producing

Current, Rising – with the team behind the world's first opera in hyper-reality

Current, Rising – with the team behind the world's first opera in hyper-reality

How do you direct, design and compose an original virtual reality opera in a collaborative way – and in lockdown?

I sat down with director Netia Jones, designer Jo Scotcher and composer Sam Fernando to talk about the making of Current, Rising, and what we had to think differently about.

How we wrote an opera in lockdown via remote creative development

How we wrote an opera in lockdown via remote creative development

When the pandemic hit, the only opera project the Royal Opera House could continue working on was an unlikely, experimental collaboration between ROH’s Audience Labs and a VR studio.

But how do you begin to shape a new original opera in hyper-reality on Zoom? As the producer, I had to re-think the creative development process – here’s how to do it.

How my nephew taught me to become a better product manager

How my nephew taught me to become a better product manager

Asking why and saying ‘I don’t know’ at opportune moments is very helpful in how you build products. Put simply, it’s good to think like a four year old sometimes.

These are my five favourite questions – inspired by my four year old nephew – that helped me define the new What’s On at the V&A website.

Why does depression have to be sad? Reasons to be ridiculous

Why does depression have to be sad? Reasons to be ridiculous

Why laughter and ridiculousness are so central in my theatre company Parrot in the Tank’s approach to making work about depression, as we unpack what writing a comedy about depression is really about.

Post written together with my colleagues Sam Bailey and Joe Connor, originally published in Exeunt Magazine.