The No Proscenium Podcast

This week we continue our annual end of year tradition of inviting our colleagues to a round table to look back at what was. For 2023 we're joined by Sabina Graves of i09, Todd Martens of the LA Times, and Scott Stein of CNET to talk about they year we’ve had in immersive — both on the live and digital side — how folks in media outside our field see it, and where they hope this is all going in the...

This week on the show we've got three segments with members of the NoPro Review Crew checking in from across North America to share parts of their "Best Of" lists for 2023. Joining us are: Edward Mylechreest (NYC), Nicholas Fortugno (NYC), Blake Weil (Philly/East Coast At Large), Katrina Lat (Toronto), Laura Hess (Arts Editor), Patrick McLean (Chicago/Remote Editor), Martin Gimenez (At Large), Kev...

This week on the show we’re joined by Co-Founder and Senior Creative Director of Meow Wolf, Caity Kennedy;   Sr. Art Director of Mighty Coconut Don Carson, and returning guest Lucas Martell , founder of Mighty Coconut and creator of Walkabout Mini Golf — aka NoPro’s favorite social VR game. Why? Because of the recently released Walkabout: Meow Wolf expansion, silly. It’s the Reese’s Peanut Bu...

This week: a special trip out to COSM's test center at the University of Utah campus for an EXCLUSIVE interview with Ricardo Romaneiro, the latest artist collaborator to be announced by the immersive media company. We also talk with COSM CEO Jeb Terry and the head of COSM's Studios & Labs Neil Carty about the content and strategy they've developed for the launch of the Hollywood Park experienc...

Long time listeners and readers know that we’re big fans of the dungeon crawling extravaganza Demeo and its follow up Demeo Battles , both of which are part of the Demeo Action Role Playing System, and which are available now on Steam (PC + VR), Meta Quest and Pico (VR).  Joining us on the pod today is Gustav Stenmark, producer of Demeo Battles for Resolution Games the Stockholm-based ga...

This week on the show: we tip toe through the our Holiday 2023 Gift Guide with esteemed members of the NoPro staff — Katrina Lat, Nicholas Fortugno, Laura Hess, and Patrick McLean — bringing a wide variety of options from the pretty affordable to the WAIT HOW MUCH? SHOW NOTES NoPro’s 2023 Gift Guide for Immersive Fans & Makers Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week - NoPro arts editor Laura Hess hops into the host chair for a conversation with New England curator Leah Davis and London curator Shelley Snyder. The topic at hand? A look at Installation art and how different environments impact audience engagement. For this time out the Crew will focus on  Outernet’s NOW Building installations in London and works at MASS MOCA in Western Massachuse...

This episode was recorded LIVE at The Roguelike Tavern in Burbank. Joining us were Matt Bamberg-Johnson and Chris Porter of LA’s The Speakeasy Society who came to share word about Winter Fest OC , coming up later this month in Costa Mesa and featuring all new immersive work from the beloved LA theatre collective. Then we pull John McCormick , owner of The Roguelike Tavern, away from the bar to tel...

This week on the show we’re taking a look at SPOOKY SEASON here in Los Angeles with members of the LA Review Crew — Kevin Gossett, our LA Reviews editor, No Pro Arts Editor and Squirrel Mode practitioner Laura Hess, and after years of being our roving correspondent Martin Gimenez joins the podcast for the first time. On the docket: Reign of Terror , Haunted Hayride , Halloween Horror Nights , Knot...

This week our guests are Barry Threw, the Executive and Artistic Director of Gray Area and Vanessa Chang, curator of the CripTech Metaverse Lab and director of programs at Leonardo . Both are here to talk about the upcoming GRAY AREA FESTIVAL coming up in San Francisco OCTOBER 19th — 22nd of which the Metaverse Lab is a part. It’s a great conversation about tech, art, access, and the changing cult...

I’ve gathered a special panel filled with members of our team and community from across the U.S. all to say farewell to Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser , the AHEAD OF ITS TIME immersive experience created by Walt Disney Imagineering that the Disney company closed at the end of last month in Orlando after a year and a half of voyages. Joining us this week are theme park and Infinite Rabbit Holes de...

This week on the show, Jessica Kubzansky , the writer & director of Measure STILL for Measur e, which is currently in its premiere run at Boston Court Pasadena joins us to talk about making a site-specific meta-theatrical play out of one of Shakespeare’s problem plays about a very problematic theatre production. Yes, that’s right, it’s a theatre nerd episode and we really, really go there.&nbs...

This week on the show we talk with NoPro's Toronto curator Katrina Lat about her coverage of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023, where she caught 57 of the 3553 shows that sprung up around the city this August. You can check out her written coverage in the show notes. Plus: in the back matter host Noah J. Nelson goes long on LA's Angel of Light & Knott's Scary Farm's 50th Anniversary. SHO...

This week an old fashioned double header as we cover two very different events in the Southland. First, Carey Lovelace, Founder of Visions 2030 will be on hand to talk about Vision 2030 Earth Edition Festival, which is unfolding on the campus of CalArts in Valencia. Then Sarah Mann of Madmann’s Playground and performer & poet Katie Rediger join us to talk about Van Helsing’s Dracula, their upc...

This week on the show we’re joined by Terry Pettigrew-Rolapp & Tommy Wallach, the owners of Hatch Escapes and the creators of Lab Rat, here in Los Angeles, the boxed puzzle story experience Mother of Frankenstein , and the long anticipated The Ladder , also in LA and on the set of which we spoke with the pair. SHOW NOTES Hatch Escapes (Lab Rat, The Nest, The Ladder) Mother of Frankenstein Ever...

Venice Immersive, the biggest festival showcase of augmented & virtual reality projects in the world, has returned as part of the Venice International Film Festival and so too has our annual check-in with programmers Michel Reilhac and Liz Rosenthal to talk not only about the festival's line-up but the state of digital immersive as a whole. Show Notes Venice Immersive Lineup Sen (Venice I...

Over the past year immersive creator Jessica Creane has become one of my favorite people to talk shop with. The creator of Chaos Theory and the co-creator, with Yannick Trapman-O’Brien, of Fair Trade , Creane’s new work – Tea Party at the End of the World — will debut in the Philadelphia Fringe next month. In this episode of NoPro we talk about how that show is coming together, tackling themes lik...

This week Mike Michaels of Austin’s Eureka Room talks to us about making a room in his house as bright as the sun, roadside attractions, and Austin’s immersive scene. We have a lot of fun. SHOW NOTES The Eureka Room IRL Experience Creators Society (Austin) Huis Ten Bosch Theme Park Mike's write up of Huis Ten Bosch Everything Immersive This Week (LinkedIn Version) Everything Immersive This Week (E...

This week Nick Fortugno, The Director of Gaming Pathways at City College of New York , slips into the host chair to interview an artist he’s collaborated with for years now: filmmaker and Director of Columbia University’s Digital Storytelling Lab   Lance Weiler, whose critically acclaimed immersive storytelling experience Where There’s Smoke is currently running at ArtYard in Frenchtown,...

This week Curtis Hickman co-founder and chief creative officer of The VOID is here to talk about his new — and quite excellent book: Hyper Reality - The Art of Designing Impossible Experiences . Join us for a quick, action-packed conversation that covers how magic and virtual reality interact, the differences between story telling and story building , and the role Dungeons & Dragons plays in t...

This week Keram Malicki-Sanchez of VRTO and FIVARS is with us to talk about the recently wrapped VRTO — the Spatial Media World Conference in Toronto, and of course we get into live performance in VR, the cutting edge of haptics, and the true identity of Shakespeare. Wait… what was that last one? SHOW NOTES VRTO FIVARS Titan Haptics Games by Stitch Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance: Reasonable Doubt a...

Eight years. 400 Episodes. This week we are marking the anniversary by having NoPro team members Allie Marotta ( our NYC Curator), Kevin Gossett (LA reviews editor), Patrick McLean (Chicago Curator), Leah Davis (New England curator), Laura Hess (Arts Editor) and Parker Sela, (associate producer of this very podcast) join us. On this team episode we look back on the crew's "moment before" joining t...

This week a very special VERY LONG episode of the podcast featuring guest host Mikhael Tara Garver, Head of Culture House Immersive and Director of Immersive Experience for the Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser who is here to interview myself, Kathryn Yu, Graham Wetterhahn, Jessica Creane, and Nick Fortugno my shipmates for the absolutely incredible surprise trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando to h...

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PostCurious founder and lead game designer Rita Orlov is joined by writer Lauren Bello (Apple TV's Foundation , Netflix's Sandman ) who talk about their collaboration on Threads of Fate, the revised version of PostCurious' very first game The Tale of Ord. Chicago Curator & Remote Experiences Editor Patrick McLean guest hosts. SHOW NOTES PostCurious Threads of Fate The Morrison Game Factory “Tr...