Technical Theatre graduate named Newcomer of the Year

Former Create Awards Winner Yi Wen Lim won the Venue Production Newcomer of the Year Award at the 2023 Production Future Breakthrough Talent Awards in Wakefield earlier this year.

The 2022 graduate works for immersive theatre company Lightroom in London as a junior technician and was given the award after judges praised her collaborative approach and the hard work that she had put into the role since joining.

On her win, Yi Wen said: “I was shocked! I didn’t really know what to think as I hadn’t thought much about [potentially winning]. This award is for people who are newcomers to the industry and is in recognition of the work they’ve put it in so it’s quite amazing to be recognised by other people based on your passion for the industry.

Yi Wen, who won the International Student Award at the University’s Create Awards in 2022, said that she was drawn to working in immersive and technical theatre over traditional stage theatre because of the ingenuity and originality of the medium.

She said: “Immersive theatre is a different way of doing things. Once you’ve seen a lot of theatre shows, you might want to try something you’re not used to and doing immersive theatre is a great way to invite people into the performance space that are not very used to theatre too.

“It’s about creating an experience for people and immersing yourself within the space.”

Lightroom, a joint venture between 59 Productions and the London Theatre Company, produces immersive shows that uses both audio and video techniques to tell a story within a space that changes as the audience moves around within it.

The company’s ongoing projects include a large-scale projection of celebrated artist David Hockney’s sixty years of art and an upcoming piece with actor Tom Hanks on the stories of the Apollo missions to the moon.

On the role, Yi Wen added: “I’m really enjoying it! It’s not very common to work in video-orientated productions in this kind of field. It’s always fun to learn new things and I always wanted to learn how this kind of work is put together and gain an understanding of how it all works.”