The DHI’s invites you to attend one of this semester’s Business Leader Talks, by speaker Rebecca Gadsby from Inside Theatre.

Beck Gadsby is a Theatre Director & entrepreneur specialising in classics, children’s shows and live events that require a big imagination. She graduated from Warwick University with Ba (hons) in Theatre & Performance and began her practice in touring theatre. Since then, she has directed almost 70 stage productions ranging from large-scale projection mapping shows to regional theatre, with a string of 5-star reviews along the way. In fact, her almost 70 productions have never earned less than 4 stars in national and local press. Her productions have been filmed and used by the BBC and she directed the UK’s largest open air theatre event in 2015 at Chatsworth House (Pride & Prejudice).

In 2016 Beck began a journey to create her own work. Inspired by an installation at Quad arts centre, by Japanese artists, Team Lab. The interactive projection inspired Beck to research digital technology and how it could be used to enhance storytelling in the theatre. In the same year, the DCMS reported that there was an 18.5% drop in young people attending theatre - the two inspirations merged and teaming up with tech specialists, she began researching how technology could revolutionise our theatre experience and encourage a younger audience.

In 2020, during the pandemic, Beck secured Innovate UK funding to develop the world’s first immersive theatre app – an idea to emerge from the team’s 5 years of R&D. In the same year she established Inside Theatre – a digital-tech company experimenting with the latest technology to enhance our experience of theatre. Through digital technology we want to excite the next generation of theatre artists and attendees, increasing engagement in the arts on both sides of the curtain. We believe that digital technology can be used in theatre to enrich our experience of storytelling; making a more immersive, inclusive, and eco-friendly theatre for the digital age.