65145Universal Performance SpaceClosedFeasibility StudiesInnovate UKThe Universal Performance Space is a revolutionary format that allows live or prerecorded performance to be staged in a digital environment for audiences to simultaneously consume in VR headsets, with Augmented Reality on phones and tablets, on computers, broadcast to screen and web and directly into physical performance spaces once audiences are allowed to return. A performance can be delivered to any combination of these formats depending on the intended audience, the technology available to them and type of performance the director wants to stage. Upper Ground, London SE1 9PX Tel +44(0)20 7452 3333 Fax +44(0)20 7452 3344 nationaltheatre.org.uk Registered charity No. 224223, Company No. 749504 The intention of the Universal Performance Space is to democratise existing and new forms of performance by bringing it to people’s living rooms and their own devices allowing new performative work to be staged at a time when audiences and performers are not able to come together. Specifically intended to bring performance to audiences at home in response to Covid-19 this platform will also have significant purpose beyond the current period of lockdown and will allow for the development of new performance models moving forward. As we move beyond the period of isolation and can integrate the platform into physical performance spaces we will expand the format out to include Location Based Entertainment venues where communal audiences are free to roam staged environments in Virtual Reality headsets. One household could have different people engaging with the same live performance in different ways: one upstairs having a completely immersive performance in VR with all the agency that allows whilst the rest of the family watch on TV as one of them also brings the performance onto the coffee table in Augmented Reality via their phone. This is a new format for performance and entertainment standing on the shoulders of the existing craft of theatre, performance and staging. The intention for the subsequent phase of work is to move from pure prototype towards the first public facing performance broadcast from the Universal Performance Space. This will be the first in a number of sequentially ambitious stagings that will ultimately lead to the full UPS ambition.