NoPro Critic’s Picks for 2020
The staff weighs in with their favorite immersive shows and experiences of the year
The best part about having a large team of writers with varied opinions is that no two of us will have the exact same list of works that impacted us the most or exemplified what is so powerful about immersive work.
With that in mind, what follows are the personal picks from our writing staff for their favorite shows and experiences of 2020, a year that had some bright spots in spite of the sheer darkness of it all.
Here’s perhaps the two best ways to use this: the first is to check it for things you may have missed and can still connect with (or hope/ask for a remount of); the second is to calibrate your own tastes to our critics’ and thus know whose compass points in the same direction as yours — or who reliably disagrees with you so much that it is basically True South. That’s what I’ve always done with movie reviewers, and it reliably lead me to some of the best film going experiences of my life. — Noah Nelson, Publisher
[Check out the first part of our End of Year series: ‘Unforgettable: Moments That Defined Immersive in 2020.’]
Noah Nelson, Publisher
The Sleepover — The Cricklewood Theatre Company in association with KatNip Productions
Charming from the start. That’s how I’d describe The Sleepover. It’s what I thought when I saw the live action prototype a year ago, and it’s what I thought as I fired up ye olde web browser and found myself in an interactive video that acted as a prologue to the Zoom based show.
In fact, until the “curtain” raised on the Zoom, and I found myself talking with Mikey (Janson Lalich), I didn’t even realize this was a version of what I had seen IRL.
Not a lot of creators dare to make comedy in immersive, there’s just something that seems to frighten people off. Which is a shame, as there are few things better than finding yourself wrapped up in hijinks with larger than life characters. I could have played with these characters and the rest of the audience all night, but alas, The Sleepover only lasted an hour and change. Here’s hoping we haven’t see the last of this troupe.
ETERNAL — DARKFIELD RADIO
DARKFIELD RADIO has ruined me for stereophonic sound.
ETERNAL, which was originally developed for Dublin’s Bram Stoker Festival so you can probably guess what it is about, does such a masterful job of transforming the physical space around you through the suggestive power of spatial audio that it is at times, in the word of a friend, “too real.”
After finally experiencing it, I not only wrote a rave review, but I sought out my darkling friends (yeah, I’m one, I just play a normie on the radio) and implored them to buy a ticket. None of them were disappointed, even if at least one was genuinely freaked out. In my own experience I was so tempted to pull the sheets off of my face — ETERNAL requires you to be in your bed at a specific time of night — and open my eyes that I almost thought I wouldn’t get through it.
But I did, and promptly spent the next few hours playing video games with headphones on in order to stay away from my bedroom. As I did, I noticed how lacking the sound design on the latest, hottest video game was. Even with all the bells and whistles of Dolby Atmos and THX Spatial Audio turned on the designers of these games don’t seem to be pushing things the way that DARKFIELD is.
Star Wars Squadrons — EA Motive
All my life I’ve wanted one thing: to drop into the cockpit of an X-Wing and fly sorties against the Empire.
Years ago, at the first E3 where software for the prototype Oculus Rift was being demo-ed behind closed doors, I talked my way into the room where the makers of EVE Online were showing the flight simulator game they had made. It was my first taste of VR since the 90’s, when things were even clunkier than they are now.
In that moment I was so excited because someone had finally made the X-Wing/Wing Commander style game I had longed for. But it would be years until the “real thing” was ready. Sure, there was a prototype experience a could of years back for the Playstation VR, but a full X-Wing vs. Tie Fighter VR project only hit this year.
I played Squadrons on console before I played it in VR. I was mostly terrible at it, barely being able to keep from being dead last in multiplayer. Suffering though endless deaths in the campaign. Demoralizing.
I didn’t expect much more of myself when I finally plugged in all the pieces required to get it up and running on a Quest linked to a PC. I certainly didn’t expect to suddenly be as skilled as Wedge Antilles the second I was dropped into multiplayer — vaping two Imps within 30 seconds of loading into a match in media res, and then leading my squad with 14 out of 30 kills in the next session.
What was happening?
Turns out that flying ships in virtual volumes of space is a hell of a lot different from staring at a flat screen and trying to chase pixels across a frame. It calls on different parts off the brain and if the experience is constructed properly produces drastically different results from the pew-pew-pew of conventional video games.
As far as I’m concerned, this is why VR was invented.
By the by: General Syndulla and I are looking for a few good pilots for Starbird Squadron, and it doesn’t cost much to throw in with the New Republic. (The game is constantly on sale.)
The Book of Distance — Randall Okita/National Film Board of Canada
Randall Okita’s The Book of Distance is the best immersive theatre show I’ve experienced in years. It just happens to be accessible on VR headsets.
I’m talking about the form — a series of narrated vignettes reveals the details of a true story that we navigate through light (virtual) physical interaction and traversal of space — and content. Said content being the hidden story of Okita’s grandfather’s journey from pre-WWII Hiroshima to Canada and then an internment camp during the war. It’s the kind of story that we all need to bear witness to, in order to understand the ways in which the past is still in a dark conversation with the present.
Have tissues standing by when you experience it. You may need to wipe the headset down.
Fire Season — Monica Miklas, Capital W
In a year when the vast majority of immersive and experiential work was online, the few in-person productions stand out. They do in many dimensions, the first question being “Was it done safely?” and the second being “Was it worth the risk of putting yourself out into the world in the first place?”
Capital W’s Fire Season did such a stellar job answering the first question that it largely made the second one moot. A physically distanced, self-guided exploration of a piece of the Santa Monica Mountains famously burned over in the 2018 fires, narrated live by writer-performer Monica Miklas, Fire Season was a twist on the kind of work that Spalding Gray used to do and Mike Daisey still purses: the theatrical essay.
Miklas’ work is lyrical in nature, made all the moreso by being in nature. It connects us to both the fragility of any given moment and the eternal dimension of places that have seen change over eons and will be here long after we are gone.
To be alive is to be vulnerable. To be subject to the fires of change and currents of time that are beyond our ken. In a year that has taken so much from so many of us, Fire Season stood as a signal, a beacon of why we do what we do. Not just as writers, but as people.
Allie Marotta, NYC Correspondent
The Telelibrary — Yannick Trapman-O’Brien
The Telelibrary is an outstanding piece, I was so impressed by it that I am still raving about it several months later. I think what makes The Telelibrary so unique is the combination of the innovation of the format and such a genius and compassionate performance by Trapman-O’Brien. This piece has explored the full extent of what is possible to do on a simple phone call, and in doing so has discovered and developed some really clever ways to create connection. The Telelibrary is everything anyone could have asked for from an “indoor kids” performance: it’s fun, smart, crisp, and created with care.
claws— candlehouse collective
claws is one of those performances that you just have to talk to someone about after. In general, I am a fan of the work Candle House Collective has done in the past, but claws was something a little different. This piece feels urgent, high stakes, and a little scary, and it depends on audience decision-making, so the immersion factor is surprisingly high for a phone conversation. Add in the themes of morals, judgment, and internalized fear and it makes for an almost anxiety-inducing (but in a good way) experience.
#txtshow (on the internet), Brian Feldman
#txtshow (on the internet) is the perfect piece for the current state of society: it’s utter chaos and not much makes sense, but only because it’s all in the hands of the audience. I really enjoyed the recklessness of this piece, and it was really nice to see something that felt like performance art being successfully translated into remote entertainment. While the actual content of the show might not be very sensical, Feldman’s performance is always a winner, and if you lean into the absurdity of it all, you might just find some meaning.
Eschaton — Chorus Productions
I think Eschaton is the closest remote translation of the “sandbox” performance style that so many immersive theatregoers love, so this was exciting to see. Add in sultry performances, mysterious clues, and surprises sprinkled throughout, and it feels almost like the real thing. Although I found the narrative side of Eschaton frustrating, I really admire the work they did in pioneering the way creatives use Zoom as a tool. Plus, the few times I have been, I have always loved the wild variety and insane talent of the performers and have found that enough to keep me invested.
A Call From The Resistance — Capital W
This piece was the one this season that took me by surprise. I was kind of meh going in, maybe because I had engaged with so much remote performance already, or maybe because I wasn’t in the right headspace for an experience, but once I got into it a little deeper, I realized how special A Call From The Resistance is. The performer/facilitator was able to engage with empathy, thoughtfulness, and creative finesse, which provided a subtle layer of experiential bliss, and the content of the experience was so timely and important which made for a really beautiful, validating experience.
Anthony Robinson, LA Correspondent
Cassandra Clemm, Beatings Of Wings Collective
Over the course of a couple of weeks in August, I got to bear witness to Instagram influencer Cassandra Clemm having a very messy, very public meltdown that slowly turned into an online horror story. Actor Sabina Friedman-Seitz’s vulnerable, realistic portrayal of someone going through the motions of being happy and present made it easy to be sympathetic to her plight, but it was the quick, honest DM responses that sucked me in and had me vested. The whole thing gave me flashbacks to LonelyGirl15 in the best way possible.
Blake Weil, East Coast Curator at Large
Aerobanquets RMX — Mattia Casalegno
In a year where dining out has become practically verboten, I’m still chewing on Aerobanquets RMX’s sharp commentary on cuisine. Combining massively ambitious VR technology and dazzling food with a sharp wit, it’s amazing how well the piece captured the thrills and pitfalls that technology brings to the dinner table; despite sitting at a table set for many, a VR helmet ensures you take this meal and journey alone. Each course performed a playful balancing act between flavors, textures, and virtual cues to play with the senses in increasingly mind-bending ways. As I miss my favorite restaurants this quarantine year, Aerobanquets RMX ensured that I was also thinking about the beautiful communications and communities a meal can build.
ARCANA — E3W Productions
ARGs live and die based on audience investment in the world of the game. Consider it a testament to how engrossed I was in ARCANA that 1920’s murder ballad “Little Marian Parker” ened up on my Spotify Rewind for 2020. Tracking the story of poor, sweet, deeply disturbed, eventually possessed Jade, ARCANA was a heady blend of true crime, deeply personalized audience interaction, and brilliant puzzle design. From aiding polyamorous amateur exorcist Gareth to spamming a demonic nogitsune with pictures of its favorite sushi, the adventure was a blend of heartbreak and humor, culminating in a live finale that literally brought me to tears thinking about the power of community and familial love we all had to learn again in the early days of the pandemic.
each and every — Candle House Collective
Music is always there for you: when you need to laugh; when you need to cry; and when you need to remind yourself what it means to be alive. It’s no wonder we sent a record up with the Voyager Probe, and now Taylor needs your help assembling the playlist for its sequel. each and every lands Candle House Collectives signature blend of personal heartbreak and universal themes with aplomb, but ended up the most uplifting show I saw in 2020. And I still listen to the playlist we created together as a reminder that more similar than different, voyaging together on this absolutely miniscule yet nonetheless infinite planet we call home.
(Note: Candle House Collective Creative Director Evan Neiden is a close personal friend of the author.)
THICKETT — Cirque du Nuit
As always, I reserve one spot on my “best of” list for the show that best embodied pure fun; this year, nothing made me giddy the same way THICKETT did. As corporate monster “FX045,” I got to roleplay as my worst self, backstabbing and double-dealing with a million-volt grin. The mixture of fairytale whimsy and tongue-in-cheek office politics was a winning combination, and I have the strongest drive to keep returning for my Saturday shift in future episodes. The community that has sprung up around THICKETT has laid the perfect groundwork for the immersive universe it stands as the cornerstone of; here’s hoping we get more wicked stepmothers and wicked-er departmental chairs for many seasons to come.
This Great Plague — This Yearning, Tracy Smith
I entered Halloween 2020 convinced I would have no experience that would truly rattle me; Tracy Smith’s This Great Plague proved me fabulously wrong. A mixture of podplay, candle-lit ritual, and wildly transportive sensory smorgasboard, This Great Plague brought the oldest spirit of Autumn celebration to vibrant life. It was a meditation on the terror and chill of death that begins to grip the land each Fall and the vigor and promise of renewal. Few other pieces this year gave that sense of transportation and transformation that I long for in immersive theatre. Forever after, I’ll be brought back to this emotional state every time I catch a whiff of camphor or feel the scratch of pine needles.
Danielle Look, Denver Correspondent
Sypherlot: Drive-In Radio Bath — Itchy-O
More than just a concert you watch from your car, Itchy-O’s Sypherlot transported guests right into the middle of a dark, mysterious (and possibly cultish) gathering. A small army of percussionists provided the tribal, beat-driven music (which was also broadcast on local airwaves for your car radio), while roaming performers dressed in bizarre costumes circled the vehicles like animals stalking their prey. The roamers’ playful, COVID-safe interactivity was what stood out most to me: attaching flashing lights to vehicles, drawing on windows with glass markers, spraying quick-evaporating mist on and through windows, suction-cupping noisemakers and instruments to vehicle exteriors, tapping on windows, and ever-so-lightly rocking SUVs.
Death’s Unraveling — Rainbow Militia
The creative minds at Rainbow Militia pulled off something special with their pandemic-proof Halloween show, Death’s Unraveling. It took place in an old house where performers were safely separated from guests behind transparent, plastic “bubble” walls. Private groups of up to six spectators were treated to a series of 10-minute vignettes in each room, where they were challenged to muse over what might happen to our mind, body and soul when we cross over into death. The unique format meant we got tons of one-on-one time with all the performers, which ultimately gave us agency over some of the show’s content.
Edward Mylechreest, NYC Correspondent
The End of the Day — April Soetarman
In this midst of a year filled with chaos and screens, this gentle phone play was a soothing and much needed quiet meditation. Specifically designed to be “found” and played at sunset, this piece encouraged this stressed out teacher to simply sit and be at peace, acknowledging the present, but looking forward to the many sunsets that will be in the future. The End of the Day was simple, but effective, and so very needed.
Soundwalk — Ellen Reid
Whenever anyone visits NYC, I have always immediately suggested the wonderful “Her Long Black Hair” as a fantastic audio experience that everyone should experience while walking through Central Park. This year, however, a new contender for notable Central-Park-based walking-and-listening experience has appeared, in the form of this beautiful soundscape created by Ellen Reid with the New York Philharmonic. Have your own soundtrack as you potter down the promenade, as the free geo-location app tracks your movement, and accompanies your wandering. As always, a stroll through the park will be beautiful and relaxing, but the immersive experience of Soundwalk is the perfect addition to your travels.
Jury Duty — Exit Productions
This was the first “Zoom” piece I saw this year that really worked for me, with a premise and design specifically based around our current technological theatre scape. The use of the medium worked perfectly for this gamified jury experience, with 12 angry immersive men (and women) being split into two competing groups, seeking to serve justice. With live performances, great game theory, and excellent online materials (and rabbit holes) to explore, Jury Duty was one of the standout experiences of our current online climate.
Season One, Detective Society
A great example of the mailed-to-you escape room experience, I loved getting lost in the search for Claire Makova this year. With beautifully produced materials and clues, this straightforward mystery in a box certainly had me hooked with its compelling narrative. A six-episode season first started release this year, and with the second season being fully backed through Kickstarter last month, there are plenty of opportunities to give your inner sleuth a case to crack thanks to the Detective Society.
Kevin Gossett, LA Reviews Editor
Blaseball — The Game Band
It’s somehow fitting that this horror-tinged baseball simulator would end up on my list of best immersive experiences of the year. Like so much of Blaseball (the “games per games” stat, JRPG boss fights, and the very idea of “Unruns,” to name a few), it makes absolutely no sense and perfect sense at the same time. The Game Band has built out a world ripe for interaction no matter your level of engagement with it. You can play and bet on the sim, you can follow people roleplaying players and teams on Twitter, or you can enjoy music from the one team that started an actual band (start with ‘the mike townsend quintology’). In a generally horrific year, it’s been a delight to take part in the cultural event that is Blaseball.
iConfidant — Blah Shank Productions
iConfidant was wildly ambitious and I still don’t understand how it functioned, let alone produced what I called in my review “one of the most effective immersive experiences I’ve ever taken part in.” It ran near the beginning of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, but managed to do something that’s hard to do in this environment: create a real connection. That connection can be hard to make in location-based immersive theatre and is harder still in remote work, but it was what helped make iConfidant so impactful.
Fire Season — Capital W
In a year where creating immersive theatre has been challenging, to say the least, Capital W made a safe, socially distant, in-person show. At the heart of Fire Season is Monica Miklas’ performance, broadcast over a short range radio to attendees. This could have been a recording, but the extra step of a live reading of Miklas’ essays brought an extra dimension to the experience. Additionally, while many shows tapped into the idea of the pandemic, Fire Season instead focused on the other ongoing crisis of climate change in a way that was both haunting and hopeful.
Laura Hess, LA Correspondent
Jónsi, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
An award-winning artist, Jónsi is best known as the lead vocalist for the Icelandic experimental rock band Sigur Rós. The Tanya Bonakdar gallery’s Los Angeles location hosted Jónsi’s first solo exhibition, which combined sculpture, sound, haptic feedback, light (and the complete absence of it), and even scent. This was a sensorially immersive experience and magnetic in its contrasts: meditative and invigorating; seductive and repulsive. With hidden speakers and custom scents for each installation (which included the smell of seaweed and even rotting flesh!), the show was an evocative, visceral playground.
CAGES, Woolf and The Wondershow
Described as “future theater,” CAGES is a cinematic, theatrical rock musical, with live performances in an immersive space. In early March, just before the pandemic pressed pause on the U.S., I entered an industrial building in downtown Los Angeles and into the heartbreaking world of Anhedonia, Woolf, and The Chemist. Full of earworms and gorgeous imagery, it’s a technologically awesome show. Hopefully, CAGES weathers the current storm and reopens post-pandemic. It’s an experience like no other.
The Quiet, Onassis Foundation, Risa Puno and Avi Dobkin
The Quiet is a challenging, empathetic, and downright delightful experience. No prior knowledge of tabletop role-playing games is required; The Quiet is accessible for D&D enthusiasts and novices alike, as well as being free and available online for public download. A beautifully nuanced one-on-one experience, the world of the game effortlessly mirrored my own emotional journey through the pandemic without ever referencing our global crisis. A mix of adventurous exploration and puzzle-solving, I’ve found myself thinking about The Quiet months later.
The Telelibrary — Yannick Trapman-O’Brien
Utterly magical. There’s so much to say about The Telelibrary, but it’s better left unsaid. Described as “part theater, part game, part self-care and all just a phone call away,” it’s a deeply personal experience that deeply connects to humanity at large. I laughed, I cried, I felt seen.
each and every — Candle House Collective
There’s lots of love amongst the NoPro staff for each and every — and with good reason. One of the most generous performances of 2020, Taylor Feld created an otherworldly space for joyful exchange and intimate catharsis through our connection to music, both as a personal gesture and as an act of humanity.
Leah Ableson, NYC Correspondent
The Lost Halloween community fundraiser
Though it was not an immersive piece, it feels necessary to call out the fundraiser organized under the name The Lost Halloween as a bright spot of 2020. In a year that has challenged our industry in ways that we could have never imagined, the Lost Halloween crew displayed deep dedication to the community by organizing and activating quickly and effectively to raise funds for immersive artists who were financially hit by the pandemic. What resulted was a well-marketed and beautifully produced cabaret featuring some of immersive theatre’s best and brightest, with $40,000 distributed to 82 immersive artists who requested grants (smashing their already-lofty original goal of $25,000). From organizing art auctions to casting and managing a list of 40 beloved creators, the Lost Halloween team’s love of the community and passion for immersive work shined through. They made a real impact, and brought us all together for a night that really felt like home.
Michaela Ternasky-Holland, NYC Correspondent
Meet Victoria Confino — Tenement Museum
The Tenement Museum is one of my favorite places in New York City — a pillar of historical preservation and restoration in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the era known as “PC” (“PC” standing for pre-COVID), the Tenement Museum gave intimate tours of the reconstructed tenement buildings. Audiences would travel within the restored spaces of real immigrants who lived within the spaces throughout time, from Jewish Holocaust refugees to Chinese garment factory workers. These tours are led by Tenement Storytellers. In the all-new 2020 virtual tours, the Tenement announced Meet Victoria Confino, an hour long experience that begins with an introduction by Tenement Storytellers, which then moves into an interactive conversation with an actor portraying Victoria Confino, a 14 year old immigrant from Greece. Think of it as a history class meets LARP.
Home — Taiwan R.O.C
I watched Home via an Oculus Quest during the Tribeca Film Festival’s Cinema360 program, a free series of films that they released in lieu of the IRL festival. This spectacular virtual reality film puts you in the wheelchair of an elderly Taiwanese womxn on a warm summer day. Home is an incredible one-take experience which lasts almost 35 minutes; while you cannot interact with others within Home, others constantly interact with you, from adjusting your hearing aides to turning the television on for you to watch. The day surrounded by family ends on a climatic group picture that eases itself into a slow melancholy end, one where I found I had tears after taking off the headset.
Rise of the Resistance — Disney Imagineering and Lucasfilm
Where immersive theatre meets incredible technology, Rise of the Resistance was by far a stand out experience for 2020. It was an achievement not only within the theme park industry, and Star Wars fandom, but also for the world of interactive storytelling. The ride is truly a crown jewel for the already jaw-dropping Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge world in the bicoastal Disney parks here in the US. The way the audience (the “resistance” recruits) moves through the onboarding process into the experience and the incredible use of scale here makes me tingle with anticipation for the 2021 Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser multi-day experience.
DOUBLE, DARKFIELD RADIO
DOUBLE is spatial audio at its finest. This DARKFIELD RADIO broadcast is a perfect duo experience and asking you to keep your eyes closed for the duration of the “radio” broadcast is sheer torture. (I will admit that my eyelids flew open less than 6 minutes into the twenty minute show.) DOUBLE stands as a powerful reminder of how influential excellent sound and music can be to our minds.
Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator
The Under Presents: TEMPEST — Tender Claws
During the summer, when restaurants and stores were opening again in my city, I saw that performance venues remained dark as they weren’t able to figure out how to continue operating and providing performances safely. But all that changed for me when The Decameron Theatre appeared within The Under Presents, performing their adaptation of The Tempest. Yet it was the experiences I had before and after attending The Under Presents: TEMPEST I enjoyed most: walking up to the box office and buying a ticket, having a pre-show cocktail with the other audience members, and waving goodbye to new found friends when exiting the lobby. Despite never leaving my living room, I had a wonderful night out at the theatre.
FORTS! — Filament Theatre
As I’ve gotten older, I spend less time just playing for fun. Even when I stop and take time to relax by watching a movie or reading a book, it’s done with a critical eye or to educate myself. While the same goes for my experiences in immersive theatre, those expectations were shattered during FORTS!. For one delightful hour of playtime, the audience is set free with cardboard boxes, blankets, and crayons to do whatever they can imagine. During FORTS! everything felt possible in a way I hadn’t experienced since childhood. As one of the last in-person experiences I did in 2020, FORTS! reminds me just because I’ve grown up doesn’t mean I’ve stopped being a kid.
A Call From The Resistance — Capital W
For those finding themselves constantly frustrated (to say the least) by the 45th President and his administration, a big part of surviving the pandemic was doing everything we could to prevent his presidency from continuing. But protesting, donanting, and calling registered voters is exhausting work. As Election Day approached, I feared none of the efforts to un-elect the 45th President was working. And I was so overwhelmed that I missed picking up the phone when Capital W called. I almost didn’t call back, either. But I’m so glad I did. Because I had an inspiring and poignant conversation, resparking my efforts to keep working up through Election Day.
claws — Candle House Collective
Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. Some can be found in the newspaper headlines. Others are people we have to interact with on a regular basis. But sometimes they can be otherworldly and stalk us in our own homes. Being part of the Etcetera Helpline, I find myself helping Danny deal with an actual monster he’s trapped in his closest. Yet as the call progresses, the situation grows less straightforward. Am I right to trust what I’m hearing? I find myself sweating, unsure of what advice I should be giving. claws kept me stuck between the rock and the hard place, making for a harrowing and suspenseful experience.
Shelley Snyder, London Curator
United Queendom —Les Enfants Terribles
In the wake of the dismantling of Punchdrunk’s The Drowned Man, for sweepingly lush environmental experiences in London you just can’t beat a show staged in a palace. No scenic budget can approach the way regency costumes and a few well-placed LED’s are showcased against architecture and furnishings that once hosted royalty. It may be years before anything like United Queendom emerges again, but in the short time we had it, its gilded light outshone all its peers.
Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor
Like Real People Do: Long Distance Relationships Division — Linked Dance Theatre
I’ll admit I have a certain fondness for the way that Linked Dance Theatre brings stories to life, in particular, I’ve a soft spot for their live-music-and-dance performance on Manhattan’s city streets, Like Real People Do, which I first saw in 2017. After the stay at home orders began this Spring, the company was one of the first I saw to pivot into digital and successfully traverse the rough contours of Zoom. Like Real People Do: Long Distance Relationships Division pushes at the limits of video conferencing software, showing that not everybody had to be Brady Bunch-esque talking heads, by mixing recorded content with live content. On paper, a surreal immersive theatrical dance piece delivered over Zoom, with ARG elements, doled out over four episodes in the span of one week sounds like it really should not work. Let alone a piece that strays from heteronormative relationships and allows two women — who are not quite friends, but also not quite enemies — to talk about something other than men. But it did. Oh, it did.
(Note: NoPro NYC correspondents Leah Abelson and Edward Mylechreest were cast members in this piece.)
The Telelibrary — Yannick Trapman-O’Brien
Yannick Trapman-O’Brien’s unique gifts provide solace at a time where it is difficult to find comfort; it’s strange but not surprising how a performer pretending to be an artificial intelligence voice agent can show us the best of humanity. The Telelibrary reminds us what it means to be vulnerable, what it means to be kind, and what it means to have empathy. The system’s musical beeps and chimes made me smile, the “going outside” simulation brought tears to my eyes, and the recited poetry and stories enveloped me like a fuzzy wool blanket. The Telelibrary is a stark reminder that despite sheltering in place and feeling like we’re all marooned on separate spaceships drifting off into space, we are not alone. Help? Well, it’s just a phone call away.
The Under Presents: TEMPEST — Tender Claws
Tender Claws’ retelling of Shakespeare’s The Tempest was the first long-running widely available live performance in VR for consumer headsets, but it certainly won’t be the last. Not only has this show already inspired countless creators in the virtual reality-meets-theatre space, but it has carved itself into players’ hearts. Where else could we silently dance and hug and hold hands around the fire as each Prospero or Prospera brought a unique spin to the tale, bringing each one of us into the story? And the best part about it? The others I attended each show with, I never found out their names. I never saw their faces. All the participants in The Under Presents are anonymous. After all: all the world’s a stage. And we are the players, finding connection in virtual reality, without even saying a word. And how lucky we are to have such a joyful stage available. Snaps all around.
BoxONE — Neil Patrick Harris and theory11
Magic is real. I know. I’ve seen it. I’ve felt it. I’ve held it in my hands. And I know it comes in a strange box with a giant keyhole punched into the cover and Neil Patrick Harris’ single eye peeking through the opening. I wish I could say more about BoxONE without spoiling it, but, let’s just say: BoxONE appears to be a set of simple challenge cards centered around some mundane pop culture trivia at first, and then eventually reveals itself to be much, much more than that. The experience has notes of, dare I say it, transmedia and alternate reality games as well; there’s more than meets the eye here. (ARG-heads: think Subtext meets a puzzle box designed by magicians.) Fiendishly clever, artfully produced, and lovingly designed, I found myself falling so deep into the BoxONE rabbit hole that I had trouble sleeping the night I finished it.
But, really. Don’t take my word for it. You should go do BoxONE for yourself.
The Book of Distance — Randall Okita/National Film Board of Canada
Over 20,000 Japanese-Canadians were taken from their homes during WWII. Many of them were separated from their families placed into internment camps. One of these people was artist Randall Okita’s grandfather, Yonezo Okita, whose story we can now experience in the unforgettable VR piece, The Book of Distance.
Powerful, personal, and heart-wrenching, Randall Okita takes us through space and time in recreating what life was like for his grandfather, including how Randall imagines memories that have now been lost. Old photographs and letters from Yonezo’s life bring history to life, as moments of interactivity put us in his shoes. We act out Yonezo’s story in VR through a multitude of small acts: from packing his belongings into a single suitcase while leaving Japan, to planting rows of bright red strawberries on the farm he starts with his new wife in Canada, to the loss of his sister after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
By leveraging the unique properties of virtual reality, this piece makes the viewer feel as if they were truly present for all of these moments in Yonezo’s story. The Book of Distance is one of the best immersive pieces I’ve seen, across any medium. Be prepared to weep — multiple times — as you go on this beautifully crafted journey. So, when we talk about the “ultimate potential” of virtual reality or the dazzling heights that immersive storytelling is capable of, The Book of Distance stands tall at the top of my list.
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