A Quiet Q&A with ‘Whisperlodge’
Co-creators Andrew Hoepfner and Melinda Lauw talk to us about the show’s evolution, casting, essential oils, and the act of giving
The New York hit Whisperlodge, having just finished a turn in the Bay Area, has turned its attention on Los Angeles, with a shock and awe not to be found anywhere within the meditative, spine-tingling walls of its production. Co-Creators Andrew Hoepfner and Melinda Lauw hit the City of Angels with a successful creative workshop; a limited run, customized on-demand ASMR experience (Whispers on Demand); and the Whisperlodge show itself!
ASMR artist Melinda Lauw and Immersive powerhouse Andrew Hoepfner took a break from running Whispers On Demand and setting up for Whisperlodge LA to briefly chat with us over e-mail about ASMR and taking the show on the road.
No Proscenium: For those not still not familiar with the phenomena, can you briefly explain Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR), and how it ended up at the core of the Whisperlodge experience?
Melinda Lauw: ASMR is a phenomenon of the senses in which the nervous system produces a warm, tingling sensation in response to certain visual and sonic stimuli. There’s a huge ASMR community on YouTube, where professional ASMRtists perform sequences to the camera.
Whisperlodge’s origin was a case of the right people coming together at the right time. Andrew had just come off from his immersive theatre production Houseworld, where many audiences purported experiencing ASMR effects within the performance. I was a visual artist, an ASMR researcher, and immersive theatre fan.
We both wanted to experiment with performing ASMR in person and we happened to find each other at the right time.
NP: How much did the show evolve from your initial workshop to its current form?
ML: At first, we really wanted to focus on pure ASMR and sensory triggers, but as we grew, our audiences started to identify characters within our world, and we also realized that we had to strengthen the theatrical elements to provide a meaningful experience to immersive theatre fans and people who are unfamiliar with ASMR. Although there still isn’t a narrative, there is an arc to our 90-minute journey, filled with carefully considered characters, light choreography, and set design.
Andrew Hopefner: We’re tinkerers when it comes to immersive experiences, and so every time we mount Whisperlodge (and sometimes between the 7pm and 9pm shows), we try to improve it. That has meant a lot of adding and a lot of taking away. The show’s gotten much better. A year ago, we’d built this piece for all the ASMR video fans out there, but we realized that it was being performed for my mailing list full of Houseworld attendees, aka immersive theatre fans. Consequently, every month, we’ve nudged Whisperlodge towards being more accessible to all. It’s become less of a faithful reproduction of ASMR videos and more of its own theatrical ritual. We’ve added in little songs and poems and choreography. The ending has gone from a broom bath and rooftop tea and cookies to a plasma ball seance to a blindfolded finish-where-you-started mystery. The audience feedback (via tea and cookies) led us to the much more satisfying ending we have now, which is exactly how we like it to happen.
NP: On the surface, Whisperlodge seems like an easily instanced show; were there any challenges in moving the show between cities? What was the most challenging?
ML: There are huge challenges, and we embarked on our California expansion knowing that it would be a risky experiment. The biggest challenge was not having enough local knowledge — of venues, cast, even simple things like knowing which neighborhood to set up in. In the initial stages, we relied on the generous advice from the other immersive creators in the region, for which we are very thankful.
AH: On the surface, it seems like it should be easy to move this piece around. For example, there are certain minutes in Whisperlodge that only require two people and a Q-tip. But the sum of all these manageable Whisperlodge tasks, split between two people, amounted to two and a half months of consuming work for Melinda and myself. I imagine that anyone who’s worked on immersive theatre will be able to relate. Making immersive theatre is auditioning, graphic design, ticketing admin, venue-hunting, soundtrack composing, customer service, prop shopping, script-writing and distribution, publicizing… The most challenging part was keeping the tour within its budget. Often, its been the New York City friend hook-ups that have made the difference. When you go to a different city, you’re a little bit at the mercy of market rates. In places like SF, those rates aren’t so merciful.
NP: Has there been a difference in the audience’s responses between cities?
AH: It’s hard to say. We work ourselves to the bone on these four day Whisperlodge weekends, and in the end, 40 to 80 people get to see the piece each time. So if we notice something in common between three New York guests or three LA guests, does that say something about the city, or was it just by chance? In San Francisco, we heard more concern from our cast about guests being allergic to essential oils. Are San Franciscans more sensitive? We added a little oil disclaimer to our script, and now one of our LA cast wants to leave the line out and allow more magic and mystery. Are LA attendees more tough or more risky than SF attendees? It’s anyone’s guess. Our ratio of ASMR fans was noticeably higher in San Francisco, but I think it’s simply an effect of the Buzzfeed video that came out in July.
ML: The response has been great overall, but we’ve seen a much stronger demand in Los Angeles. This is probably due to the larger pool of immersive fans, which also speaks to the work No Proscenium has been doing.
NP: What do you look for when casting a show like this?
ML: We look for people who are are gentle, calm, and attuned to their senses. Our guides embrace intimacy, touch, and human connection. They are also often interested in the healing arts. Many of our guides dabble in yoga, meditation, or reiki.
AH: Gentleness and softness is important when delivering live ASMR in Whisperlodge. Nurturing is important. Being able to slow down is helpful. We like a diverse range of ages, ethnicities, body types, and genders in our cast. We like to work with beautiful and unique people. We like to work with reliable people. We like people with immersive theatre experience. A good whisper is important.
NP: What did you learn from mounting Whisperlodge that would be useful for anyone looking to create an immersive production?
AH: In all three of my years making immersive theatre, including Whisperlodge, I’ve learned that there is so much value in dim light. Dim light transports people to a different world, whether it’s a fictional world like Houseworld, or simply a heightened environment, like Whisperlodge. It makes it easier for the audience to let go of their inhibitions and feel comfortable. We just moved into the LA venue this afternoon, and a big chunk of our build time is going toward blacking out all of these windows.
With Whisperlodge, I learned about cast to audience ratio. It will probably be a long time before I ever make another piece that is 1 performer to 1 guest. The one-on-one is a beautiful ingredient of immersive theatre. Maybe it’s the thing that made me fall in love with immersive theatre. But it doesn’t need to be one-on-one from start to finish. A giant one-on-one is usually not a sustainable performance model.
Lastly, I learned through Whisperlodge to be patient with a performance and see the work through. There was a part of me that was ready to turn the page on Whisperlodge after our November performances, but the performance wasn’t complete yet, and it hadn’t reached its audience. I’m so glad we went deeper. It took us to California, and it’s been a wondrous trip.
ML: I have learned that it is possible for immersive experiences to be kind and loving. Many immersive experiences I have personally been to inspire the audience to wake up, figure out the mystery, open all the doors and actively seek out the story. However, in Whisperlodge, we’ve managed to attain a heightened awareness within a relaxing, meditative state, providing genuine care and personal attention. It’s an act of giving, and our guests come to receive that gift.
NP: If you could re-launch any “traditional” theatrical experience (for example Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, RENT, The Crucible, Cats, West Side Story, etc.) and base it around an ASMR-lead format, what would it be?
AH: The Phantom of the Library. It would have lots of whispering and page-turning.
ML: I don’t think I would want to ASMR-ify any traditional theatre pieces, but the other day, we were joking with our cast about creating a ‘Screamlodge’ — a whispered experience of all the cringe-worthy sounds and nasty sensory triggers. It’d be a test of endurance, a haunt for your senses.
Whisperlodge will take place October 5–8 in Los Angeles in a sold out run in Highland Park; the show returns to NYC October 19–22 in an undisclosed location in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Tickets are $70 and can be purchased online.
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