Fourth Wall Innovation. Theatres and live performance institutions across Canada are encountering a period of flux as emerging technologies rapidly transform the global entertainment landscape (Kuling, Levin 2014). As digital platforms continue to draw audiences away from live performance (Leguina 2023;Baroni 2023), the Canadian creative sector is uniquely positioned to revitalize by integrating technological exploration into artistic creation environments and resonating with contemporary audience expectations. Live performance workflows have traditionally separated direction and design from technical development, creating siloed processes that limit creative and technical potential (Horváth 2025; Panagiotidis 2025). This research investigates how the role of a Creative Technical Director (CTD) links creative vision with technical implementation, serving as a research vehicle to strengthen live performance creation in Canada. 

Background. Select institutions in Canada are beginning to bridge the gaps between artistic and technical direction, including: the University of Toronto’s BMO Lab, Sheridan College’s Screen Industries Research and Training Centre (SIRT), Toronto Metropolitan University’s Chrysalis Theatre, and independent creation studios like Cirque du Soleil’s C:Lab, Darkslope and Supply & Demand. These spaces demonstrate the value of artistic creation environments that function as laboratories for iterative experimentation between artists, designers, engineers, and technologists. The University of Calgary is well-positioned to lead this evolution, championing both transdisciplinary research and industry innovation. Foundational investigations are in progress, including integrating robotics, motion-capture systems, and creative outputs into the University of Calgary’s Doolittle Theatre, alongside mainstage production processes that integrate projection mapping, media design, and interactive performance technologies. These foundational elements provide necessary grounding; the Doolittle offers a site where practice-based investigation, live performance creation, multidisciplinary research, and industry collaboration can converge in a creative sandbox environment. Uniquely positioned for this investigation, my career bridges lighting design, technical direction, mixed reality, motion capture, and live performance creation, giving me both the artistic and technologist-driven perspectives needed to advance this research meaningfully. My global production background, technologist foundation, and real-world industry experience make me a rare practitioner capable of translating emerging technologies into accessible, collaborative, and future-ready practices for Canada’s live performance sector.

Methodology. A collection of complementary methodologies guides my work: Practice-as-Research (PaR), recognizing embodied creative processes and technical findings as valid modes of knowledge production (Haseman 2006; Nelson 2013), and Research-based Practice (RbP) (Barton 2009), utilizing iterative documentation, technical development and implementation records to drive knowledge dissemination, in addition to actively shaping subsequent creative designs and technical approaches. Together, these frameworks establish creation as a site of discovery, where artistic vision, technical prototyping, and reflection form a continuous cycle that informs the creation process. As the empathetic hub that facilitates this cycle, the CTD stewards dramaturgical vision and technological systems, interpreting artistic value, system quirks, constraints and discoveries back into the creative process. The research draws on ethnographic and autoethnographic methods (Angrosino, 2009; Ellis, 2011), informed by environmental scans of live production creation facilities and technologically intensive rehearsal environments. This research proposal will require an ethics review by the University of Calgary.

Research Goals and Objectives. First, I will conduct an environmental scan of ten Canadian creative-technical institutions and ten industry R&D facilities to understand how they structure collaboration, integrate emerging technologies, and document iterative creation processes. This research will take place over 12 months, spanning site visits to key institutions, workshops and training with participating labs. These findings will be assessed through focus group workshops and applied as research-based experimentation at the University of Calgary, where integrations in motion capture, projection mapping, intelligent control systems, and interactive media exploration will be implemented within ongoing creative and technical inquiry. Employing ethnographic and autoethnographic methods, alongside systematic journaling, documentation and reflective analysis, examining how a CTD can function as a knowledge-producing stakeholder within live performance creation processes. Dissemination will include technical process documentation, written reports, industry conference presentations, and focus group sessions with partner institutions to ensure this research contributes meaningfully to Canada’s evolving creative ecosystem.

Impact. This research can extend beyond individual investigations and focus on applied academic-industry collaborations. The outcomes of this research include a transferable framework for the Creative Technical Director, tailored to the Canadian live performance industry. It also offers a laboratory model applicable to post-secondary institutions and industry stakeholders, ready-stocked with comparative case studies of Canadian creative-technical facilities, practical toolsets, workflows, and processes that support technologically integrated live performance creations. The broader Canadian performance sector gains foundational strategies for bridging artistic and technological processes.

Expected Impact and Alignment with Alberta’s Priorities. This project aligns directly with Alberta Innovates’ focus on emerging technologies and their application for societal and economic benefit. Directly relating to the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) domain, specifically regarding human interaction with digital media and immersive technologies in creative fields. By advancing methods for integrating interactive digital systems (motion tracking, XR environments, human-robot interactions, networked sensors, etc.) into the performing arts, the research is developing new technological applications in a creative-industry setting. The knowledge generated will enable Alberta to maintain a competitive edge in both technological development and cultural production.

Economic and Social Benefits. Embracing emerging performance technologies stands to benefit Alberta’s economy and communities. In the performing arts and entertainment sector, technological innovation can lead to the creation of new intellectual property and production techniques that have commercial value (for instance, novel stage technologies or software tools that could be exported or licensed). By training highly skilled practitioners who are fluent in both arts and technology, the research enhances the talent pool that Alberta’s creative industries can draw on, contributing to job growth and diversification in the province’s economy. With multiple productions celebrated on the world’s stage, including Broadway, Alberta has the authority to propel the industry into the next generation of creative works. Local institutions and companies will be able to elevate their productions with cutting-edge effects and interactive experiences, making Alberta a more attractive hub for performing arts, tech startups, and multimedia entertainment ventures. Culturally, Alberta’s audiences stand to gain richer, more immersive live experiences, helping retain audience engagement in the age of digital media.

Educational and Institutional Impact. The integration of this research within the University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) will have lasting benefits. It strengthens UCalgary’s leadership in arts innovation and provides students with hands-on experience in emerging technologies, significantly boosting their marketability and skills. Moreover, cross-disciplinary collaborations fostered by this research (e.g. with Computer Science, Engineering, and industry partners) will span new bridges within the university and between institutions and industry, in line with Alberta’s drive for innovation and academia-industry partnerships. By establishing a repeatable “rehearsal-as-R&D” model, the project offers a template for how post-secondary institutions can serve as incubators for technological advancement in the arts, an area that can set Alberta ahead, nationally.

Importantly, this work comes at a pivotal moment for the SCPA. The school is currently undergoing curriculum renewal and program restructuring, partly in response to budgetary alignment and changing enrollment numbers. These changes mean that traditional resources are being reallocated, and there is a heightened need for external support to pursue new initiatives. This research is especially critical at this time, as it will enable the University to develop high-value, emerging-technology research that it might otherwise prove cost-prohibitive. In essence, Alberta Innovates’ support would allow the SCPA to seize the moment to integrate cutting-edge tools and training into the curriculum, benefiting not only my research but also students, faculty, and the broader arts community in Calgary and Alberta. The Doolittle Theatre sandbox, supported by this funding, would become a focal point for innovation that dovetails with the SCPA’s renewed curriculum and mandate, ensuring that Alberta’s next generation of artists, technologists and creators are equipped with future-ready toolsets. If we fail to adopt these emerging technologies now, there is a genuine risk that Alberta could fall behind other regions in creative innovation, missing out on opportunities to lead in the evolving landscape of digital performance. This project’s impact will help safeguard against that risk by positioning Alberta at the forefront of an exciting convergence of technology and art.

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