Open Online Theatre

11/04/2025

📢 SAVE THE DATE! We're excited to announce that our hybrid performing arts festival, OOTFest, will return this June.

(UN)SEEN. UNBOUND. UNLIMITED.

OOTFest25 (UN)SEEN blurs boundaries and mixes realities, merges dimensions and plays with perception, shifting the dynamic between artist and audience.

This live-hybrid festival showcases courageous and creative performing artists working in mixed realities, who will invite you into unchartered new worlds via digital-immersive technologies. It celebrates artists who take risks, embrace uncertainty and push the boundaries of what’s possible - brought to you by IJAD Dance Company.

Experience live/hybrid performances, workshops, expert panel discussions and installations in-person at Riverside Studios in London, or from anywhere in the world through our multi-camera, interactive livestream.

The festival will run from Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 June 2025.

A full programme will be available on our website, with tickets for live and in-person performances on sale soon. Please save the date and join us for what promises to be a feast of innovative, imaginative creativity!

Image: thanks to performers Clemence Debaig, Iole La Sala, Nadine Muncey & Phoebe Higgins

24/02/2025

Calling performing artists! We've extended the deadline for our OOTFest25 (UN)SEEN opportunity, now open until 28 February!

What we're looking for:
☑️ Live performances using XR (this might be VR, AR, Mocap, AI etc.). This might be an existing performance, or a new one you are interested in developing
☑️ Performances that will include both in-person and online audiences (via streaming)
☑️ Performances with a narrative at the heart
☑️ The technology should be accessible for audiences and may include an interactive element, such as a VR experience

Full details on our website: https://ijaddancecompany.com/open-online-theatre-festival-opportunity/

13/02/2025

Be bold. Be innovative. Be (UN)SEEN.

Live hybrid performance opportunity for emerging and mid-career artists.

✨ A £1650 bursary plus a percentage of online ticket sales
✨ The opportunity to be part of OOTFest25 (UNSEEN) – an innovative festival that connects live physical and digital audiences
✨ A platform to experiment, innovate, and push your creative practice further

If you’re ready to be part of the next evolution of performance, apply now!

https://ijaddancecompany.com/open-online-theatre-festival-opportunity/

06/02/2025

Our OOT alumna Clémence Debaig is back with another immersive dance performance, leveraging XR tech for human connection in an increasingly digital - yet divided and lonely - world.

Where We Meet is at The Cockpit from 27 Feb to 2 March. It asks the questions: what if you could hear people's inner thoughts?

https://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/where_we_meet

04/02/2025

📢 NEW: Paid artist opportunity!

Applications are open for innovative performance creators using digital technologies to take part in OOTFest25 (UN)SEEN. This hybrid festival will be live streamed from a London venue in June 2025 on the Open Online Theatre streaming platform.

📆 Deadline 24 February

Find out more and apply: https://ijaddancecompany.com/open-online-theatre-festival-opportunity/

22/01/2025

TOMORROW! There's still time to join us for the latest Connective Matrix online roundtable event, where we'll be discussing how artists and tech companies can innovate together to ensure the human remains at the ❤️❤️❤️ of creative technologies.

📅 23 Jan, 1pm

Provocations from Patrick Towell (The Audience Agency, Golant Innovations) Pod Bluman (Bluman Associates Limited, Milkit Studio) and Mark Ashmore (FRSA, Future Artists).

How can artists and tech companies innovate together £0.00 Buy your ticket

21/01/2025

There are just a couple of places left for our 4-part online workshop on Harnessing Generative AI in performance, which starts on Saturday.

This will be a great way to understand the foundations of gen AI and learn how to build your own tools.

https://openonlinetheatre.org/performance/harnessing-generative-ai-opportunities-challenges-and-horizons/

15/01/2025

Grab a ticket for our latest Connective Matrix roundtable discusses the position of artists within technology development.

📆 Thurs 23 January, 1pm
🎟 Free

How does embedding performing artists/creatives in the research of new, human-centred technologies benefit both the artists and the development of technology? And most importantly, humanity?

Can involving creatives in tech development help keep human-ness central, making outputs more relevant and evolutionary?

Provocations from Patrick Towell (Audience Agency, Golant Innovations) Pod Bluman (Bluman Associates, Milkit Studio) and Mark Ashmore (FRSA, Future Artists)

Book here: https://openonlinetheatre.org/performance/how-can-artists-and-tech-companies-innovate-together/

13/01/2025

Want to learn more about the possibilities of AI in your performance work?

We're hosting this four-part workshop series with artist, researcher, and educator Marlon Barrios Solano, starting Saturday 25 January.

Dive into no-code tools for AI creativity with this hands-on opportunity. Find out more and book: https://openonlinetheatre.org/performance/harnessing-generative-ai-opportunities-challenges-and-horizons/

10/12/2024

It's exciting to see more funding going to immersive arts projects like this to explore the use of new technologies such as virtual reality in live events and multi-platform content.

The West Midlands and Merseyside will share a £13.5m government investment in the creative sector.

05/12/2024

Don't forget to grab a free ticket for our upcoming Connective Matrix roundtable discussion, where we'll be asking if embedding performing artists and creatives in the research of new, human-centred technologies will benefit both the artists and the development of technology?

📆 Thursday 12 December, 12pm
🎟 https://openonlinetheatre.org/performance/how-can-artists-and-tech-companies-innovate-together/

28/11/2024

How can we get artists more involved in the process of technological innovation, to ensure human narratives remain at the heart of new media and immersive performance?

We'll be discussing that at our upcoming Connective Matrix online roundtable session on Thursday 12 December. We'd love you to join the conversation!

https://openonlinetheatre.org/performance/how-can-artists-and-tech-companies-innovate-together/

04/11/2024

Join us this Thursday for our latest Connective Matrix event, when Helen Kennedy and colleagues from the University of Nottingham’s Virtual and Immersive Production Studio (VIP Studio) bring to the table timely questions about bias, privilege, and social inequalities embedded in digital technologies and systems.

As we embrace the powerful and popular immersive technologies of AR/VR and AI, how do we remain aware of and attentive to the real impact of these advances?

📆 Thursday 7 November, 12pm (online)
🎟 Free

Book your place now: https://openonlinetheatre.org/performance/from-innocence-to-imagination-rethinking-our-technological-future/

31/10/2024

We're looking forward to our next in person session with the , taking place this weekend at the London College of Fashion, part of UAL: University of the Arts London.

We'll be exploring the various creative potentials of hybrid work, looking at gamification and more.

29/10/2024

We're delighted to be working with 13 talented performing artists as part of our OOT Arts/Tech Residency 2024/25.

These artists bring a wealth of diverse experience to their work, and we'll be working with them over the next six months as they experiment with creative technologies and integrate new ideas into their practice.

The artists we're working with are:

Amy Crighton | Humira Imtiaz | Isaac Ouro-Gnao | Janmejay Singh | Julia Dèng Hànzú | Laura Romer-Ormiston | Perpetua Png | Pierre Engelhard | Samuel Bossman | Scarlett Perdereau | Wanrong Zhu | Yoon-Joo | Zaki Musa

You can read more about them on our website: https://openonlinetheatre.org/our-artists/

21/10/2024

The OOT Arts/Tech Residency got underway recently and we're looking forward to seeing the progress of this year's artist cohort as they experiment with performance in digital and hybrid spaces, and engage with new creative technologies ✨

08/10/2024

This week, the IJAD Dance Company team are leading an in-person week at the University of Nottingham, as part of the OOT Arts/Tech Residency 2024.

We're delighted to be working once again with Clémence Debaig, who was one of our OOT Artists during the 2020/21 programme. She also joined us as a performer at OOTFest22 with her company, Unwired Dance Theatre.

Clémence will be sharing her expertise in motion capture during today's workshops with this year's OOT artist cohort. Welcome back, Clémence!

OOTFest22 photo: Michelle Rose