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Jo Cattell headshot

Jo Cattell

Theater Maker

Jo Cattell (theatre maker) is a multidisciplinary writer, director and immersive storyteller creating genre-defying work at the intersection of live performance, technology and original narrative. Her practice spans theatre, experiential environments and screen, crafting psychologically driven stories that move fluidly between stage, emerging media and film, often exploring perception, agency and collective experience.

 

Her work has been presented by Sundance Film Festival, the BBC, Sky Television, Cirque du Soleil and leading theatres across the US and UK. She is a core member of the LightPoets collective and a key creative force behind Particle Ink, an immersive graphic-novel universe combining live performance, animation and mixed reality. Particle Ink: Speed of Dark, winner of a THEA Award, ran in Las Vegas and was followed by The House of Shattered Prisms at MGM Luxor in 2024. The team also created a live, onstage metaverse for TED2022, synchronizing augmented reality across more than 1,400 audience devices.

 

Cattell is a resident artist with the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois, developing technology-driven performance. Her VR theatre work has been presented internationally. She is the recipient of a 3Arts Award and Illinois Artist Fellowship, and is currently under commission with Writers Theatre while developing new work as Head of Content and co-creator at Kaleidoco.

 

 

Profile caption: Jo's Headshot Profile image by: Joe Mazza/Brave Lux
Jo Cattell's Website
There are 5 people depicted in Virtual Reality head sets. Behind them is a large screen showing a Japanese cherry orchard, a red sun, a bridge and snow-capped mountains. HUMMINGBIRD, a live immersive performance with virtual reality in collaboration with Daria Tsoupikova, Arthur Nishimoto, Sai Priya Jyothula, Lance Long and Andy Johnson. Photo by Lance Long and Daria Tsoupikova

Featured Artworks

  • A woman and man riding on top of the red TED logo, which has been turned into a rocket ship and is flying through space TED2022: A New Era Ekenah Claudin & Dani Maloney Projection mapped performance
  • Audience all holding up iPads which they watch a live performance with augmented reality through at TED2022 conference. . TED2022: A New Era Augmented reality in live performance
  • An acrobatic pole dancer spinning and hanging upside down on a pole of a 4-poster bed. Projection mapping paints the image with lilac, pinks and blues. SPEED OF DARK, Particle Ink in Las Vegas Natsumi Miyazaki as Lilith An immersive graphic novel
  • Nighttime and a full-blue moon hangs in the sky behind a black man who towers over skyscrapers. Dark, brooding and graphic-novel like. KING Edmund Act 1 Scene 2 from KING Photo by Christopher Marston An adaptation of Shakespeare's KING LEAR
  • Three intimidating figures, one sitting and two standing by an armchair wearing black suits and day of the dead make up. Blood trails from them and out of the photo. Don Chipotle music videos Don Chipotle music videos Photo by Joel Maisonette Based on Juan Villa's DON CHIPOTLE
  • The interior of a human artery with red fleshy walls. A red blood cell appears through the artery wall to address the audience, a group of young kids who are surprised by the blood cells appearance. EPIC TALE OF SCALE at Chicago Children's Theatre Inside the artery Immersive theatre performance
  • Jo Cattell artwork THE DISPLACED by Isaac Gomez, Haven Theatre Karen Rodriguez as Marissa Psychological Horror