The No Proscenium Podcast

This week on the show: another double header. FIrst up: Mikhael Tara Garver and Jenny Koons of Culture House Immersive are with us to talk a bit about the work going on over there, including a fair amount about working with creatives from outside the realm of immersive to bring their worlds to life. Then we check in with friend of the show Yannick Trapman-O’Brien, who is celebrating an anniversary...

This week on the show we’ve got a double header. FIrst up: Amy Ashton and Mia Fiorella  of the La Jolla Playhouse  will help me make a path through the lineup of this year’s Without Walls Festival , which is coming up April 24-27th on the campus of UC San Diego. Then Jimmy Reckitt and I talk about making Vampire LARPS which is exactly what he does as the Head of Story for By Night S...

This week we are joined by Jack Aldisert of Deadweight Theatre, creator of The Manikins , which was the talk of the London immersive scene throughout 2024 — so much so that some legendary figures on that scene became collaborators — and which will be coming to the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans this April and is sure to be all the talk there. In the host chair for this discussion is Shelley...

This week on the show we’ve got a look at two of the experiences in this year’s SXSW XR Experience Competition —  The Secret Life of Monsters: The Gateway Experience and Traces: The Grief Processor  — we have the key creatives behind both joining us on the pod in a double header. Once again the SXSW lineup is filled with as many XR experiences, IRL activations, and smarty pants panels a person can...

This week on the show we’re joined by Erica Boeke, CEO of XPLAND — which covers the business of experiential from awards shows to activism, sports to immersive — and who are gearing up for their second XLIST — which puts the spotlight on the most creative visionaries in experiential. Nominations for which are open RIGHT NOW. SHOW NOTES XPLAND The XLIST Nomination Process 2025 Audience Discoun...

This week on the show we’ve got a double feature. First up: Graham Wetterhahn of After Hours Theatre Company and NoPro’s own Parker Sela stop by to talk about  Dark Library Paris: 1925 , a new immersive cocktail experience that’s running in North Hollywood at present. Then: immersive theatre creator Michael Bontatibus, whose company Witness we have covered in the past here at NoPro, joins us...

This week on the show we’re joined by Planning Your Escape author and one of the creators of the upcoming Mystery Ave. in Portland, the one and only Laura Hall — who will not be talking about EITHER of those things but instead talking about the Center for Immersive Arts — her project to help preserve key parts of the history of immersive art. That includes the resurrection of the classic Alternate...

This week on the show, Stefanie Frey the Director of Organizing & Mobilization for Actor’s Equity Association — joins us to talk about how Equity — the union for actors and stage managers — has been expanding its membership into places like escape rooms and themed restaurants that touch upon our world of immersive experiences. SHOW NOTES Actor's Equity Association Hosted on Acast. See acast.co...

This week on the show, the Review Crew – in the form of NYC curator Allie Marotta, East Coast Editor at Large Blake Weil, Exec. Editor Emeritus Kathryn Yu, NYC correspondent Penelope Ray, and host Noah Nelson – gather to talk about the end of Sleep No More ’s era defining run in New York City and the last run of shows and parties at the McKittrick Hotel, the show’s venue in Manhattan’s Chelsea nei...

The original plan for this week was for us to have no episode while The Next Stage Immersive Summit was on. Because of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in LA brought about by the wildfires The Next Stage is postponed. We'll have more on the plans for that at a later date. In the meantime check the show notes for how to help those in LA. Show Notes LA Fires: How You Can Help (compiled by Kathryn Yu)...

A quick check in from LA as the fire situation evolves, including updates on The Next Stage Immersive Summit, which at present is still on at the Pasadena Playhouse Jan 17-19. We will check in next week. SHOW NOTES GoFundMe for Suzanne Down to recover from the Eaton Fire Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the show, Parker Sela takes up the host duties to interview Nicole Orabona and Nathan Leigh of CirqueSaw about their remote repertory season consisting of Void Main , a revival of POV: You Are an AI Achieving Consciousness and workshop dates for labRats and just why an online theatre company is going to all the trouble of coding its own platform.  SHOW NOTES CirqueSaw @ WellAtten...

This week we wrap our End of the Year podcasts with our annual gathering of the NoPro Crew to look back at the year that was in immersive and look forward to what might be. Joining us for the chat are NoPro Toronto Curator Katrina Lat, New York Correspondent Nicholas Fortugno, correspondent-at-large Martin Gimenez, and Senior LA Reviewer Kathryn Yu. SHOW NOTES In the Matter of the Death of ‘Tamara...

At the end of every year we pull together a roundtable of journalists covering immersive to look back on what was and this year we’re talking with our colleagues in London, starting with NoPro curator Shelley Snyder, the Voidspace’s Katy Naylor, Immersive Rumors' Graham Fitzgerald, and Franco Milazzo stage critic for Broadway World UK. SHOW NOTES Voidspace Immersive Rumors Franco Milazzo, Broadway...

This week Ilana Gilovich , Chief Storyteller for Emursive Productions , joins me for our first-ever conversation and yes, we get into just what the Chief Storyteller for the production company behind Life And Trust and the McKittrick Hotel – home of Sleep No More in NYC — does and nerd out as only two theatre kids meeting for the first time can do. Happy Holidays: it’s one of THOSE No Pro episodes...

This week Shawn Kittelsen SVP Creative at Skydance Interactive, the creators of the just released Skydance’s Behemoth (available now on PSVR2, Steam VR, and Meta Quest) joins us to talk about the game which puts players into the role of Wren, a lone hunter who sets off for the Forsaken Lands to lift a terrible curse. The only way to do so is by saying the towering gods known as Behemoths. In...

This week we have a delightful doubleheader.  First up we have Ryan Payton , director of Batman: Arkham Shadow . I’ve been following Ryan’s career since he founded his studio Camouflaj back in 2011 back when I was doing stories about the rise of crowdfunding and here we are on the cusp of 2025 talking about the greatest game to be released on the Meta Quest platform so far. In this conversati...

This week we have a doubleheader as first we are joined by Third Rail Project’s Co-Artistic Director Jennine Willlet and musician Coyle Girelli to talk about their new collaboration True Love Forever, which has just opened in NYC. Then Immersive Experience Institute co-founder Kathryn Yu joins me as we break down just how next year’s Next Stage Immersive Summit — coming up Jan 17-19 in Pasadena, C...

On this episode: a preview of our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide with Kathryn Yu, Kevin Gossett, Patrick McLean, and Noah Nelson. Find the perfect gift for the immersive fan in yourself (even if that's just you). SHOW NOTES GIFT GUIDE LINKS Box TWO by Neil Patrick Harris and Theory11 Clue: Treachery at Tudor Mansion The Morrison Game Factory Star Trek: Resurgence Alan Wake 2 Star Wars: Outlaws Life &...

The last time British-Iranian theatre maker Javaad Alipoor joined us was way back in May of 2021 when we talked about Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran — which at the time we said was “an incredible multi-media theatre piece that links a constellation of Big Ideas into an incredibly human story.” His most recent work Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World is just about to w...

After our annual break we are back this week on a double header. First up, the one and only Nick Moran of Phantom Peak will be joining us to talk about the London favorite, which has conjured a Wild West town not far from the Canada Water station. What is in that Canada Water and why are there so many platypuses involved? We WON’T learn the answers to those questions but we will learn all abo...

This week on the show we gather the Review Crew to chat about our various Spooky Season and Autumnal Escapades. Nick Fortugno, Blake Weil, Katrina Lat, Laura Hess, and Patrick McLean join host Noah Nelson as we go coast to coast over to London, and into the wilds of VR in search of chills and thrills. SHOW NOTES The Next Stage Immersive Summit Denver Immersive Invitational Beetlejuice Beetlejuice:...

This week on the show we’re joined by Wesley James and Dallas Nichols of Phoenix based design + build firm LINE LAB for a conversation about building unique immersive environments for places like The Nemesis Club , and Platform 18 and the UnderTow Tiki Bar at Century Grand - all of which have received glowing reviews and accolades. But before we do that we’ll we kick things off with Tia Shearer Ba...

This week we’re joined by Carmel Clavin of Spectacle & Mirth , who just wrapped a tour of two immersive works — J ourney to the Kingdom of Hypnos and City Liminal — to talk about the challenges and opportunities of touring immersive work around the globe through the network of Fringe Festivals and beyond. And we break down the Badge Pricing and On-Sale dates for the 2025 Next Stage Immersive S...

This week we’re climbing The Ladder of success with Terry Pettigrew-Rolapp and Tommy Wallach of Hatch Escapes in Los Angeles as we talk about The Ladder , their long in development new game that turns escape game conventions on their ear and establishes itself as a new can’t miss immersive attraction.  SHOW NOTES The Ladder Hatch Escapes The Immersive Industry Report Surveys The Next Stage Su...