A talented Leeds student has landed a £30,000 fund for his theatre project.

David Shearing, a 30 year old PhD student, was among five artists last month who won the Sky Academy Arts prize.

Through the use of video, light and sound design, the project looks to change the way that weather is experienced in a theatre. Shearing’s 45 minute piece, called ‘The Weather Machine’, features no actors.

Speaking to LS, Shearing said: “I was looking to explore the way that light, sound, image and space can make an audience behave in different ways.”

Education Officer Alice Smart praised Shearing’s achievement: “It’s great to see that there are such talented, sector-leading researchers at Leeds whose ideas are being recognised at a national level.”

Part of the project will also involve temporarily transforming a Leeds city centre café into a weather machine, complete with a dripping ceiling that gives the impression of rain.

Students at Leeds will be among the first to experience the full force of the Weather Machine when it makes its debut performance in early 2015.

Jack Hardy

photo: David Shearing