Friday 25 July 6.15pm h2. In Conversation with playwright Jennifer Haley What constitutes real life? Are we really who we are in our physical bodies or in our imaginations? Jerwood Theatre Downstairs Tickets £5 (or free with a ticket to The Nether, bookable in advance) Professor Anthony Beech is Head of the Centre for Forensic and Criminological Psychology at the University of Birmingham, UK. He has authored over 150 peer-reviewed articles, 40 book chapters and six books in the area of forensic science/criminal justice. In 2009 he received the Significant Achievement Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers in Dallas, and the Senior Award from the Division of Forensic Psychology, British Psychological Society. His specialisms include the neurological basis of offending, online exploitation of children and internet offending. Jennifer Haley's play The Nether runs at the Royal Court until 9 August. Her work often delves into ethics in virtual reality and the impact of technology on our human relationships, identity, and desire. The Nether premiered at Center Theatre Group's Kirk Douglas Theatre in 2013, where it won the Susan Smith Blackburn prize, the Ovation Award for Best New Play and an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award.
Wednesday 30 July 6.15pm h2. The Big Debate Fantasy, reality and morality: what are the consequences of the moral decisions we make in virtual or online worlds? Guest speakers to be announced soon Jerwood Theatre Upstairs Tickets £5 (or free with a ticket to The Nether, bookable in advance) Leigh Alexander is a journalist, critic and speaker on the art, business and culture of video games and interactive entertainment. She is editor at large at leading industry site Gamasutra, and her work is widely-published in the specialist press at outlets like Edge, Kotaku and Polygon. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, Slate, The New Statesman, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian and the New Inquiry. She is also co-founder of Agency, a game design consultancy. Holly Gramazio works at the intersection of game design and other cultural forms. She creates games for events, and installations that encourage people to engage with their surroundings in a playful way. She was previously Lead Game Designer at Hide&Seek, where she curated an annual festival of games at the Southbank Centre; since January 2014 she has been working independently on projects ranging from "Scotch Hoppers", an installation based on traditional folk games created with Stillmotion to run in Glasgow during the Commonwealth Games, to the short text-based game "How To Be A Blackbird". Rory Mullarkey won the George Devine Award for his play The Wolf from the Door and was this year's recipient of the Pinter Commission. Rory was the Royal Court's writer on attachment in 2010 and has been closely associated with the theatre's international work, translating Russian-language plays, including Aleksey Scherbak's Remembrance Day and for a number of staged readings. His first full length play Cannibals opened at the Royal Exchange Manchester in 2013, where he became the youngest playwright to have his work performed on their main stage. "The Wolf from the Door": royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/the-wolf-from-the-door will be performed here this autumn as part of our New Season. The Nether runs at the Royal Court until 9 August. More info "here": www.royalcourttheatre.com/whats-on/thenether. AlixPartners support The Big Idea at the Royal Court Theatre
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