Sarah Ellis is an award-winning producer currently working as Director of Digital Development for the world famous Royal Shakespeare Company in England to explore new artistic initiatives and partnerships.

In 2017, Sarah became a fellow of the University of Worcester for her work in the arts and technology. In 2016 she was awarded The Hospital Club & Creatives Industries award for cross industry collaboration for her work on the RSC’s The Tempest in collaboration with Intel and in association with The Imaginarium Studios. The most recent partnership for the RSC is the Audience of the Future Live Performance Demonstrator funded by Innovate UK – a consortium consisting of arts organisations, research partners and technology companies to explore the future of performances and real-time immersive experiences

In 2013 she was listed in the top 100 most influential people working in Gaming and Technology by The Hospital Club and Guardian Culture Professionals. In partnership with Google, she produced Midsummer Night’s Dreaming winning two Lovie Awards for Innovation and Experimentation.

Sarah is a regular speaker and commentator on digital arts practice, as well as an Industry Champion for the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, which helps inform academic research on the creative industries to lead to better policies for the sector. She has been appointed Chair of digital agency, The Space, established by Arts Council England and the BBC to help promote digital engagement across the arts.

Ruthie Doyle currently serves with the Royal Shakespeare Company leading on Artists, Fellowships, and Research. Most recently she served as the Director of the Sundance Institute’s Interdisciplinary Program, and previously as the Director of the Sundance New Frontier Labs. Her graduate studies included ITP, within NYU Tisch School of the Arts’ Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film and Television; and an MFA in Film/Video from CalArts.

As producer in the RSC’s digital department, James leads productions and projects that transpose story and theatre methodologies to platforms beyond the traditional stage, bringing artists and technologists together to create new form media & ways to interact. As R&D facilitator, he leads a programme of research that test new tools and approaches across digital humanism, performance capture, virtual & hybrid production and audience experience in the context of remote performance.

As an independent producer for 20+ years, he has led theatre companies, venues, festivals and creative innovation projects collaborating with BBC Proms, South Bank Centre, The Old Market, Lyric Hammersmith, Edinburgh Fringe, Battersea Arts Centre as well as making work for theatres, village halls, schools, churches and festival tents.

Maggie is a non-binary actor, movement practitioner, collaborative theatre maker, voice actor and creative technology and performance consultant with over 18 years experience

In 2021 they performed the role of Cobweb 'DREAM', (RSC, Philharmona & Marshmallow Laser Feast) an online immersive theatre show using motion capture technology as part of UKRI's Audience of the Future programme. Since then their creative focus has broadened to include XR technologies and Virtual Production. As a Creative Consultant to the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Digital Department they have been invited to speak about the role of performers within XR technology and their interaction with it at numerous conferences including SXSW & BEYOND, as well as at the Houses of Parliament.

They are currently co-director and performer in SHAPESHIFTER, a new 40-minute location-based experience leveraging live motion capture and VR headsets to immerse audiences in new ways of seeing the natural world and the diversity within it as it seeks to break new ground in avatar design and audience integration into live immersion, currently in development.