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There can be little disagreement that the pandemic disproportionately affected the arts. Whilst it removed livelihoods and purpose for many overnight, it afforded the performance industry a pause in which many thought about what and who the industry was for. The rise of streaming and online cultural activity – necessitated by governmental indicatives and changing social responsibilities – created a new type of audience and, it is argued here, the beginnings and conditions for a new genre and/or way of making work. This article argues that the ‘liveness’ of performance art is key to the essence of performing and that the streaming of ‘past glories’ did not give audiences and creatives what they needed and wanted from interactions and cultural product. In order to see positives in a potentially negative situation, a new genre – here named Live Digital – is suggested, that democratizes, empowers, facilitates and builds creative culture for artists and audiences alike. Using tropes from theatre, film and streaming, Live Digital presents provocations to posit a new way of creation, distinct from these progenitors – one that strives to be more inclusive.

Access to the theatre industry is often frustrated through lack of experience. Many theatre companies have a stated aim to widen participation in order to fully represent the communities and society that they work in. This study assesses how opening up access to the rehearsal room can embolden and accelerate change as well as encourage a multiplicity of routinely marginalized voices to speak and be heard. It seeks to ask whether opening access to the rehearsal room has benefits for participants, companies and the industry at large. In this context, opening the rehearsal room means to facilitate observation access for those not directly involved in the production. After a nascent, small-scale version of the observation offer, a questionnaire was circulated to those who were invited and/or actively participated in the observation offer with conclusions drawn from responses and other related contextualizing literature. The results suggest that the offer can help to increase participation, with suggestions as to how it can be fine-tuned in further, future iterations.

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Curriculum development is at the heart of progressive education and is key to the success of learners, but is often difficult to conceptualise. In this paper, elements of storytelling – specifically that of character, setting and the 'problem' – are mapped across curriculum development with clear regard to equality, diversity and inclusion, which are at the heart of modern curriculum developmental investigation. Although written with an arts educational focus in mind, the conceptual ideas are applicable to all areas of education. It is argued that by using this model, which gives integral regard to equality, diversity and inclusion, the experience of the learner(s) and the pace of change, improvement and faculty goodwill is enhanced.