David Coates is an Assistant Professor in School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures at the University of Warwick. He is a cultural historian with a particular interest in theatre and performance in the long nineteenth century. His specialist research has focussed on the development of amateur theatre in Britain in this period and he hopes that his book on the subject, titled Spaces and Places of Amateur Theatre in Britain, 1789-1914, will be published in 2028.

David is an active member of a number of associations, including the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR), the Society for Theatre Research (STR) and the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA). For the latter, he is the Theatre and Performance Histories Working Group Convenor (2022-2025) and will lead the organisation of the 2025 annual conference, due to take place at Warwick between 27-29 August 2025.

David is delighted to be a patron of Drama Matters. The organisation has become a key place for drama teachers to share resources, discuss issues in the discipline and develop their professional practice through the annual conference. David hopes that through working closely with Drama Matters we can facilitate conversations between all levels of our discipline, from primary and secondary to FE and HE, to promote the importance of theatre and performance studies and stem the tide of declining student uptake.