Bonus Feature: Ned Loach on 360 Screenings and the life around it

l-r  Ned Loach, Robert Gontier    (photo by Katherine Holland)

Theatre Cinema Performance Life

by Ned Loach

Ned Loach is an arts and culture producer who co-founded Toronto's first immersive cinema experience, 360 Screenings. He also works for Sheridan College where he helps manage the Performing Arts Department. Previous positions include Soulpepper Theatre Company, Canadian Opera Company, and London, UK's Freud Museum. He strives to keep creating and contributing to creative environments, wherever possible.

Robert Gontier is co-founder and Artistic Director of 360 Screenings.  He has an M.A. in Voice Studies with Distinction from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London (UK) and a B.F.A. from Ryerson University. He is also a playwright, librettist and lyricist who has recently been shortlisted for the prestigious Tom Hendry Awards presented by the Playwrights Guild of Canada.  He is currently a Professor of Voice and Text at Sheridan College.

Robbie and I have been married now for just over 3 years, and for about half that time we have been working together on creating immersive cinema events with 360 Screenings. It’s a passion project of ours, something we are both wildly interested in. We are fascinated with how to make theatre, or to be more general, performance art, more accessible, and how to inspire audiences to be more engaged and excited about performance art.

Interview: Ned Loach, Co-Founder of 360 Screenings

L-R Robert Gontier, Ned Loach co-founders 360 Screenings

From Screen To Stage
by Jasmine Chen
@CHENPINGTING

Ned Loach, Co-Founder of 360 Screenings spoke with CharPo Senior Contributor Jasmine Chen.

CHARPO: What was the genesis of 360 Screenings? What inspired you to create this experience for audiences?

LOACH: Our Artistic Director Robert Gontier and I lived in London, UK for several years and while we were there we went to as many theatre shows and cultural events as we could. We noticed a trend of immersive theatre, but more specifically a kind of theatre that blended many different artistic forms. When we came back, we wondered if this kind of immersive theatre was happening in Toronto. While there was a lot of immersive theatre, there wasn't as much blending of different disciplines. That's when we decided to create a hybrid theatre and film event. We're a year and a half in and we're still growing.