Performer Jessica Creane has been on NoPro’s radar since the 2018 run of her comedy Chaos Theory, which garnered accolades and attention in New York City and beyond.
Her 2023 work, Tea Party at the End of the World, is currently running at La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival and then is heading up to Los Angeles for a May residency at Hatch Escapes.
Creane’s body of work balances performance and play, the dramatic and the comedic, and doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. In this case Tea Party is inspired by Creane’s “time in the Arctic Circle, the ritual comfort of loose-leaf tea, and the unfathomable cost that being alive in a beautiful and disappearing world exacts on our ability to connect and find purpose.”
We got into more of it with the writer/performer ahead of the Los Angeles run, which starts April 30th and goes through May 14th.
This is No Proscenium’s COMING SOON, a look at ongoing immersive experiences & events. To learn more about how your event could be considered for the feature check out How To Get Covered By NoPro.
NoPro is 100% reader & listener supported. Become a subscriber to secure & expand our coverage of Everything Immersive or drop a little something in our Tip Jar!
NO PROSCENIUM: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?
Jessica Creane: Tea Party at the End of the World is, functionally, a tea party with a vibe. A small group of us drink loose-leaf tea, chat, and contemplate the end of the world together. Guests show up as themselves, are seated the whole time, and are invited — never forced — to share their thoughts and engage in sensory experiences. There's no puzzle to solve, no dark hallway to navigate. Just an aroma, a cup, your host - me, and questions that have no clean answers.
The immersion isn't about spectacle. It sneaks up on you. It’s funny, it’s earnest, and it’s caffeinated.
NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?
JC: In 2022, I went to the Arctic Circle on an artist residency — which changed my sense of scale and endings, but not in the way that I expected. My climate fear and guilt softened around the edges, which had the surprising effect of sharpening my lens on personal loss, and realizing how jagged those edges were by comparison. One of the threads TPATEOTW weaves with is this tension between polar and personal loss, and how our expectations of endings is rarely like the ending itself - and what to do with that discrepancy.
NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?
JC: My Director, Joe Ahmed, told me in 2023 - minutes before opening the show- that I had nothing to worry about, and my job now was to ‘just be with the people’. I’ve come close to tattooing that phrase on my body on a number of occasions. To me, it is the heart of the show, and the heart of the work I strive to make.
TPATEOTW is carefully crafted to be a deeply shared experience, one that binds us to each other incrementally, without taking for granted that when, how, and why we bind ourselves to others is one of life’s great intricacies.
NP: This isn’t your first run of Tea Party at the End of the World, and you spent some time developing it ahead of the WOW fest. Has it evolved from the original version of the show?
JC: I knew I wanted to do another round of development since 2023, but I didn't know what it would amount to. To my surprise — though apparently not my director's — this version is much more personal.
The core of the show, both in narrative and interactivity, hasn't changed dramatically. But for a show that lives and dies in its subtleties, a gentle breeze in any direction can really change the tenor of the piece. There is new text, new interactivity, a different way my character unfurls — and holding onto the vibe while tightening and loosening other elements has been a hell of a balancing act.
I have a nerd-level interest in the question of how much a performer shares versus how much space they leave for the audience. This iteration pushed my personal limit on that — a limit my director would note is already skewed toward leaving room for others.
NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?
JC: Make yourself a pot of tea — loose leaf if you can, and enjoy the taste, the scent, and the feel of it.
Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, home of NoPro’s show listings.
NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our backers. Join them today and get access to our Newsletter and Discord!
In addition to the No Proscenium website and our podcast, and you can find NoPro on Bluesky, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and in the Facebook community also named Everything Immersive.
Discussion