Unlocking Worlds…
Since 2010 I have been Artistic Director of The Lab Collective and freelanced as Theatrical Director to create playable, immersive worlds that thrill audiences and instil magic in the every day and beyond. I love challenging audiences to explore the breadth of theatrics whilst journeying through complex mechanics woven into impactful narratives. I am by nature a collaborative creative, and thrive in a unified team. Below is a selection of my recent work to date.
VECTOR: The Lab collective 2017 - 2022
ROLE: Concept Co-Creator and Director
FUNDER: Funded by Wellcome Trust
VENUE: Online for the Berlin Science Festival 2022, Hotbox Live as part of British Science Festival 2021, Manchester University (2019), Oxford University (2019), Oxford Fire Station (2018), Niamos Space (2017, Manchester), The Fly Pit (London)
IN BRIEF: A new virus is ravaging the planet, infecting animals and humans at a worrying rate; we welcome you to BioCore, a medical research facility tasked with managing this crisis and finding an immunisation to protect our planet. Working as part of a team and against rival labs, you will be guided by our Artificial Intelligence System to decide the most effective and ethical way forward, but time is short and lives are on the line...
Vector is an interactive experience utilising elements of performance, game and integrated app technology to open up dialogue and shed light on the ethics that society faces when using animals as part of medical research.
LINK: Vector
REVIEW: “Really great experience, well delivered and thought provoking” Participant @Oxford Fire-station
“These sessions should happen more often and in more places” Participant @The British Science Festival
“You are amazing!”
Participant @Niamos Space
KEY NOTES: #interactive #playable #science #debate #techfocused #publicengagement
BOOMTOWN FAIR: Dank Parish 2013-20019
ROLE: Concept Co-Creator and Director
FUNDER: Commissioned by Boomtown Fair
VENUE: Town Hall, Mayfair and Paradise Heights
IN BRIEF: Between 2013-2019 Dank Parish generated site wide playable content and large scale performance activations for 60,000 festival-goers. In 2019 - managed a team of 250 to create the world of Paradise Heights, breathing life into six venues and entertaining thousands.
LINK: Boomtown Fair
REVIEW: “Brace yourself to be surprised at every turn”– GQ
“Transcended genre and geography” – NME
”Very inappropriate and very, very fun”– Time Out
KEY NOTES: #festival #largescale #immersive #interactive #playable #ARG #satirical
CHURCH OF THE STURDY VIRGIN: Dank Parish
ROLE: Creative Producer and Audience design
FUNDER: n/a
VENUE: Vault Festival 2019
IN BRIEF: A large scale, free roam, surreal, immersive journey exploring our connection with death – inviting you, our initiates, to teeter on the brink of uncertainty, to choose the manner of your descent into the void and to discover your own funereal wishes and rites for our modern age.
LINK: Church of the Sturdy Virgin
IN DEPTH: “The Church of the Sturdy Virgin is no spiritless chapel. The reverend erupts with joie de vivre, his congregation inviting us to redefine what it is to celebrate a life well lived…The show spends the next ninety minutes lifting the veil between the living and the taboo of grief” No Proscenium
KEY NOTES: #immersive #otherworldly #largescale #dark #funny #macabre
BURDEN OF PROOF: The Lab Collective 2018
FUNDER: Arts and Humanities Research Council
ROLE: Concept Co-Creator and Director
VENUE: Theatre Delicatessen, UOB
IN BRIEF: A collaboration between artists and academics exploring how immersive technologies and performance increases empathy and impacts public opinion of refugees and asylum seekers. Burden of Proof premiered at Theatre Delicatessen and the University of Birmingham.
LINK: Corpus Quod
IN DEPTH: Burden of Proof places it's audience in the centre of of Ziad's story as he undergoes the asylum seeking process; using the research conducted and a hybrid of verbatim and fictionalised narrative, the audience interact with a system designed to discourage, penalise and misrepresent refugees seeking asylum
KEY NOTES: #interactive #immersive #playable #complex #political #theatre
THE ‘NEATH: Specifiq 2017
FUNDER: Commissioned by Vault Festival Lates
ROLE: Director (The Trolls)
VENUE: Vault Festival
IN BRIEF: Interactive experience, pop-up bar and durational performance - The ‘Neath was an immersive fantasy created for VAULT Lates
LINK: The ‘Neath
IN DEPTH: The interactive bar featured performances and stories created by London’s most exciting immersive theatre makers: Martin Coat (Director of Theatre at Boomtown Fair and Co-Artistic Director of Dank Parish), differencEngine (HEIST, The People’s Revolt) and Sarah Morris (formerly of Apocalypse Events)
KEY NOTES: #interactive #immersive #playable #fantasybar #largescale
INCOMING EXODUS: The Lab Collective 2017-18
FUNDER: Barbican Open Labs, Latitude Fair
ROLE: Concept Co-Creator and Director
VENUE: Co Lab, CPT, Oxford Playhouse, Latitude
IN BRIEF: Incoming/Exodus was a playable experience centring the voice of the audience to challenge attitudes towards immigration
LINK: Incoming Exodus
REVIEW: "This piece seems vital in allowing us to step back, question our values and the values of our governments. How can we really make such big decision about people we don’t even know?… Are these decisions even necessary?" A Younger Theatre
KEY NOTES: #interactive #immersive #playable #complex #political #theatre
THE CANDIDATE: The Lab Collective 2015
FUNDER: Commissioned by Theatre Delicatessen
ROLE: Concept Co-Creator and Director
VENUE: Theatre Delicatessen
IN BRIEF: A playable, interactive experience exploring the propaganda, public perception and spectacle of who we vote for and why.
LINK: The Candidate
REVIEW: “Thought provoking and heart accelerating, as you search for the answers to a better future” **** Theatre Full Stop
“Complex, critical, and crucial viewing…as complex a piece of theatre as it is as damning dissection of politicians.” **** Grumpy Gay Critic
KEY NOTES: #interactive #immersive #playable #complex #funny #political #theatre