The No Proscenium Podcast

Like it says on the tin: a special bonus episode all about the ARGs of The Batman and how they have, and haven't, woven themselves into the fabric of the movies they've promoted. Michael Andersen of ARGN.com joins host Noah Nelson to nerd out on the still ongoing ARG for The Batman (the main url for which is rataalada.com ), the history of Batman movie ARGS -- why so serious? -- and Noah derails t...

We're joined by Diana Williams, Kamal Sinclair, and Yasmin Elayat of the Peabody Award's new Digitial and Interactive jury to discuss the new category of the prestigious awards ahead of the reveal of the Legacy award winners at the Peabody ceremony on March 24th . This is a major milestone for a wide range of creative projects that until now have fallen outside the Awards mandate. Plus: Headl...

The Review Crew takes another trip—this time to Little Sodaburg. Fresh off a playthrough of  The Traveler’s Guide to Little Sodaburg , Kevin Gossett, Allie Marotta, Blake Weil, and Patrick McLean discuss this delightful escape game. They chat about what makes it work so well, how it taps into the rare brand of comedy in immersive theatre, and more. Fair warning: The Crew talks generally about...

Like it says on the tin: NoPro's Executive Editor Kathryn Yu and Publisher Noah Nelson share their impressions of some of the offerings in this year's SXSW XR Experience field. Included in this episode: Madam Pirate: Becoming A Legend Surviving 9/11 - 27 Hours Under The Rubble On The Morning You Wake (to the End of the World) Gumball Dreams Minimum Mass & More Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pr...

This week's doubleheader goes deep into live immersive again with a talk with Josh Jacobs (CEO) & Jenny Weinbloom (Head of Studio) of Impact Museums , who are part of the partnership that has brought Immersive Van Gogh around the country and have plans that dive into everything from immersive theatre to STEM museum style experiences. [7:20] Then we check in with Eric Shamlin, head of entertain...

This time out we check in with two of New York City's most inventive immersive creators. Cynthia von Buhler of Speakeasy Dollhouse has created a slew of intriguing immersive theatre pieces over the years, and none is more storied than The Illuminati Ball which returns this April in an intimate new edition. We settle in for a long talk with von Buhler – our first – about the upcoming revival of the...

This week, the Crew — Kevin Gossett, Kathryn Yu, and Blake Weil — are ready to take you on a tour of Murderville . After checking out Netflix’s new “immersive adjacent” show, they discuss how immersive it is, what kind of immersive audience members the celebrities on the show might be, and whether it works. Then they try to figure out if future seasons could learning anything from immersive theatr...

This week, architect turned XRchitect Alex Coulombe swings through to talk about Heavenue , the new XR performance platform he's developing that made its debut with a Christmas Carol performance at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville this past year. Heavenue leverages the powerful tech that is making game streaming possible to bring audiences into more visually rich XR worlds without having to inves...

The best-laid plans can go right off the rails, and in this episode, the Crew - Kevin Gossett, Laura Hess, Patrick McLean, and Blake Weil - jump onto the tracks to detail some of their recent run-ins of when designs, expectations, and audiences straight up fail to click. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 2022 NoPro Audience Awards are here! This week's show is a recording of the reveal of all the winners of this year's Immies, as voted on by our readers & listeners. For a complete list of nominees, check out the website . You can also find a collection of AMAs on our Discord featuring award nominees and winners. Speaking of the Discord, we're launching a Book Club in its hallowed halls . T...

This time out: Kevin Gossett and Noah Nelson jump online for the immersive game En Route , while Edward Mylechreest and Leah Davis return to the McKittrick Hotel to haunt Sleep No More [20:37], which has returned to New York City, retooled for the New Normal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NoPro's Executive Editor Kathryn Yu is joined by Danny Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman of Tender Claws to discuss the recently released Virtual Virtual Reality 2 , the sequel to their cult hit VVR. [6:28] The game dropped this week on the Meta Quest and Rift , and is scheduled to arrive on Steam VR later this month. Then Robert Motum, creator of the Site-Specific Theatre Bot on Twitter, d...

This week starts off with Allie Marotta & Kathryn Yu comparing notes on their experiences with  Bottom of the Ocean , diving deep into explaining the secrets they were asked to tell sea shells (trying saying THAT five times fast!) Then Blake Weil & Patrick McLean do an even deeper dive into the book  Turn Your Life Into Art: Lessons in Psychomagic from the San Francisco Undergrou...

This week we catch up with Jen Davis-Wilson, aka Fionna on VRChat, and her efforts as part of the VRC Prefabs World Builder Community to curate some of the most interesting worlds out of the thousands upon thousands created for the social VR platform. The ongoing product of which you can find at NoPro's sister site Everything Immersive . Plus: headlines from a busy news week and a heartfelt thank...

The Crew is back! This week Kevin Gossett & Patrick McLean tackle Blaseball 's latest experiments as Kevin attempts to make a fan out of Patrick. Then Laura Hall, Leah Davis, and Blake Weil lead the discussion [12:00] about Finding Satoshi (no, not that Satoshi), an NHK documentary about the last loose end of the legendary Perplex City ARG which took over a decade to solve. Note: spoiler warni...

This week on the show a trio of interviews with the people behind some amazing projects. First up, Erfan Saadati, co-creator of Child of Empire , joins us to talk about this stunning VR piece showing at Sundance's New Frontier that explores the human cost of the Partition of India: one of the largest forced migrations in human history. [6:00] Then Doug Jacobson, Athena Demos, and Andrew Barrett fr...

This week director Joe Hunting talks with us about his new documentary, We Met In Virtual Reality , which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival [1:29]; we learn about the Black Immersive Creators Grant from two of its board members, Dana McGarr and Risa Puno [16:00]; and NoPro's own Kathryn Yu drops in for a podcast version of our Sundance Diaries feature [42:55]. Associate Producer: Parker...

This week on the show we talk with Shari Frilot, Chief Curator of the New Frontier at the Sundance Film Festival about this year's line-up and return to the virtual Spaceship. [3:20] Then friend of the show Kent Bye drops in to chat with us about the goings on at his podcast the Voices of VR, including a special series about the IDFA Doc Lab, and his interview with philosopher David Chalmers. [38:...

It's the end of a year that wasn't all it could be, but still: we gather members of the Review Crew to have a rambly chat about a very weird year. With NoPro Arts Editor Laura Hess, LA Reviews Editor Kevin Gossett, and East Coast Editor-At-Large Blake Weil. Hosted by Noah Nelson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's that time of year when critics search their souls and do the impossible: make lists of what they liked the most. We make the Review Crew do that too, with a top-three Shows & Experiences (which we mercifully leave unranked) and a Best Moment, which expands the possibilities to work that wasn't released in the year that was. Okay, come on, you know the drill. This year we have three segmen...

As we head towards the end of the year we mix the format up a bit. Okay, a LOT. This is basically two episodes in one, first with our annual tradition of a journalist's roundtable with Todd Martens of The LA Times and Scott Stein of CNET joining host Noah Nelson of, ah, us, for an hour-long talk. Sorrynotsorry. [9:20] Then our very first guest EVER, Annie Saunders, drops in for a long-overdue chat...

Two meaty interviews on this episode. First, we talk with Vallejo Gantner currently with  ONX Studio  an XR accelerator in New York City powered by  Onassis Foundation  USA (for whom he previously served as Artistic and Executive Director) and  New INC . We get into the state of performing arts in XR with Gantner, who was the Artistic Director of NYC’s Performance Space 12...

This week our best-laid plans go sideways, so its a very good thing that Kevin Gossett & Laura Hess just happened to go to Arcane – the Secret Cinema show in LA based on the Riot Games animated series of the same name that's based on their own video game... wait wait... need to catch my breath... okay... video game League of Legends that is one of the top Netflix series of the year worldwide....

This week, X Reality Safety Initiative ( XRSI ) founder Kavya Pearlman joins us to talk about next week's XR Safety Week – a series of curated and community-powered events diving into issues of privacy and safety in the emerging metaverse. Then the Co-CEO's of Meow Wolf , Ali Rubinstein and Carl Christensen, talk to us about the immersive entertainment company's big year. Plus: the Pick of th...

This week Leah, Laura, and Patrick pull back the curtain on Savage Hall , a murder-mystery that folds in larp, meticulously crafted audio, and the power of Zoom to send its players back to WWII-era London. Then Noah and special guest, actress Jenapher Zheng, compare notes on their wildly different experiences at Secret Cinema Presents Arcane (based on the Riot Games series airing on Netflix). [23:...