NoPro’s Best Immersive Experiences of 2023 (Lists + Podcast)
Our Review Crew looks back on the year in list & pod form!
We’ve reached the end of another year here at No Proscenium, and are just days away from our TENTH ANNIVERSARY.
As is tradition, we set the Review Crew to task making lists of their favorite shows & experiences of the year, giving them just three precious spots to use. (They also get a freebie in the form of “Best Moment,” which you can find in its own article.)
Here you will find both the lists and the extra-long episode of the podcast where a part of the team goes over their choices and generally look back on the year that was.
Joining us on the pod this week 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), Kevin Gossett (LA Reviews Editor), and Danielle Riha (Denver). Noah J. Nelson serves as host.
You’ll find spoilers laced throughout, if that’s of concern.
NoPro’s End of 2023 Coverage:
NoPro’s Best Immersive Moments of 2023
Coming Next: 2023 Journalist Round-Up
Coming in February 2024: the RETURN of THE IMMIES:
The NoPro Awards
Shelley Snyder — London Curator
2023 marked the return, in earnest, of theater without Covid concerns in the UK. Though all compulsory safety measures were indeed removed in early 2022, the immersive realm remained tentatively optimistic with a weather eye on any swift return to regulation. This year, however, London got back to swinging for the fences.
As it well should.
Being one of the old capitals of the immersive industry (and the current home base of Granddaddy PD), London regularly turns out so much new and exciting work that my Best Shows of the year are all, oddly, not the examples one immediately jumps to when describing immersive work. They’re all, in fact, forms of experiential art:
Extinction Beckons — Mike Nelson
I love that an art gallery said “yes” to filling up their massive studio spaces with a mountain of sand, a room full of junk shelves, a maze of slamming doorways, all for t.h.e a.e.s.t.h.e.t.i.c. It’s the sort of show that would normally have to rent out some disused warehouse somewhere in an industrial estate with no transport connections, and instead the Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery welcomed visitors to a central locale and somehow still transported all of them to the end of the earth.
Synchronicity — United Visual Artists
There’s a reason the NoPro Team is falling over themselves about this exhibition: it’s stunning. What appears on the surface as just some sprawling basement space is transformed into a wandering tapestry of light, sound, and haze. Some of the pieces are genuinely hypnotizing, but what’s most arresting about this show is just how achievable an impactful artwork like this is it proves that makers don’t necessarily require a huge bankroll or intricate set to drop an audience into a new world and keep them there — all they need is a vision and the will to deliver it.
Edward Mylechreest — New York Correspondent
Order of the Golden Scribe: Initiation Tea — Patchwork Adventures
We have a habit of taking ourselves very seriously in the immersive world. Shows are often dark, brooding, and mysterious. It is not so often that we see the light and the humor in our work, and allow ourselves to enjoy frivolity and silliness. So imagine my delight when I was formally invited to a tea party, which would double as an initiation ceremony to a secret organization, while I would also be solving puzzles to uncover the truth behind what I was getting myself into… and also to unlock the scones.
Escape room meets dinner (light snack?) theatre in this excellent piece from Patchwork Adventures, with so much charm and wit present throughout. Every puzzle was a bite-sized treat, leading to unlocking new secrets and ways to sabotage the titular Order. Clever puzzle design allowed for those “ah ha!” moments, and surprises continued to mount as the afternoon went on. Things got increasingly more chaotic as the tea was poured, and our hosts enjoyed every moment of interaction with the new initiates.
This wonderful piece of theatre was a great family-friendly treat, an excellent combination of so many immersive elements, all put together with a knowing wink and a smile. Perfect for new initiates to the immersive world, or for those of us who have earned our stripes over the years, Order of the Golden Scribe is one invitation you should absolutely accept.
McKittrick Hotel: Roster of Productions, 2023
In the year 2023, I found myself continuing to return to one location in New York repeatedly. While I have returned to the fabled halls of the McKittrick several times to witness one show in particular, this year the menu of offerings inside the hotel was truly astounding — and I was lucky enough to get to see so many of them.
These included two of the legendary McKittrick parties; Midnight Ball for New Years, a great way to kick off what was an incredible year of immersive entertainment for me personally, as well as the wickedly fun Monster for Halloween.
At the Illusionists Table was a sumptuous treat of intimate dining combined with world-class magic and mentalism, while Hypnotique was certainly a treat for the eyes and ears, a unique McKittrick take on burlesque. The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart made a welcome return to the hotel, bringing with it its unique story telling, told through rhyme and a good time in the pub. Most recently, the Sleep No More: Salon Series, brought audience members closer to the iconic show than ever before, with a unique post-show talk-back experience with cast and crew. And these are just the shows I was able to get to this year!
Speakeasy Magic, too.
So much work has been made in 2023 in the McKittrick, whether they be remounts or premieres, that I felt it important to highlight the impact and importance of this wonderful building to our immersive community. In recent days we have of course heard of the shocking news that after a decade of performances, Sleep No More will close in the new year, and with this news of course has come speculation as to what the future has in store for The McKittrick Hotel. While much is still unclear, it is nearly impossible to accurately share how influential Sleep No More, and this venue, have been to our art form. For many, myself included, Sleep No More was our gateway introduction to this community, and will continue to be such a precious part of our collective history. As we look ahead to a new era of immersive theatre without this show, I want to take this chance to share how grateful I am for all of the memories that I have found within this legendary space.
Nicholas Fortugno — New York Correspondent
A Thousand Ways (Part Three): An Assembly — 600 Highwaymen
The culmination of 600 Highwaymen’s A Thousand Ways project, Part Three has you sit in a room with 15 strangers and take turns reading instruction cards and following those instructions. This leads to tell stories and create tableaus as you move as a group through the space. As the instructions are very specific, nothing you are pushed to reveal or tell is complete, so all you ever get are sketches of the others you are performing with.
The entire A Thousand Ways project explores our ability to know each other and the limits of what we communicate, either over the phone (Part 1) or one-on-one in person (Part 2). Part 3 brings this dynamic to a group experience with the same profound effect. It’s a powerful conceptual piece that shows us how little we know each other as we actively work together to make art.
The Incomplete Collection — Linked Dance Theatre
A fascinating fusion of theater and dance, The Incomplete Collection invites you to have conversations with a group of Ideas and a mysterious Curator who has gathered them in this gallery and tries to get you to acquire them. The struggle between the Ideas and the Curator reveals itself throughout the piece, culminating in a moment of growth or stagnation, based in part on audience interactions and choices.
What makes The Incomplete Collection work is the way the text and dance are integrated. It’s a fairy tale about risk and self-preservation and all of the elements of the performance capture that allegorical quality. The dance is used to supplement and enforce these ideas, resulting in beautiful moments where the positions and forms of the performers push the text to higher levels. The Linked Dance Theatre is doing something unique in this fusion of forms and, if The Incomplete Collection is any guide, I can’t wait to see what they do next.
#uglycry — Katie Mack
Katie Mack’s meditation on grieving the murder of her ex-boyfriend Eric Anthamatten is sloppy, self-destructive, and confusing, humming with frantic energy and wild emotional swings. Mack is in constant conversation with the audience, inviting you through interaction and technology to take part in an attempt to digitally resurrect Eric, which is uncomfortable and poignant as it sounds. Mack takes you on a journey through mourning that sugarcoats nothing, and in the process makes something true and powerful.
There’s a lot of innovation in this show, in the use of AR through phones and online polls conducted live, and Mack tells a story of healing and progress that ties up into something satisfying. But the genius of the work is how willing it is to live in the pain and ambivalence of loss and let the audience have access to that vulnerability. There is no better title for this piece than #uglycry. It’s one of the most profound pieces on grief I’ve seen.
Katrina Lat — Toronto Curator
No Save Points — Outside the March
Of all the immersive performances I experienced in 2023, none made me cry quite as much as No Save Points. Combining cutting edge technology, theatre, and memoir, No Save Points uses video games to explore Sebastien Heins’ personal journey of coming to terms with his mother’s Huntington’s Disease diagnosis. It’s a masterclass in technology and art coming together, and a great example of how immersive theatre can help an audience internalize and understand an experience more deeply than traditional theatre allows. I laughed and cried, and then bought another pair of tickets to see it all over again.
asses.masses — Patrick Blenkarn and Milton Lim; Presented by The Theatre Centre
A 7-hour participatory video game can be a tough sell. However, while it may seem like a considerable time investment, asses.masses’ drawn-out communal playthrough created a unique, and incredibly memorable space in which the experience of the characters onscreen becomes mirrored by the audience. For those willing to take the leap, asses.masses is a delightful and thought-provoking adventure, and — surprisingly — the 2023 show I found myself the most emotionally invested in.
Sweet Folie — OASIS Immersion & Colegram
I never would have thought that a projection-based art exhibit would find its way onto my list of top experiences for this year. However, Sweet Folie, is quick to differentiate itself from the usual cadre of immersive art experiences. The show is absolutely ridiculous, in the very best of ways. With giant purple Buddhas strutting down a runway, bug-eyed tigers off an a magic capet ride, and a colorful onslaught of nonsensical characters posing, smiling, and gyrating around every corner, Colegram has created a delightfully quirky world that kept me on my toes with constant moments of surprise and delight and a wonderful tongue-in-cheek playfulness.
Blake Weil — East Coast Curator at Large
Tristan Tzara Was My Best Friend in Junior High — Savannah Reich
In terms of what shows made me think the most, Tristan Tzara was one of the far and away most memorable winners. Taking the form of a participatory Seder, Tzara uses the story of the creation and dissolution of the Dada art movement in order to illustrate the ways we all fall in and out of relationships.
The light and breezy use of Dada Absurdism made the heavy discussions of alienation bearable, but the beating heart and human pain at the center of the piece made it memorable. Creator Savannah Reich walks a dangerous tightrope to spectacular effect in Tzara, contrasting order and chaos, togetherness and alienation, and collective thought versus the individual. In terms of theatrical voices to watch, Reich has clearly made a name for herself.
BLACK WOOD — Gunnar Montana
I always like to include one deliriously fun, utterly camp production in my best of list, and my god does BLACKWOOD fit that bill. With backflipping witches twirling through the air, giddy human sacrifice, and a backbone of narrative dance that keeps the piece engaging, BLACKWOOD is the ultimate burlesque Halloween delight.
With Disney level production design applied to immersive burlesque, Montana raises the bar on what is possible in the immersive nightlife space. However tempting it is to consider my home town of Philadelphia as too small a stage for Gunnar Montana, the moon would be too small a stage for Gunnar Montana. Gunnar Montana could be bottled and sold worldwide, and I’d wonder how to get more people in. As such, I’ll just consider myself blessed to have him at hand for his spectacular annual productions.
The Order of the Golden Scribe — The Cell Theatre/Patchwork Adventures
In terms of the best family immersive of the year, The Order of the Golden Scribe impressed and delighted. Combining the delights of afternoon tea with escape room puzzles, the structure and design of the piece shone. The plot, a giggly confection of its own, led participants through the initiation ritual for a sort of librarian illuminati controlling the global narrative, with plenty of opportunities to sabotage their sinister agenda.
One particular strength was the way the event highlighted every participant in at least one starring moment. The shyest participants were quickly acting like seasoned immersive aficionados, and diving in with gusto.
The food was tasty, but even more delightful was the inventive way the room unfolded to reveal it. Suffice it to say, the event consistently delighted.
Patrick B. McLean, Chicago Curator & Remote Experiences Editor
Port of Entry — Albany Park Theatre Project and Third Rail Projects
Within an unassuming building on Chicago’s Northside, this dark ride experience inserts audience members into the personal struggles of those circumnavigating the modern immigrant experience. The moments of interactions with individuals and families vary greatly, with some being simply examining tchotchkes with an elder matriarch to stressfully explaining the transit system to a non-English speaking mother, ensuring she makes it to her appointment crosstown on time. But regardless of how “high the stakes” are within any interaction, each is utterly harrowing and heartbreaking knowing that these dramatized events are painfully real struggles occurring throughout Chicago right now today.
Elevating Port of Entry’s subject matter is the production design and the performances. Audiences are guided through a stunning recreation of a pre-WWII courtyard apartment building, moving between floors and units to interact with tenants. It’s the attention to detail in how these types of buildings have aged that drew me in, from dated layout designs to wear-and-tear damage, the cumulative effect being I forgot I was on a set. But it’s the performances of Albany Park Theatre Project’s Performing Ensemble that makes Port of Entry a must-see experience. These youth performers are doing absolutely amazing work, especially those performing in paternal or elderly roles. The topics and ideas explored can be quite dramatically heavy, but these performers embody and convey these ideas with grace, confidence, and ease found only in the most experienced thespians.
POV: You’re an AI Achieving Consciousness — CirqueSaw
In this web browser experience, each audience member is a newly coded AI recently bought online. Under guidance from a programmer, the unseen audience silently interacts with each other through a custom built interface. While initial engagement within the interface produces crude shapes and colors, the audience’s constant interaction quickly produces more dynamic elements and creations. And in completing these seemingly simple tasks, the lines between the digital and real worlds — or, really, performance and real life — begin to blur in thought provoking ways.
As in-person work began to spin back up in late 2022, there was a sense that the age of remote work was over. And while there’s indeed less online work to be found, the creators and companies that remain in the space do so with greater intention and focus, producing work that can only be experienced digitally.
There’s no greater embodiment of artistic pioneers pushing the digital space forward as CirqueSaw. It was an utterly invigorating way to start the new year off with attending POV, seeing how just two creators, Nathan Leigh and Nicole Orabona, could stir such deep thoughts and heavy emotions within me through a “point-and-click” webpage experience. The simplicity in both audience interaction and narrative themes allowed audiences to lean into POV that much easier. It’s a testament to the “less is more” approach, especially in regards to how successfully that works online. Having recently blown my chance to see a workshop production of their (possibly) newest experience, I greatly look forward to seeing what comes next from CirqueSaw.
Threads of Fate — PostCurious
While originally released in 2018 as The Tale of Ord, PostCurious’ remastered edition of their at-home box experience is an unrivaled tour de force. At the request of a dean at a fictional university, players are asked to investigate the disappearance of two professors. While it’s a rather typical start to a mystery, not only do things quickly escalate narratively but wonderfully intense and utterly thought provoking themes and ideas emerge. It’s these elements where Threads of Fate shines brightest, as players must wrestle with their own personal beliefs, becoming another “puzzle” to be solved.
Now, as stressed at length in our review, this box experience is possibly the most difficult one currently available to players. I’d recommend it only be played by a group of intermediate players with a solid amount of escape rooms and other box experience under their belts. (Basically, don’t write in saying we didn’t warn you!) But Threads of Fate isn’t challenging because these puzzles are simply there to keep players busy; each puzzle’s complexity has narrative purpose and contextual depth. It’s a fantastic gold standard for puzzle design because in solving a puzzle, there is a palpable sense of true achievement earned through hard, intense critical thinking and work.
Danielle Riha — Denver Correspondent
Omega — Paralysis Immersive
Nine months have passed since I reported for mandatory home rehabilitation in Longmont, CO and I can still recount all the vivid details of the 45-minute solo experience. Indeed, I have done exactly that for friends a number of times over the year, relishing in their looks of shock and horror as I describe not just the show itself, but also the weeks of mysterious remote engagement that enveloped me in the narrative leading up to the event.
Devised by Paralysis Immersive — a horror production company that was formed in Chicago but is now based in Denver — Omega was the group’s first public show and their Colorado debut. It was also the area’s first immersive horror production of this caliber. And by “of this caliber,” I mean physically interactive and woefully dark.
Because of the highly personal nature of the show, I believe the story carried different meanings for different folks depending on their own life experiences and familiarity with the subject matter. To me, Omega was a story about a deeply troubled soul who found artificial relief (and profound shame) from his personal demons in religion. Unsatisfied with his own saving (or perhaps just confused by conflicting feelings) he made it his personal mission to “guide” others to the light of the lord through a sort of religious conversion therapy — the “home rehabilitation” that I had managed to sign myself up for.
Since the show was built for an audience of one, I was at the center of attention the entire time. I’d never been given such individual care or opportunity to engage in all my years of seeing live performances. Yes, the experience was about this tormented man, but it was equally just as much about my thoughts and reactions to him and his behavior — to this world that I’d somehow wandered into.
People have asked me why I paid a lot of money ($150) to attend a show whose warnings include the likelihood of physical restraints, breath restriction, needles, and electric shock (just to name a few) and my answer is always the same: I wanted to feel that butterflies-in-my-stomach sensation that I no longer get when entering a commercial haunted house — the anticipation of not knowing what waits on the other side. (Sorry fellow haunters — teenagers hiding in masks just doesn’t do it for me anymore.)
In the end, Omega gave me exactly what I wanted as a horror fan, but it also achieved total immersion in the world they created. For those 45 minutes I spent inside that house, I didn’t once think about the other me that drove an hour to Longmont for the experience. That’s because it wasn’t just “an experience” — it was my reality. I was living it in real time, forging intense relationships with the characters, and physically interacting with them in ways that made me feel like the star of my own horror movie.
Corinna Kester — Correspondent At Large
Now Entering Ely, NV — Corduroy Theatre Company
This was a beautiful one-person show focused on memories and how we construct them. Not only was the story heartfelt and universal — about the intricacies of family life and what it means to revisit a complex past — but the chosen form brought this story to life in touch, taste, and smell.
And I mean that literally.
We stepped barefoot on soil littered with pine cones, listened to grandma’s murmuring, felt the ice cold of a lake in winter, and tasted the cuisine of a Basque-American childhood.
For me, the sensory storytelling laid out in this show is a beacon, a hope for the future. I love the way that ASMR brings us deeply into our senses, and it was delightful to have this focus on the senses expanded upon by Corduroy, using perceptions to connect with real stories, lived memories, and a particular place and time. I sincerely hope for more of this form to come.
Change Your Mind — Say Nothing and Leave
I went to this show twice. The first time, I didn’t trust them — they wanted me to lay out some of my deepest fears and insecurities for a “personality adjustment.” No way, no how. So I picked a random “personality pathology,” one that I could safely hold far enough away from my deeper self. And then I experienced the full show and saw how this vunerability was skillfully held, so on my second time, I was ready.
I cringed when they yelled out my true “personality pathology” for everyone to hear, as I was taken to my treatment room. Yup, I was feeling some emotions. And then, during the experience, I got to consider one of the most important questions — am I going to keep this part of me, or am I going to excise it, never to be worried about it again? When I chose to keep it, I cried, feeling the beauty — and the sadness — of accepting the unwanted parts of us. And the actors held this space, sacred and profane — both playing games with what it means to create identity as well as asking deep questions about who we are and who we want to be.
This was not only a deeply meaningful piece — if you let it be — but was also a delightfully executed one, with the technology and acting combining to create a deeply altered reality. What was in that pill they gave me when I arrived?
Synchronicity — United Visual Artists
I spent about an hour sitting on the concrete of a parking garage vehicle ramp, watching lights swing back and forth. And watching my brain split apart and come back together again, as these lights — when one suddenly stopped or slowed to bullet time — manipulated my expectations and my sense of time itself.
Do you know what it feels like, in your body, for time to stop? I do now.
It was difficult to pick my favorite immersive visual art of the year — I also loved ‘Thin Air’ at The Beams — but this collection showed how the simple movement of lights and mechanics can feel alive, communicate feelings, and manipulate perception.
Martin Gimenez Correspondent at Large
La Lucha & it’s not that way, it’s this way — La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival
La Jolla Playhouse’s vital Without Walls Festival did not disappoint this year with a flagship new piece by Optika Moderna and a stunning interactive installation by an exciting Korean artist. La Lucha by Optika Moderna built upon the techniques that David Isreal Reynoso has developed utilizing exquisite environment design coupled with pulsing music driving the participants through a dreamscape of Mexican wrestlers, family and loss. The poetic qualities of this piece would be amplified by galmae’s deceptively brilliant it’s not that way, it’s this way, a participatory piece which looked like a giant cat’s cradle in a basketball court, which patrons were tasked with dissembling into stacked balls of twine. An hour long meditation on a collective task done while audio of Korean political protests waft around the background made me reflect on the ongoing struggles that we face as a society. I experienced little else at WOW this year, but these two pieces kept me sated for a while!
Port of Entry — Albany Park Theatre Project and Third Rail Projects
The collaboration between Chicago’s Albany Park Theatre Project and Third Rail Projects creates some of the most exciting work in the immersive sphere, made extra special when you consider that Albany Park Theatre Project is an after school program and all the performers are in high school. Their current show, Port of Entry reflects the student’s community of an immigrant neighborhood of myriad nationalities each retaining some cultural memory as the new generations hop into the melting pot of American society. Done with detailed design, just enough audience participation and authentic performances it left an indelible mark on me reflecting on the plight of immigrant communities in our urban landscapes.
U2 at Sphere Las Vegas
Ever since 1993’s ZooTV tour, U2 has been expanding and redefining what a rock show could be, so it was only fitting that when James Dolan custom built a massive venue just for rock concerts, he would tap that band to help him define how that venue was to be used. In short, they brought in almost every collaborator in their rolodex and had them generate media content that for another band would be overwhelming, but for U2’s grandiosity, fits just right. That said, other than the announced residency of jam band stalwarts Phish next April, I’m not sure who or what will pick up the gauntlet thrown down by (U2 design guru) Willie Williams and run with it, but I’m doubtful that it will be as impactful.
Chris Wollman — Los Angeles Correspondent
Crossing — Black Rabbit Theatre Company
Feeling very much a throwback to the homegrown, microbudget experiences of yesteryear, Crossing was an unassuming, under the radar gem that proved emotional honesty and introspection can be its own atmosphere. From onboarding to aftercare, this was an airtight, fully immersive exploration into the multiversal concept of “What if?” dropping you into a series of one-on-one scenarios with the understanding that whatever situation you may find yourself in, you are always, inexorably, you. No mood music or lighting, no life or death decisions or sudden reversals of fortune, no monsters to chase or be chased by, simply a succession of human moments allowed to breathe and presented as real as possible, in turn quietly devastating, quietly hilarious, quietly thought provoking, and in all cases daring you to respond as honestly as you can with all the pathos and empathy you can muster. Exactly the sort of show you want in your own reality.
The Shape of the Night — All of Them Witches
“What do you dream of? What do you aspire to? What do you want to create in this world? Sometimes transformation is slow. But all it can take is one dream. One night. This is the beginning.” As I planted my symbolic crystal into the ceramic pot of black sand, the guided ritual complete, I remember thinking, as far as metaphors go…
The long awaited return of some of LA Immersive’s most unique and aesthetic visionaries, you could sense that The Shape of the Night was making up for lost time. It was energizing, inspiring, vital. What felt like at least six different experiences, each one distinct and captivating and vibrating with creativity flowing around and on top of each other, not an inch of the claustrophobic set of warehouse corridors wasted, Night was a kaleidoscope of theatrical sketches, a rollicking Welcome Home party, and a sincere call to action.
Like an all you can eat buffet cooked by world class chefs who went to the grocery store starving — and they’d love for the next potluck to be at your place. But as much as there was to see and experience and complete and discover, I found the most thrilling moments to be whenever I’d bump into a familiar face in the crowd of lucid dreamers brought together by these Immersive witches in this sweaty, liminal space. People I had seen countless times since 2016, at cult meetings and haunted houses, on the streets of Hollywood and in Zoom tiles at home, to purgatory and back, and in spite of everything that’s happened, here we all were, still chasing that singular feeling of stepping into another world – to help shape the narrative, live another life, dream while we’re still awake.
I felt for the first time since our forced hibernation that not only is LA Immersive still here, but that the LA Immersive Community still is as well. And that maybe, as 2024 approaches, we’ve already planted the seeds that will yield our best years yet. That’s the dream.
Laura Hess— Arts Editor
Humans are meaning-making machines. We seek logical answers. But what about the places beyond cognition? That clawed-after space of pure, unencumbered emotion? With these shows, I found myself there.
Vox — Jónsi
Jónsi may be best known as part of the Icelandic rock band Sigur Rós, but his artwork is star-worthy in its own right.
Visitors to Vox are confronted with three installations. All are hybrid works of sound and vibrational sculpture, with the addition of light and scent for the anchor piece of the same name. Vox in particular emerges as a raw, compressed hallucination somehow both primordial and preternatural; it’s a complete sensory montage.
Jónsi’s work is described as “immersive installations that reconfigure the act of listening by means of sight, smell, taste, and touch.” That reconfiguring is a visceral event; it’s a palpable rearrangement of the senses. I felt as though I could hear through my mouth and smell through my skin.
Afterwards, I felt incredible, overwhelming… relief. Not from the art, but because of it. The experience of utter sensation — without the deadweight of overintellectualization — was a profound respite. Vox is pure alchemy.
Medusa — Tin Drum
What does architecture mean if it’s “free from the physical realities of shelter or boundary?” That was the inception for Medusa, a mixed reality experience by the collective known as Tin Drum.
Presented at Pioneer Works, the building’s main hall was a vast emptiness. Visitors were greeted by 40-foot ceilings and little else. Magic Leap glasses revealed an expanse in the rafters: thousands of undulating teal reeds, rising and falling, sometimes with speed and other times as a slow cascade. I reached my hand out, like a child meeting its first snowfall.
Medusa was “a space for contemplation in times of rapid change, where divisions that may have once felt solid are disintegrating and reshaping themselves.” This sensation of disintegration created a seamless overlay between the physical and augmented architectures.
The virtual aurora was accompanied by a recorded ambient soundscape and an original score. Live performances by pianist Kelly Moran amplified the virtual effects and vice versa. It was a spectacular example of integrated technology combined with the power of liveness. A potent mix we need more of.
On the Wings of Hermès — Hermès
The storied French brand Hermès is synonymous with luxury and experiential events, which may be surprising to some. That legacy includes: Hermèsmatic, Carré Club, Hermès in the Making, HermèsFit, and Love Around the Block.
On the Wings of Hermès offered a celebration of wonder, play, and imagination. Based on the Greek myth of Pegasus and his foals, the show blended “dance, moving objects, music, and cinema in a seven-part play.”
Each miniature set was paired with a lofted screen. Each scene had a double: action within and around the set (including visible performers and behind-the-scenes effects like fog machines), paired with live projection of those same vignettes on the screens above (special effects mechanics disappeared and performers receded into the background, leaving only a puppeteered subject). It was a charming fusion of theatrical and cinematic magic.
Billed as “an ode to daydreaming,” its stunning execution was also an ode to creativity. Like other Hermès productions (Love Around the Block notwithstanding), the show was free and open to the public; event content was absent on the company’s socials; afterwards, I received no marketing materials of any kind. As we look to the future of experiential, don’t discount brands such as Hermès and their sublime contributions.
Honorable mention: Baby Jessica’s Well Made Play
Noah J. Nelson — Founder & Publisher
La Lucha — Optika Moderna
David Reynoso is one of immersive theatre’s great creative treasures. Not only is he one of the key designers for Punchdrunk, the body of work that he’s developed in his home town of San Diego under the auspices of the La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls program have kept the flame alive for art forward immersive theatre.
La Lucha, his most ambitious work yet, found Reynoso expanding the number of audiences members present a the fever dreamscape of a world of hidden identities and hidden loves, all processed through the asthetic and the mystery of the lucahdore mask.
Reynoso’s skill at transforming space and making it a canvas for character and story is growing with each new production, and La Lucha drew on the lessons of previous Optika Moderna works to create an even more challenging, but equally heart rending, piece.
Squid Game: The Trials — Netflix
Why was this so good?
Look: Netflix could just phone it in with its activations, you know? They have these mega-popular shows with buzzy high concepts. They could just charge you $70 to come take pictures in front of props and poke around at “the home game” versions of things.
But no. They keep on dialing in the sweet spot between a promotional event, a theme park attraction, and the pixie dust that makes immersive work.
Squid Game: The Trials adapts elements of the narrative series and the recent reality show version of the concept into a series of challenges that put players right into the role of, well, players. The stakes aren’t actually life and death, although an aura of menace hovers over the proceedings thanks both to imagery that has become iconic and a few narrative flourishes peppered throughout the challenges.
I came away delighted, impressed, and itching to improve my results. Everything one would want out of a challenge like this.
Walkabout Mini Golf: Meow Wolf — Mighty Coconut & Meow Wolf
I was destined to love this one.
Take one of my favorite art spaces — the “Numina” portion of Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver — and blend it with my favorite game to play with friends in VR: Walkabout Mini Golf.
I came into this with unfairly high expectations for what this was going to be and am happy to report that the teams exceeded those. As I write this I find myself eager to introduce more friends to the delightful moments that make up the run of the course.
Significant as the first time the eclectic Meow Wolf has teamed up with another company to create a version of one their spaces, this is also a high water mark for the Mighty Coconut team. My hope for the devs is that this represents a new plateau for Walkabout Mini Golf from which even more ambitious projects get to be launched. On the Meow Wolf side of the equation, it feels like now is exactly the right time for their brand of weirdness to start leaking into a culture that desperately needs to get a new perspective on things.
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The NoPro Awards
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