dane herself and the future acclaimed tragedian and war hero William Sheridan as the Ghost. (1/2)
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Institute of Historical Research @ihr.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
The full IHR #London #SummerSchool 2025 programme is now live! Join us in July 2025 as we explore London’s history through its #REBELS. 10% discount still available until 13/12/24! buff.ly/4fUSvVX
Image shows text about IHR London Summer School 2025 that  can be found via the link in the message. Use the discount code REBELS10 to get 10% off ticket prices at checkout until 13 December 2024
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
OTD in 1861 you had two great choices for a night at the theatre in Cincinnati. You could see J.A.J. Neafie in “Metamora” or head over to Wood’s Theater to check out an up and comer with a very famous last name, John Wilkes Booth in “The Marble Heart.” #cincinnatihistory #theatrehistory
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
If anyone needs me I'll be training with Capt Sherer this weekend. #skystorian #militaryhistory #cincinnatihistory (From the Cincinnati Daily Commercial c.1861)
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Phillip Webster @pdwebster.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Hello BlueSky! Hoping to connect with #skystorians here. I’m writing a dissertation examining toy theaters, parlor theatricals and scrapbooks as forms of reconstruction and how they can be used to reanimate lost performance spaces like the mostly forgotten Pike’s Opera House in Cincinnati.
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