How do you create theatre that serves as a meaningful platform for public interaction and engagement, both live and online? How do you reach remote audiences as a complement to the power of the physical moment? How can hybrid approaches stretch the traditional boundaries between creator and audience, making the performing arts more participatory? The Hybrid Theatre Toolkit (opens in new tab) provides performing arts professionals with practical tools for developing hybrid theatre experiences. Whether you're just starting out or already experimenting, this tool is designed to inspire, structure the process, and offer insights tested in practice.
From the research into the future of venues
The toolkit was developed as part of the project Venues of the Future (opens in new tab), a research and development project created as part of the Innovatielabs (opens in new tab) program, funded by the Creative Industries Fund NL (opens in new tab) and CLICKNL (opens in new tab).
The Venues of the Future project brings together an international team of creative partners and researchers. NITE (opens in new tab) and DEN (opens in new tab) from the Netherlands, Substrakt (opens in new tab), Annette Mees (Audience Labs) (opens in new tab), and AEA Consulting (opens in new tab) from the United Kingdom, and Khalid Bengrhib / 2K.FAR from Morocco join forces in this project. This Dutch-Moroccan-British collaboration aims to create a valuable exchange between theatre audiences and creators in all three countries, focusing on the creative process.
The experiences and insights from this multi-year project have been compiled into the Hybrid Theatre Toolkit (opens in new tab). Now available in a format that pragmatically and accessibly supports professionals at all stages of developing and collaborating on hybrid theatre experiences.
What does the toolkit offer?
The toolkit is intended for creators, technical partners, producers, artistic and business leaders who want to develop or enhance hybrid productions.
A step-by-step plan in five phases: from idea development to evaluation and archiving
Concrete tips and points of attention for project management, collaboration, and audience engagement
Reflection questions on inclusion, audience, technology, and sustainability
The toolkit is currently only available in English; the Dutch version will be published later.
DEN is a knowledge partner in the Venues of the Future research
By making this toolkit widely available, DEN aims to contribute to the digital transformation of the performing arts. Not as an end goal, but as a means to enable new forms of experience, inclusion, and creativity. The Hybrid Theatre Toolkit supports cultural professionals in consciously, purposefully, and artistically shaping hybrid work.
- Go to the toolkit via hybrid-theatre-toolkit.den.nl (opens in new tab)
- Download the PDF here (opens in new tab)
- More about the research: Venues of the Future (opens in new tab)
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