Publications & Presentations
My work is primarily situated within practice-led research, where performance, rehearsal, directing, devising, and training operate as forms of knowledge production alongside written scholarship. This publication list gathers articles and chapters, however, much of my output also exists in embodied, collaborative forms.
Key Concepts: actor training, relational rehearsal structures, performance scoring, intercultural practice, queer and post-methods approaches to performance.
Journal Article
Atkins, S. (forthcoming) ‘Decentring the Text’, Culture Teatrali. Bologna: University of Bologna. Available here.
Video Documentary
The Awakening Cantonese Fusion Opera Documentary (2025) Documentary film. Directed by Shanie Evans. Vancouver Cantonese Opera collaboration featuring Stephen Atkins.
Book Chapter
Atkins, S. (2025) ‘Intercultural Training: Barba and Bogart’, in Camilleri, F. and Allain, P. (eds) Milestones in Actor Training. London: Routledge. Available here.
Conference Paper
Atkins, S. (2025) ‘Carnality: Reframing Acting at the Threshold of Embodiment and AI’, paper presented at the ANTS Annual Conference 2025: Theatre and Natural Intelligence, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum, Vilnius, Lithuania, 25–27 September. Programme available here.
Practice-led Presentation
Atkins, S. (2025) ‘Crosspoints and the Carnivalesque’, practical session presented at the Annual IFTR Conference, Performing Carnival: Ekstasis, Subversion, Metamorphosis,hosted by the University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany, 9–13 June. Programme available here.
Conference Presentation
Atkins, S. (2025) ‘Stanislavsky & Shakespeare: Using Active Analysis and hexagonal thinking in an embodied, relational approach’, paper presented at Stanislavsky and Shakespeare: Speaking to the “Two Traditions” in the Twenty-first Century, DePaul University, Chicago, 25 April. Announcement available here.
Interview
Atkins, S. (2022) ‘Actor and master teacher Stephen Atkins: the art of the Crosspoints acting system’, NY Weekly, 22 September. Available at NY Weekly.
Journal Article
Pifko, C. and Atkins, S. (2025) ‘Wildness in actor training’, Canadian Theatre Review, 201, pp. 101–104. doi:10.3138/ctr.201.024. doi: 10.3138/ctr.201.02
Conference Paper
Atkins, S. (2024) ‘An Invitation to Succeed Immediately’, paper presented at IMPACT 2024: IMProvisation and Creativity In and Through Performing Arts, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius, Lithuania, 3–6 December. Programme available here.
Journal Article
Atkins, S., (2023) 'Acting Systems: Matrices, Analogies and Layers of Methods by Dr. Stephen Atkins, PhD', Body, Space & Technology 22(1), 190–198. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/bst.9764
Conference Presentation
Atkins, S. (2026) ‘Crosspoints Acting System', workshop presented at Stanislavsky’s Last Words, AMU (Akademie múzických umění v Praze), Prague, Czech Republic. Nov 11, 2024. Programme available here.
Journal Article
Atkins, S. (2022). 'Stanislavsky, Viewpoints and their influence on the theory of Crosspoints training.' Stanislavski Studies, 10 (1), 55–67. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/20567790.2022.2050072
Book
Atkins, S. (2020) Crosspoints: An Integrative Acting System. London: Experimental Wing Publishing. Available at: Amazon