Shinbone Theatre Company popped onto our radar last year with the clever Hollywood Fringe production What Went Wrong?, which leveraged VR video in a smart way. Now the company is back in the immersive kingdom with Welcome Back, Woodchucks, a comedic interactive piece about a high-school reunion.

We talked with Shinbone co-founder, and WBW co-creator, Leland Frankel about the upcoming show, which bows at Thymele Arts in East Hollywood this weekend.

No Proscenium: In a nutshell: what is “Welcome Back, Woodchucks?”

Leland Frankel: WBW is an audience-driven immersive experience, placing you at the center of the West Hollywood High School ten-year reunion — Go Woodchucks! From the moment audiences arrive, they take on the role of an alumnus and must navigate the hilarity and heartbreak that comes from revisiting their past. It’s part interactive theatre, part boozy dance party, and waaaaaaay more fun than any real reunion will ever be.

NP: Why a high school reunion show now?

LF: A big part of the decision to put on this show was personal; our own ten-year reunions are just a few years down the line, and a lot of our close friends and collaborators have already attended (or skipped) theirs. It’s this funny time of life when people are at such wildly different places. You might meet old classmates who are married with kids and thriving careers, while others are still broke, single, and figuring it out day-by-day. The stress of facing old bullies and old crushes, or of seeing how you measure up against friends…there’s a lot of potential for comedy and tragedy. We wanted to explore our own developing post-grad experiences and the pressures of becoming adults — whatever that actually means — while using the immersive form to get audiences to do the same. What have you done with your life since high school? Are you the person you thought you’d be? Is it too late to change? These are the questions that drive the experience.

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NP: Immersive/interactive is always a hybrid — and sandbox always has a degree of improvisation — what’s the mix here going to be like?

LF: This is a highly audience-driven experience. From the moment you arrive at Thymele Arts (which we chose partially because it has hosted real reunions before) you are treated as if you were actually at your own high school reunion. We’ve got a dozen unique plotlines unfolding and intersecting at the same time; based on what characters audiences engage with, they might find themselves unravelling decade-old secrets, tripping on shady club drugs, or even hitting the streets for a late-night liquor run. And even though WeHo High isn’t real, our intention is still to draw out audience’s genuine reflections on their school experiences. This is a show about really talking to people, and opening up. There may be larger dramatic events taking place around you, but authentically personal interactions are at the core of what makes WBW special. And if you hate all that, then just grab some custom cocktails from the bar (courtesy of Spirit Guides) or dance up a storm to all your favorite mid-2000s hits.

NP: As you developed this work, what influences did you find yourself coming back to?

LF: As far as immersive influences go, we are huge fans of The Wilderness and Four Larks, which is why we wanted to make sure that this experience was not completely restrained by reality. There’s a touch of something bigger and stranger at play here — a melancholy, unearthly quality that seeps in around the edges. Diane Paulus’ The Donkey Show taught us that theatre can be a party, and Tim Crouch showed us the way to push audiences to uncomfortable, but ultimately rewarding places. Going back about a hundred years, Anton Chekhov is my all-time favorite playwright — his singular blend of tragedy and comedy can be seen throughout WBW, because life is always a combination of both.

NP: How are you approaching designing around audience agency? What should the audience be expecting in that regard?

LF: Audience agency is everything to us. For Shinbone Theatre Company, “immersion” isn’t just some buzzword. We want more than theatre that happens around you. Our goal is to make the audience a vital part of each production — their choices, their lives shape what our experiences become. So for WBW, audiences should expect a lot of freedom, and a lot of opportunity to explore their own histories in a way they might not on their own. If you want to engage with the show as much as possible, there is so much story and so many deep emotions to uncover. And if they don’t, it’s still a fun dance party with an amazing bar. We have something for everybody, but we always encourage audiences to push themselves — and by extension, push us — further.

Welcome Back, Woodchucks opens Jan 18th and plays Fridays and Saturdays through Jan 26th at Thymele Arts 5481 Santa Monica Blvd, LA. Tickets are $20.

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