I’m writing this from a motel room in San Diego just a few short hours after seeing Optika Moderna’s Las Quinceañeras. These are words I’m only able to type because all of you have made this mad career possible.
So thank you. This remains a uniquely rewarding life for a life-long journalist with a theatre degree.
What I hope is that by assembling what we put together here each and every week, that I’m able to repay your attention and financial support. And that together we make a broader, more stable base for great work to be created around the world.
This week you’ll find reviews, features, and artist statements coming in from every corner that we cover. You’ll also find the announcement of the next great gathering of the immersive creative community — the HERE Summit & Festival — which we are proud to present March 27–29, 2020 at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, CA. This follows up on work the team and our partners have been doing over the last few years.
The work remains a fight. The world doesn’t really understand what we’re doing. There have been, and will continue to be setbacks. But I want you to know that for every challenge that the Powers That Be and the Old Guard drops on us, there is a brilliant voice that is just beginning to be heard.
I know, because it’s been my privilege — and our team’s honor — to be among the first to hear them, and it remains our mission to ensure that they are heard.
With that: let’s get down to business, shall we? It’s been a busy week.
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ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK
Actor Alex Demers (The Johnny Cycle: The Living, The Blue Blade) joins us to talk about the craft of acting in immersive and his own journey into the immersive field.
Plus: a big update on the 2020 Summit, as in DATES, LOCATION, and NAME and some notes on a new musical in LA — CAGES.
BONUS PODCAST EPISODE
Dave Bushore of Marvel Studios and Ian Bowie & Michael Koperwas of ILMxLAB join us to talk about ‘Avengers: Damage Control’ the all-new collaboration between their companies and The VOID.
The VR adventure is the biggest yet to hit The VOID’s hyper-reality centers, and it puts you in the role of new recruits who must take the latest Wakandan/Stark tech and use it to help the post-Endgame Avengers defeat a resurgent evil.
INSIDE IMMERSIVE
At first glance, Flutter might seem like a selfie palace or a pop-up museum, but there are layers of meaning to the installation work on display.
Owner Chris Dowson takes us inside the Mid-City Los Angeles space, which curates interactive art pieces with an eye towards creating space for reflection, and was inspired by Dowson’s own concerns over the growing mental health crisis in America.
Cinematography and editing: Charlie Dunn
Line Producer: Noah Nelson
On camera talent: Mackenzie Firgens
FROM THE WIRE: SHOWS, EVENTS, & EXPERIENCES
NYC: Now Serving: A Guide to Aesthetic Etiquette in Four Courses, Aerobanquets RMX, Holiday x House of SHOWFIELDS, Sex Status 2.0,
Toronto: Casa Loma Escape Series: The Dragon’s Song
Chicago: Nevermore Park, Rabbit Hole Society: Fall Edition
Atlanta: HEREafter
Dallas: Generations of Adam
Austin: Theorist Fest
SF: The Group
LA: Yule, Friendly Ghost Party,
COMMUNITY
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Submit your show to us here or at pitches@noproscenium.com.
REVIEWS
From No Proscenium:
Assembled At Last — ‘Avengers: Damage Control’ Brings The MCU to Life (Review)The VOID recruits you for Earth’s Mightiest Heroesnoproscenium.com‘House of Spirits’: The Classic Haunted House Gets Remixed for Grownups (A NoPro Night Out)We drink with the damned in LAnoproscenium.comUncumber Theatrics’ ‘The Stray’ Transforms the Audience into Cats (Review)The Pittsburgh-based immersive theatre company succeeds wildly at its unique flavor of improvnoproscenium.comLong Live the ‘Red Palace’ (The NoPro Review)Shotgun Carousel’s newest production reigns supreme over the Vaultsnoproscenium.comReady All Players! with ‘Mass VR’ (A NoPro Adventure)Immersive gameplay brings the multiplayer video game to lifenoproscenium.com
From David & Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist:
Rabbit Hole Recreation Services’ Mystic Temple was a beautiful, thrilling, and player-friendly escape game.This is what a premium escape game looks like in 2019.
In Experiment C73, the puzzles were tangible and rewarded communication and spatial awareness. A bit of dexterity went a long way. To top it all off, Conundrum Escape Rooms took some design risks that paid off profoundly.
Grim Stacks was the kind of Harry Potter-inspired game that we wanted to explore. It stood on its own, but its allusions made fans feel at home.
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From Jeff Heimbuch of HorrorBuzz:
The Shadow Space was an unique and hilarious twist on the haunted house story, where YOU get the be the ghost. I’ve never had more fun being dead! This is my review for it
STORIES
From NoProscenium.com and our Twitter feed:
Picks of the Week (10/17–10/23/2019)It’s the most wondrous time of the year.noproscenium.comChicago’s Nevermore Park: An Art Park Of DreamsArtist statement from Chicago’s Hebru Brantley, the visionary designer behind the Flyboy Universenoproscenium.comWaders, Swimmers, and Divers at ‘Sandbox: Immersive Worlds and Playable Spaces’A report back from the Gunpowder Plot’s symposium in Londonnoproscenium.com
From David & Lisa Spira of Room Escape Artist:
Dirty-looking doesn’t mean actually dirty. Know the difference.
From Kent Bye of the Voices of VR podcast:
I wrote an XR Ethics Manifesto trying to distill the moral dilemmas of immersive experiences into ethical design principles.
I wrote it with VR & AR technology in mind, but hopefully it’s generalized enough to apply to other domains as well.
I’d be very curious to hear any feedback from the immersive theater community about other special ethical considerations that you don’t see represented in this 170+ page slide deck manifesto presented at the Greenlight XRS conference this week.
From Ricky Brigante of Pseudonym Productions:
Philadelphia is quickly becoming an epicenter for unique new Halloween adventures, including our own immersive experience Dark Passage nearing the top of the list on Thrillist.
The battle between immersive aficionados and average tourists continues to wage across Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, as clever in-story food names have been replaced by rather ordinary (but easier to understand) menu descriptions. This is definitely fodder for a future NoPro column, continuing the conversation of Those Who Play versus Those Who Don’t.
THE DISCOURSE
Discussions and posts from Everything Immersive & Twitter:
A Candid Moment of IntrospectionWow. Life as Co-Founder/CEO of Meow Wolf has been absolutely unreal. I am proud of what I have accomplished in my role…meowwolf.comGoogle Puts the Final Nail in the Coffin for Android VR AmbitionsIt was abundantly clear by earlier this year that Google's interest in its Android-based Daydream VR platform had…www.roadtovr.comTilt Five Kickstarter Triples Funding Goal with Less Than 2 Weeks Left in CampaignTilt Five took to Kickstarter seeking $450,000 in funding to bring its AR headset to life. The headset, which uses a…www.roadtovr.com
PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES
Jobs, Grants, Gigs, and more
Audition
LA: Ceaseless Fun, Oct 26 &27
Workshops
NYC: Creating A Cinematic Movement Practice — Third Rail Projects
NYC: Linked Dance Theatre
Immersive Movement Workshop Oct 19
World Building And Magic Circle Creation Oct 20
LA: Fiona Rene (The Willows, ABC’s Stumptown) offers a workshop for actors this month.
LA: Sophia Stoller’s IRIS Company
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
i-Docs 2020 — Call for Participation
DEADLINE:
Oct. 25, 2019
Following the success of five previous i-Docs Symposia, we are pleased to announce the call for participation for i-Docs 2020. Convened by Judith Aston, Sandra Gaudenzi, Mandy Rose and Julia Scott-Stevenson, and hosted by UWE Bristol’s Digital Cultures Research Centre, i-Docs 2020 will be held at Watershed in Bristol’s Harbourside on Wednesday to Friday 25–27 March. We invite proposals for papers, pre-constituted panels, case studies, posters and projects to showcase. In addition, this time we also want to encourage alternative and remote forms of participation — both to reduce the carbon footprint of the event and to include delegates otherwise unable to take part.
NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers: join them today!
In addition to the No Proscenium web site, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Slack forum.
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