Jennifer Kitchen is a PhD candidate in Arts Education at The University of Warwick, UK. Her research, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) asks how socio-cultural theories of playfulness can be used to explore the processes of ensemble-based approaches to teaching Shakespeare. Her research was carried out with the national UK educational charity Shakespeare Schools Foundation. She has presented internationally on this topic, and in 2016 took part in an extended visiting scholarship to Emerson College, Boston USA. She has also taught and provided dissertation supervision on the Warwick Business School Masters in The Advanced Teaching of Shakespeare. Prior to beginning her doctorate she was a theatre education practitioner for several years, including a year’s residence with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and continues to practice on a freelance basis in areas relating to Shakespeare, storytelling and early years’ theatre education.