We sat down for an exclusive interview with AI consultant, researcher, and strategist Kojo Apeagyei, as he joins the board of Talawa Theatre Company to support the company’s growth, audience development and responsible approach to emerging technologies. A lifelong creative and passionate advocate for Black creativity working across the arts, technology, and social impact, and with a background in digital communications and audience engagement, he now advises organisations, innovators and policymakers on the responsible adoption of AI at Energy Systems Catapult.
What first connected you to Talawa, and why did joining the company’s board feel like the right opportunity at this point in its history?
I’d been following Talawa’s work since around 2020. I was involved in different poetry and creative circles where people were connected to the organisation, so it was always in my orbit, but the first time I actually stepped into the theatre was in 2024, to see Kareem Parkins-Brown’s Bougie Lanre’s Boulangerie (Talawa Firsts on Tour 2024.) Joining the board felt right because of where the arts sit at this moment in relation to emerging tech and culture. In Talawa I believe I see an organisation which wants to approach this topic with clarity and integrity, and that’s important to me too. I also wanted to help grow its reach, partnerships, and audiences, so it felt like I had the right skills for this moment.
Talawa is celebrating 40 years of championing Black British theatre. What does that legacy mean to you personally?
Longevity like this is rare for any institution, and rarer still for a Black one in the arts. It’s the result of decades of people fighting to keep the work alive. That’s why I think institutions like this are worth protecting fiercely, as Talawa is one of one. My hope is that we reach an 80th and beyond, so the next generation of actors, directors, producers and audiences keep seeing themselves and our stories on that stage. When I think about the legacy personally, it’s about continuity. Making sure the door others held open for me stays open for the people coming after, perhaps even wider still. That feels like a responsibility as much as an honour.
You have worked at the intersection of responsible technology, innovation and the arts. What do you think technology can add to live theatre?
I’m fascinated by immersive and multimodal work such as evolving soundscapes, responsive lighting, and visual design that shifts and twists with the performance. Used well, technology can pull us deeper into the live experience rather than distract from it. Emphasis on a key word here: with. It should collaborate with the art form, not overwrite it. Live theatre’s power is presence, in risk, the sense that anything could happen in the room. I’d never want tech to flatten that or turn it into spectacle for its own sake. But in service of the story, it can open new ways of feeling something. So for me it’s less about anything buzzy and more about what deepens the connection between the work and the audience, without becoming gimmicky.
Artificial intelligence is creating both excitement and anxiety across the creative industries. Where do you see its greatest opportunities – and its greatest risks – for theatre-makers?
The biggest opportunities are quite mundane, but that’s what makes them valuable. Admin support — triaging emails, copyediting, helping analyse funding bids by pulling together information from existing files. And research, which I love: helping theatre-makers follow a curiosity thread, dig through history, surface references they’d never have found. That frees time for the actual creative work.
That said, I fully understand the anxiety. Homogenisation, deskilling, job losses in a severely underfunded sector where everyone feels pressure to do more, faster. These are major concerns, and also why I got into this space. Personally though, the one area that worries me most would probably be a retreat from human connection. If we lean on these tools instead of turning to collaborators and friends – finding people who fill a skills gap for you, bouncing ideas, building relationships… we risk losing trust in our own voices and experiences.
What would you say to a young person who wants to work across technology and the arts but feels they have to choose between the two?
It’s definitely not a binary choice, but I’d push you to lead with one. A way to frame this is asking if you’re an artist who uses technology, or a technologist who works with art? That should help you then focus your time, build skills, network and reputation with intention, rather than spreading yourself thin across two very demanding fields at once. One doesn’t need to come at the expense of the other, but I think it’s smart to focus on one. You can also move in seasons: spend a period deep in the art, then a period experimenting with tech, learning tools, meeting people. Careers aren’t linear; mine hasn’t been! The combination is rare, but don’t try to do everything and be everywhere, all at once.
Looking ahead another 40 years, what would you like Talawa to be known for – and what needs to happen now to make that future possible?
Still living up to the word it’s named after — tallawah, the idea of being small but mighty. There’s typically a tension between scaling up and embedding deeper, and I think Talawa can do both, especially leveraging its network of supporters and collaborators. The routes into the arts are narrowing under external pressures (economic and political), even as the ways to make and share work keep expanding (digital). I’d want Talawa to be known for being resolute in its mission, upholding Black theatre and helping people find their way in, especially when things are most difficult. To get there, we have to keep returning to that mission, and pursue collaborations where our strengths combine into something greater, not just across the country but the world. And beyond this, we have to be seen, as far and as widely as possible.