Creation Theatre Receives Funding From Innovate UK to Develop New Digital Stage Practices

Oxford-based Creation Theatre has announced winning a major funding award from Innovate UK to produce pioneering work in the digital theatre space, drawing on expertise from the worlds of tech, theatre, film and gaming.

Creation Theatre, currently working on their sixth digital stage production, were one of the first theatre companies to master producing online theatre using Zoom during lockdown. This green light on funding will allow them to develop three new strands of theatrical work which the organisation hopes will pave the way for new approaches in the industry.

These new strands include: Developing a new dedicated Digital Theatre Platform which will redefine how the technology currently designed for conferencing can be used by the creative industries, and in particular theatre; Producing a sustainability report and recommendations which looks into the impact of carbon reduction associated with Digital Theatre and lastly, the launch of the first Digital Repertory Company. The new rep will employ five full-time actors over six months who will perform in two major pieces of digital theatre. The first production launches in February 2021.

Creation Theatre's Chief Executive Lucy Askew said of the funding: "This vital award will fundamentally change both the output of our work and the way our business is structured, how actors are contracted and the investment in their development. We envisage the work we are doing to be transformative and help lead the way for many others in the industry."

On producing a sustainability report and recommendations, Askew adds: "Covid has shifted the focus away from Climate Change but we really do need a roadmap for how the wider industry can combat what is in the longer term a bigger threat to humanity. We have found that digital theatre reduces carbon emissions by as much as 96%. I'm not advocating that all work should be digital but if all major producers embraced an online season or replaced one production as a digital one, we would be doing something enormous in fighting for Climate Change. "

The launch of Creation Theatre's new Digital Theatre Platform will involve a significant collaboration with two market leading tech companies, Flipside, and interactive storytelling experts Charisma AI. The trio will develop an alternative platform with cutting edge technical advances that utilise live performance and theatrical disciplines digitally. The project will be documented with evaluation and shared within the sector.

Creation Theatre is Oxfordshire's largest producing theatre company. Specialising for over 24 years in site-responsive productions, bringing to life stories and classic texts in unusual locations including the MINI car plant, The Bodleian Library, Oxford's historic covered market, Westgate Shopping Centre and The London Library. In April this year, shortly after the outbreak of Covid 19, the organisation moved swiftly to master the digital stage, recruiting cast and creatives to perform productions remotely and to broadcast live from their own homes via Zoom. Creation Theatre are now on their sixth digital production which will be performed in December to their expanding global audience base. A Digital Toolkit has also been produced focusing on Creation's recent production of Alice: A Virtual Theme Park to provide practical support within the sector in how to adapt to digital work.