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Where Worlds Collide: Blending Film, Theatre, Concert and Attractions – Lessons from Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Audiences

Weds

Join the practitioners behind some of the UK’s most innovative immersive location-based experiences as they reveal how film, music, and theatre intersect to inspire fresh approaches to audience engagement. Discover how their diverse backgrounds have elevated each discipline, whilst forging fresh approaches to a hybrid form.

Through candid discussion, the panel will explore the recurring challenges of cross-disciplinary collaboration, the lessons each medium brings from its traditional ways of working, and the new methodologies developed to navigate every stage of the creative and production process.

Jack Pirie
Freelancer

Writer/Director and CD working across TV, Film and Immersive & Theatrical entertainment – including the THEA award-winning War of the Worlds Immersive Experience, Elvis Evolution and upcoming Jetpack Odyssey.

Alex Hylands-White
Clockwork Dog // COGS

Alex Hylands-White co-founded the immersive show control & tech solutions company Clockwork Dog in 2016 originally as an escape room design agency. Previous to that he worked in film as a director and executive producer, running a production company with Jack Pirie.

At Clockwork Dog, he combined his experience with his two co-directors respective software development and theatre direction backgrounds, forming a three-pillar collaborative approach which was crucial to the company’s early development and is still essential today.

This unique combination was instrumental in the company’s early successes including the top 100 TERPICA rated escape room, Loop, and many gamified IP-based experiences like the Tomb Raider Escape Experience in 2018 for Warner Bros. These projects provided crucial lessons in live game design and delivering technical integration from the ground up.

Their show control system, COGS, evolved directly from these productions. Now, Clockwork Dog provides the core technology and expertise deployed in running major immersive attractions including The Traitors Live Experience, Monopoly Lifesized, The Paddington Bear Experience, Taskmaster and Lander 23.

Heather Ruck
Punchdrunk

Heather has worked as a programmer and producer across multiple venues including Southbank Centre, Riverside Studios and The Kings’ Head Theatre, and was the lead Producer and Programmer for Assembly Festival at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Brighton Comedy Festival. Heather has extensive touring experience, as well as independently producing and commissioning new work, and is a current Trustee of Vaults Creative Arts, and a member of Le Gateau Chocolat’s Advisory Board.

Heather first joined Punchdrunk in 2023, working on various development projects, before joining the original delivery team for Viola’s Room.

Sheena Patel
YonderBeyond / Immersive Experience Network

Sheena has spent the past 15 years conceiving and delivering LBEs for both
original and established IP, integrated brand experiences with legacy and real-world
interventions that enhance the human experience.

She was co-creator and producer of award-winning, playable experiences ‘Time Run’ and ‘Sherlock: The Game is Now’, based on the BAFTA winning show, voted London’s Best New Tourism Business by Visit London and cited as ‘The Future of Entertainment’ by The Sunday Times.

Through YonderBeyond, she supports a diverse array of nascent companies, established brands, agencies, and cultural innovators. Roles range from Consultant and Creative Director to Experience Designer and Producer. Past collaborations and clients include The Magician’s Table, Rumble in the Jungle (Rematch), The Legitimate Peaky Blinders Festival, Money Heist: The London Experience (Bearded Kitten x Netflix x Fever), Sage & Jester, Bompas & Parr, INVNT, Disney, 160over90, Gingerline, Flavourology, and BRS Studios.

From cruise liners to crematoriums, misinformation to magic, Sheena’s practice spans a wide range of sectors and themes, guided by the belief that the most powerful creative breakthroughs happen when we embrace constraints, interconnected systems and audience-centric intention, to build the edges of the sandbox, then play toward possibility.

Kojo Samuel
Kojo Music

Kojo Samuel is a BAFTA Award-winning Music Director, widely respected as one of the most innovative and sought-after figures in the UK music industry. Known for crafting dynamic live shows and unforgettable performances, he has worked with a wide range of chart-topping artists and played a pivotal role in many of the UK’s most iconic musical events and moments in recent years.

Hannah Price
Buried Giants

Hannah Price is a creator of immersive events, theatre and VR experiences. She was Creative Director of both the Gunpowder Plot and of the upcoming immersive Museum of Shakespeare. She has directed theatre and immersive events across the world, was founder and previous Co-Artistic Director of Theatre Uncut. Hannah is an expert in digital performance capture. As a BAFTA winning performance director for video games she has worked on some of the world’s biggest titles, including Alan Wake 2, CONTROL and Final Fantasy 16 and was recently a BAFTA Juror for Best Performer in a Lead Role at the 2025 BAFTA Games Awards.

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