Artists in residence

See the current artists in residence at Birkbeck's Creative Practice Lab.

Claire MacNeill

Claire has been at the forefront of initiatives in theatre, research, education, community development and performance since 2001. She earned a PhD in Applied Theatre, which reflects 12 years of practice-based research with marginalised communities. At the core of her work lies a commitment to person-centered practices, the delivery of high-quality outputs, ethical engagement processes, and the harnessing of creativity as a vital tool for research and development.

As a Creative Practice Lab artist in residence, Claire is developing a three-year project exploring the potential for immersive and interactive artforms and digital technologies to research and represent the lived experiences and inner worlds of neurodiverse participants. Using her background in applied theatre, immersive and interactive theatre in collaboration with Birkbeck’s Immersive Learning Centre – In My Mind is a practice research project interested in creating work for, with and by audience/participants. This project is concerned with how multi-media workshops can engage participants in creative, reflexive processes, how new partnerships can inform the developments and applications of immersive and digital artforms on global stages and the ways in which this combined work can produce live-events for audiences to interact with/within.

Mary Stewart-David

Mary Stewart-David is an AI-native film and music theatre maker, and founder and CTO of Imminent-XR, a spin-out from her doctoral research at the University of York. She holds master’s degrees in film production and theatre direction, is trained in virtual production, and is an Equity Director. Her PhD (2026) examined Immersicals®, her trade-marked process for producing virtual live performance. Her practice-based research centres on the creative and ethical use of AI in film and theatre. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, a member of the Innovate UK Immersive Tech ethics working group, and was Expert in Residence at the Alan Turing Institute from 2024 to 2026. Her stage and screen credits include book and lyrics for Baby on Board, directed by Sir Alan Ayckbourn; lyrics for Stepping Out, the musical in the West End; and co-writing the feature film The Honourable Rebel. Her VR musical Mrs Sherlock Holmes, supported by Meta and StoryFutures, toured UK cinemas and libraries from 2023-25.