Central School of Speech and Drama Swiss Cottage grant

Now, a top drama school has netted a £5.6 million grant to explore cutting edge technologies like VR and binaural sound in performance.

The money from Research England will allow the The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Swiss Cottage to set up a Centre for Performance, Technology, and Equity.

The grant will allow the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage to expand their research into new digital performance technologies (Image: The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)

The Expanding Excellence in England Fund helps universities to grow their small, outstanding areas of research - in Central's case the Performance Lab, which develops ground-breaking approaches to immersive and digital technologies such as Virtual and Augmented Reality, video and motion tracking, and binaural sound.

Audiences at Macbeth experience a 3D supernatural soundscape during the play at The Donmar Warehouse, and those watching Kagami at The Roundhouse wore AR headsets to see the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto play piano.

But the technologies can also be used in museums, social history projects, and even dementia care.

Audiences at Kagami at The Roundhouse wore headsets to watch a virtual performance by the late composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (Image: The Roundhouse)The funding runs over five years from August 2024 at the drama school, whose alumni includes Dame Judi Dench, Christopher Eccleston, Martin Freeman, and Andrew Garfield.

Professors Bryce Lease and Kate Elswit will lead the new centre, working with arts organisations, festivals, technology partners, and social justice bodies to explore new combinations of performance and technology.

A newly designed Media Lab will be added to the existing motion and sonic Labs at Central, with the grant also funding PhDs, and new jobs for researchers and creative technologists.

A major focus will be on championing inclusivity, diversity, and equity in theatre and performance. 

Central’s Principal, Josette Bushell-Mingo OBE said: "I am delighted that Central’s innovative research has been recognised by Research England. At Central, the creative industries and the academy come together to maximise the benefits that we can generate for wider society.

"This blended approach, with the promotion of equity and social justice at its core, ensures the outward-facing relevance of our teaching and training, our research and scholarship, and the vital impact that our work can make - especially through its influence on industry and the wider sector."

Central’s Vice Principal for Research and Knowledge Exchange, Professor Maria Delgado, said: “This investment from Research England will allow us to undertake even more research and development on site with external partners from the theatre and entertainment industries as well as from wider community bodies in ways that will deliver transformative impact."