The No Proscenium Podcast

This week on the show — you’ve got two MIGHTY SEGMENTS featuring members of the Senior Staff of NoPro — Arts Editor Laura Hess, Senior Editor Leah Davis, LA Reviews Editor Kevin Gossett, East Coast Curator at Large Blake Weil all join us in part one [6:37], and then London Curator Shelley Snyder and Chicago Curator Patrick McLean join us for part two [57:23]. SHOW NOTES NoPro's Best Immersive Mome...

This week we sit down for one-on-one talks with members of our Review Crew to dive into their favorite moments & experiences of 2022. Each team member covers their favorite moment and one of their top shows of the year. You can find an expanded written, but not identical, version of this at our website. RUN ORDER Shelley Snyder, London Curator [6:42] Kevin Gossett, LA Reviews Editor [19:06] Ka...

This week on the show — first we take a trip out to the South Coast Botanic Garden the site of Moment Factory’s ASTRA LUMINA, where with talk with Jonathan St-Onge and Thomas Pintal of Moment Factory and Isabel Solano Global Vice President of Live Experiences at Fever, who are co-presenting Astra Lumina in LA. Then we chat with Andy Barnes of London's Immersive Experience Network about what this c...

This week on the show — we’re sharing with you the audio from the panel from the NYC Immersive Meetup hosted last month at Andrew Hoepfner’s GYMNOPEDIE that was moderated by NoPro’s New York Curator Allie Marotta. The panel features: Alex Chmaj - co-owner of Future Proof Evan Neiden - Candle House Collective Andrew Hoepfner - Houseworld Immersive Jessica Creane - IKantKoan Risa Puno - Installation...

This week on the show — we’re taking a quick trip through the 2022 NoPro Gift Guide with No Pro East Coast Editor at large Blake Weil. Blake and I have pulled seven items from the Gift Guide to talk about including video games, boxed experiences, and live events you should definitely treat you and yours to. Show Notes The 2022 NoPro Gift Guide Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more inform...

First up, Scarlett Kim , Associate Artistic Director of Innovation and Strategy, of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival joins us to talk about the QUILLS FEST — where immersive tech and live performance come out to play — which is running now until the end of the month. We dive into why one of the United States' best known theatre companies is commissioning XR performance works. (5:45) Then Greg Lomba...

This week on the show — Felix Barrett, the Artistic Director of Punchdrunk is here to talk about The Burnt City — currently playing in London — but that’s not all. We get into the state of the London immersive scene, LARPS, Punchdrunk’s own experiments with immersive gaming, that time they created a DOCTOR WHO event for school kids, video games, and the origins of Punchdrunk itself. I tell you str...

Jeb Terry, the CEO of Cosm – a new company with surprisingly deep roots – joins host Noah Nelson to talk about their plans for bringing large scale immersive experiences, powered by dome projection tech, first to their flagship location being built in LA's Hollywood Park and then beyond. Thing is, the company has the tech stack to back it up, being the technology providers for some of the biggest...

40 Watts From Nowhere , an experiential documentary from Mister & Mischief ( Escape From Godot , The Builder & The Dove ) was the absolute highlight of this year's Without Walls festival in San Diego for the NoPro team. Now creators Andy & Jeff Crocker are bringing the show, which puts audience members into the shoes of Sue Carpenter the real-life proprietor of pirate radio station KBL...

This week on the show — we’ve gathered together a journalists roundtable to talk about this week’s Meta Connect event — and specifically the keynote address that introduced the Quest Pro headset. Joining are Scott Stein of CNET — who had some serious hands on time with the new device — Todd Martens of the LA Times, who covers games and themed entertainment for LA’s daily newspaper, and the one and...

This week on the show — it’s a two-hander as Los Angeles Reviews Editor and Review Crew captain Kevin Gossett and host Noah Nelson trade notes on LA’s Spooky Season so far — covering Universal Halloween Horror Nights , Knott’s Scary Farm , the Haunted Hayride and a few asides along with shop talk about what makes these things click for both aficionados and the more causal spooky season goers. SHOW...

This week on the show — we chat with members of the creative team of Nightfall at Old Tucson — Erik Blair and Michael Thomas-Visgar – about how they’re transforming the classic haunted amusement park attraction into an immersive playground this year. Then Justin Fix of JFI Productions swings by to talk The Willows , which is returning to LA with its first Spooky Season edition, and we do what Just...

This week on the show — Yannick Trapman-O’Brien, creator of the beloved TELELIBRARY is here to talk about the TWO shows he has in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival —  Fair Trade , a collaboration with Jessica Creane, and Undersigned  — which is also making its way to New York City soon. [8:25] Then David Thomas will be here to help us take a deep dive into The DIG — The Denver Immersive Gathering —...

This week on the show — choreographer and creator Koryn Wicks is here to talk about the upcoming run of her show CASTING , a surreal, satirical take on the casting process that is having its first public run this month at Thymele Arts in Los Angeles after emerging as the winner of the 2019 LA Immersive Invitational, and in classic NoPro form we get into some theory while we’re at it. [5:00] Then W...

This week on the show — Andrew Scoville, the director of THEATER OF THE MIND , from creators David Byrne & Mala Gaonkar, which opens next week in Denver under the auspices of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Off-Center program is here to talk about the show, and our Venice Immersive coverage continues [27:20] with Céline Tricart, creator of the VR experience FIGHT BACK , which explor...

We kick things off this week with the creative duo Lola Tango , that's Jessica Kantor & Eve Weston, whose latest work is the exhibit Be Water My Friend which explores the life and mind of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, currently on display at Seattle's Wing Luke museum. Then NoPro's Patrick McLean stops by for a long chat with host Noah Nelson about what they've been playing, together and s...

Our annual check-in on the Venice Immersive part of the Venice International Film Festival means we get to talk with Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac  once more, and there's a LOT to unpack with 43 projects from 19 Countries and 32 VRChat worlds in the mix. Then we settle in for a chat with Eric Kohn of Indiewire who had a banger of a column last week " Embrace the Metaverse! Only, Please, Ig...

This week: another double header — we start with Keith Tralins and Kyle Prestenback of Hunt A Killer who stop by to talk about the mystery company’s extensive line up of boxed experiences, and the live action origins — and future — of the company. [2:50] Then returning to the pod is one of our favorite people to talk immersive with designer and director David Ruzicka, whose latest work was ex...

This week we have a not-so-subtle theme: gaming outside the home. When that's your theme there's no one better to kick things off with than Kevin Williams of Spider Entertainment and The Stinger Report , the Global Amusement & Attractions news service, who shares his insight into the state of VR in the location based entertainment sector as evidenced by the arrival of Sandbox VR in London. The...

They're Baaaack. The Crew – Kevin Gossett (LA Reviews Editor), Laura Hess (Arts Editor), Leah Davis (New England Curator), and Blake Weil (East Coast Editor at Large) – answer the call of three phone based shows... but first Leah travels to LA and encounters The Nest before it ends it run (1:00). Those Phone Shows: I Cut Myself Shaving and I Bled So Much 11:40 Lennox Mutual  24:55 Our Options...

Two great interviews this week with two luminaries of immersive. First: writer Margaret Kerrison, whose work includes Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind , joins us to talk about her new book Immersive Storytelling For Real and Imagined Worlds: A Writer's Guide . This is a must-read for everyone who makes immersive work. Period, full stop. Then Charlie Miller...

We settle in for a long chat about storytelling and the art of immersion with Frank Rose, the man who literally wrote the book on the subject. Frank's latest book, 'The Sea We Swim in: How Stories Work In A Data Driven World' takes center stage and we also touch on his work with Columbia University's Digital Storytelling Lab and their annual Digital Dozen list. Show Notes The Art of Immersion The...

This week on the show: Chris Alderson of Polyarc Games joins us to talk about the MetaQuest release of Moss: Book II and what the studio learned about creating virtual characters you can’t help but form a bond with. [6:30] And Félix Lajeunesse of Felix & Paul Studios is here to bring us up to speed on the latest with their collaboration with NASA — the final episode Space Explorers: The ISS Ex...

For our 350th episode we bring on members of the Senior Staff at NoPro: Leah Davis (New England), Patrick McLean (Chicago), Blake Weil (East Coast), and Kevin Gossett to talk about the state of immersive in their neck of the woods. It's a big sprawling convo that finds us diving deep on installation art, the mainstreaming of immersive experiences, LARPing, and XR. Hosted by Noah Nelson. Hosted on...

For years now, first in a backyard and then inside an early 20th century storage building, one of the most unique immersive creations in the world has been one of Los Angeles' treasures: Scout Expedition Co.'s The Nest . Created by themed entertainment designers Jarrett Lantz and Jeff Leinenveber, The Nest has both delighted audiences and broken our hearts since it first turned up, almost like a r...