After coming up with dark ideas that never felt quite right, Matt Harry of Codex Arcanum eventually went the other direction and settled on something bright and light. So now he’s helping to bring an immersive romantic comedy to life in Burbank’s Magnolia Park.
We talked to Matt via email about Somebody to Love.
No Proscenium (NP): What is Somebody to Love?
Matt Harry (MH): Somebody to Love is an immersive romantic comedy in which the audience decides the ending.
The story centers on Adele, a hopelessly romantic twenty-something with a champagne problem — she’s dating awesome three guys, but can’t choose which one to be with. The solution? She gets an audience to secretly observe her on dates with all three men, then help her pick the perfect man. She’s crowdsourcing love!
But when the guys find out what’s going on, will she lose all three of them? Or will the wisdom of the crowd prevail?
Somebody to Love takes place across three real businesses in Burbank’s historic Magnolia Park neighborhood. As the audience follows Adele on her dates, they’ll get to decorate cookies at a bake sale, enjoy a glass of wine in a comic book shop, and try on vintage costumes, all included in the cost of a ticket.
NP: Why are you interested in telling this story now?
MH: I’ve been out of the dating scene for a while, but from what I hear from my friends, people are paralyzed by choice. There are dozens of dating apps, connecting you with thousands of potential partners, but when the whole world is your oyster, how do you know you’ve found “the one?” Because of this, there’s been a trend back toward more “old fashioned” ways of meeting someone, such as matchmaking services or even arranged marriage. Our main character is caught between these two poles — she loves all the options she has, but she’d also like someone to just tell her who to be with already. During the show, we touch on all of these issues.
NP: Why did you create this experience? What inspired you?
MH: I’ve been a fan of theater since I was a kid. I first started acting when I was in fourth grade, I was president of my high school drama club, and I studied under playwright Wendy MacLeod (The House of Yes) my freshman year at Kenyon College. Then I saw Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More in 2012 and I was blown away. I vowed to create my own immersive show idea. But for years I kept coming up with dark, creepy ideas that felt like they would never live up to the grandeur of what Punchdrunk had created. Then late last year I thought, “What if I went in a completely opposite direction?” The farthest I could get from moody, bloody film noir was a bright romantic comedy, which immediately inspired me. What would it be like to take part in a rom com, whether it’s a classic like When Harry Met Sally or the recent Netflix movie Always Be My Maybe?
From there, the story came together pretty quickly. Since I knew I wanted audience interaction, I thought I could take a classic trope — a woman caught between multiple suitors — and give it a modern, immersive spin. The resulting show gives us the best of both worlds — the audience gets to experience a classic rom com story, but we also poke fun at the tropes of the genre.
NP: We haven’t seen very many romantic comedies in immersive theater, what has it been like to adapt this type of story for this type of medium?
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MH: It’s been so much fun! I love rom coms, but it’s true you don’t see them too often in film or theater these days. Studying the elements of the genre gave me lots of ideas for how to bring it into an immersive space. So the audience doesn’t just get to follow along on a date, they get to have their own “date” at the same time. They get to sip wine along with the main characters. They get to offer advice to Adele. They even get to take part in a grand romantic gesture at the end of the show. Most importantly, they get to decide the ending.
NP: Singing seems like it could be hard to work into a moving show, how have you worked that in?
MH: For this run of the show, we’re keeping it simple. We have a portable amp, a microphone, and a backing karaoke track. The audience gets to sing along, but it’s an easy part, no harmonies or anything. The model we used was church singing — get the crowd to sing a basic chorus while the actors take on the more complicated parts.
I should mention here that we have a phenomenal cast. Our lead Tricia Fukuhara has worked in a variety of immersive experiences, from Blackout to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter’s Frog Chorus to Disneyland, so she’s well-equipped for this kind of show. The rest of our cast has a ton of improv and singing experience as well. Shakira Reedus acted on Snowfall, Brandon Raman was on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Samuel Blustein was in Pale Blue Dot, and James Brent Isaacs starred in the Emmy Award-winning Emma Approved.
NP: How is the audience incorporated into the work? What kinds of choices can the participants make?
MH: For Adele, the audience is the whole reason this is happening. She truly needs their help. As I mentioned earlier, it was important to me that audience feel like they have real agency. But I also wanted to make sure that everyone who attends gets to see the entire story. I’ve been to a couple immersive shows that were completely open world, and I ended up missing key moments because I was investigating something really minor. (In fact, I almost missed the ending of Sleep No More because I was sampling candies in the apothecary!) So there are three points in the show where the audience can offer advice to Adele or ask questions, and everyone takes part in the climax. But for the rest of the time, we want them to pretend to be oblivious bystanders so they can observe the dates.
NP: How are you designing around audience agency, consent, and safety?
MH: Safety and consent are big priorities for us. Because it’s not a scary show, there’s no reason for us to grab people or get in their faces. And while there is some light walking and choreography involved, we specifically chose the space and designed it so the entire show is ADA-accessible.
NP: Who is the ideal audience member for this show?
MH: I think people who enjoy immersive theater will find something unique here. Definitely anyone who likes rom coms. And anyone who’s been frustrated by the dating scene. So basically everyone over the age of 12.
NP: What do you hope participants take away from the experience?
MH: My hope is that people will be able to, for an hour at least, forget about all the bad stuff going on in the world right now. We want them to leave feeling positive and upbeat and appreciative of love. At the very least they’ll get to enjoy a treat, have a glass of wine, and do a little singing and dancing.
NP: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background in the immersive arts?
MH: I’ve worked in a variety of creative fields, from editor to filmmaker to screenwriter to film professor to author. Many of the projects I’ve created have had some kind of interactive element. I wrote and co-directed a short film called Super Kids in which we extended the world beyond the short, to the point where characters from the film were commenting on Reddit message boards. My first novel Sorcery for Beginners is part fiction and part magic spell guide, with diagrams and activation words that allow readers to play along. The sequel, Cryptozoology for Beginners, comes out in Fall 2019 and continues in that vein. I’ve written several plays, but Somebody to Love is my first immersive piece.
Somebody to Love runs July 13, 14, 20, and 21. Tickets are available here.
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