New York Gets Its Own Immersive Invitational

In a bit over a week in Queens six intrepid immersive teams will take up the challenge of creating original short-form immersive works in under 48 hours and sharing them with the world. 

For the first time the Immersive Invitational — which started in Los Angeles in 2019 — comes to New York City and taps into the incredible breadth of talent in the Big Apple to create a celebration of the city’s immersive creative community. Over the weekend the creative teams will work side by side, devising new work based on a theme revealed on Friday evening.

Come Sunday, August 23rd, immersive fans will have the chance to see just what the teams have cooked up and vote for who will take home the audience prize. Every audience member will experience all six original creations, which will be between 10 - 12 minutes in length. Altogether the showcase is an immersive smorgasbord showing off the dynamic range of New York’s vibrant immersive scene.

What worlds will the teams create? What adventures will you have? 

Less than 200 tickets have been put on sale for this one of a kind experience.

The lineup for the inaugural New York Immersive Invitational are: 

Enemies of Time

In 2024, Lyra Levin, Karen Castelletti, and Michael Feldman fused our experience in narrative, game design, circus, engineering, magic, and tech to create a multi-disciplinary immersive theater company We build stories that invite audiences to make choices that matter.

Since then, we installed site specific stories in collaboration with more than 30 other immersive artists and toured shows to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Voidspace Live, and the La Jolla Playhouse WOW Festival.

Linked Dance Theatre

Led by Co-Artistic Directors Jordan Chlapecka and Kendra Slack, has produced 16 full-length productions in New York since 2014, with residencies at venues including Coney Island USA Culture Lab NYC and The Trust for Governors Island. The company has won multiple immersive theater awards, collaborated with HFC (Hilarity for Charity) on Alzheimer's awareness projects, and been featured on the Emmy-winning series Immersive World. Recent work includes Hiker Trash (2024) and their 10th anniversary production, Winter's Walk, now also available as an audio walk experience.

Odd Reverberations

Odd Reverberations is an immersive theatrical cluster of multi-hyphenates with *odd perspectives. Our collective creation of stories, music, puzzles, and performance bounce off one another to create a holistic experience for audiences across various dimensions. 

Odyssey Works 

Odyssey Works began in 2001 with two friends, a long walk, and a big question:

What would happen if we truly knew our audience, and designed an experience specifically for that one person?

Since that walk twenty-five years ago, Odyssey Works has been pioneering the practices of transformative experience design. Best known for creating Odysseys—enormous, personalized performances designed to guide individuals through profound journeys—the team has spent decades researching the practicalities of experience design across disciplines. 

Odyssey Works has evolved to offer a range of unique opportunities: bespoke experience design and consulting services and educational programming for global organizations, including a year-long Experience Design Certificate Program. 

PITCHBLACK Immersive Experiences 

PITCHBLACK Immersive Experiences is a nonprofit performing arts organization that creates original, immersive theatre in complete darkness.

At the heart of our work is a belief in the transformative power of live performance. By removing sight, we invite audiences—especially young people—to experience stories from new perspectives, cultivating empathy, understanding, and compassion.

PITCHBLACK Immersive Experiences is a U.S. endeavor born of a partnership between U.S. theatreC and Teatro Ciego of Argentina, a company with a 20-year history of creating live experiences in complete darkness. Darkness allows us to perceive the world in a new way, and we extend that perception into how we create. Consequently, we employ artists and technicians with visual disabilities in all our work. Part of our staff and creative team is made up of blind and low-vision individuals.

What May Come Immersive 

What May Come is an immersive theatre collective developing historically inspired, site specific works in the North East and SoCal regions. WMC has been performing in residence at the historic Harry Packer Mansion since 2022, and the Six Bells Countryside Inn since 2025. What May Come’s newest offering “Ms. Maxwell Presents: The Murder Game,” written by Creative Director Sarah Sutliff, just completed a sold out LA Workshop Run following a 2025 NYC Playtest. WMC will be partnering with posh.vip for 2 bicoastal pop up performances in October. 

Experience The Showcase On August 23rd

There is no other event quite like the Immersive Invitational, for both creators and fans alike. Started by After Hours Theatre Company and what would become The Immersive Experience Institute. The inaugural New York edition is being brought to life with the help of Culture Lab LIC, the arts and culture umbrella for Western Queens, which is serving as the venue for the event and has joined as co-presenter.

Whether you are a veteran immersive scenester or just taking your first steps in exploring the host of options New York’s immersive community has to offer, the Invitational showcase is an incredible opportunity to experience a wealth of different styles all in one go. 

The New York Immersive Invitational showcase takes place at Culture Lab LIC in Queens on August 23rd. Showcase runs are at 1, 4, and 6:30pm. Tickets start at $40.

No Proscenium is a project of The Immersive Experience Institute.

Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, home of NoPro’s show listings.

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