March was a month of delivery.
After spending the first part of the year reflecting, planning, and translating ideas into practical frameworks, March was about putting work into the world and observing how it behaved under real conditions. Not in theory. Not in development. Live, with audiences, collaborators, deadlines, and the inevitable surprises that emerge when people encounter a piece of work for the first time.
One of the recurring themes of the month was oversight.
I found myself occupying an interesting position within several projects. Not directly on stage. Not entirely backstage. Instead, sitting somewhere in between, holding awareness of the wider system.
While supporting Chronic Insanity’s immersive production Apple of Discord, I was monitoring activity across multiple spaces using VDO Ninja feeds and WhatsApp communication channels. I took the persona of Argus from Greek mythology, the hundred-eyed giant tasked with watching everything at once. Thankfully with fewer eyes, (I havd 6 camera feeds) but a similar mindset.
The experience reinforced something I have been gradually recognising about my own practice. Producing is often less about direct control than it is about maintaining conditions where good work can happen. Observing, anticipating, connecting people, and creating enough stability for artists to focus on what they do best.
Alongside Apple of Discord, I continued producing support for Helen Fox and Fox and Hound Theatre as they prepared Because We Said We Would for a one-night performance in the Neville Studio at Nottingham Playhouse. It provided a useful counterpoint. One project operating across immersive environments and multiple audience journeys, the other focused on the intimacy and concentration of a studio theatre performance.
Different scales. Different challenges. Similar principles.
March also continued my ongoing fascination with hybrid practice.
For nearly twenty years I have been exploring ways of extending participation beyond the room, whether through livestreaming, digital communities, virtual worlds, or more recently XR environments. This month offered another opportunity to test systems in less-than-perfect conditions. Mobile data, temporary networks, multiple devices, improvised solutions. The reality of producing is rarely a pristine technical environment. More often it is about building something resilient enough to survive contact with reality.
I am increasingly convinced that the future of hybrid cultural experiences will belong not to the most technologically ambitious systems, but to the most adaptable ones.
There were useful insights around audiences too.
Seeing strong attendance and engagement for immersive work reinforced an ongoing belief that audiences are often more adventurous than institutions give them credit for. The challenge is rarely whether audiences are interested. The challenge is helping them discover the work, understand the invitation, and feel confident enough to participate.
Beyond project delivery, March also prompted continuing reflection on infrastructure.
Travel, access, cost, communication, digital platforms, venue relationships. These things can feel mundane compared with the excitement of creating new work, but they are often the difference between a good idea and a sustainable practice. I find myself drawn toward questions of how creative infrastructure can become more equitable, particularly within the East Midlands.
Perhaps that is the thread connecting much of what I do.
Whether working with theatre makers, immersive technologists, community groups, audiences, or partner organisations, I am increasingly interested in the systems that support participation. The structures that allow people to gather, create, learn, and experience culture together.
March was not a month of dramatic breakthroughs.
It was a month of observation.
A month of testing.
A month of seeing what happens when ideas leave the notebook and enter the room.
January asked what matters.
February asked how it works.
March asked a simpler question.
Does it hold?
Most of the time, the answer was yes.
And where it didn’t, there were lessons waiting.