NOW PLAYING: I DO ADORE YOU
A one on one call that explores the act of sending, and receiving, love letters
Parker Sela loves love letters.
She also loves immersive, enough that she volunteers to keep NoPro running, which listeners of our podcast know but probably don’t know the extent of. (Ed note: there’s your disclosure, folks.)
Sela’s love of immersive goes back before her NoPro days, having originated a key role in Boxcar Theatre’s The Speakeasy in San Francisco when she was a teen. She’s also a huge fan of Candlehouse Collective’s Lennox Mutual, and all of these various loves collide in I DO ADORE YOU, a one-on-one phone encounter that might leave you soaring or weeping, or maybe a bit of both.
After a sold out trial run, Sela has opened up more slots for the experience, the run of which is currently morphing to demand. We checked in with Sela about the show, tickets for which are PWYC and are being offered through April 22nd as of this writing.
This is No Proscenium’s NOW PLAYING, a look at ongoing immersive experiences & events. To learn more about how your event could be considered for the feature check out How To Get Covered By NoPro.
NO PROSCENIUM: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?
PARKER SELA: I Do Adore You is a one-on-one show exclusively over the phone about love, letters, and love letters! Through conversations, personal stories, and examples of love letters throughout history, the show explores how we connect with one another and why sending snail mail still matters. From classic love letters by the likes of Zelda Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck to looser and more modern interpretations, I Do Adore You covers the vast breadth of what it means to write a love letter. The show is intimate, and audience members are invited to share their own stories of affection and correspondence.
NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?
PS: A few years ago, I was given a large collection of postcards from my grandmother and great-grandmother. Most of them are blank, and I’ve loved filling them with my own words and sending them to friends across the country and the world. This was never more valuable than in 2020/21 as many of us were feeling more disconnected than ever. Around the same time, I unearthed a draft of a painfully earnest love letter (poorly disguised as a friendly “happy birthday” message) that I wrote to a high school crush, which I’d handed over in class. While I still cannot remember how they reacted to it, re-reading this letter rocketed me back to the mental place I’d been in while writing it. It’s exactly as cringey and sappy and heartfelt as you imagine and yes, a (blessedly brief) excerpt is included in the show. The combination of having a more consistent epistolary practice and remembering all the emotions of being a sappy high schooler joined to inspire the creation of this piece.
NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?
PS: In the last few years, we’ve all been reckoning with ways of communicating, and I’ve found such joy in returning to a slower, less immediate way of expressing my love for those around me, in hopes that it will have more of an impact. Fans of intimate immersive work will hopefully enjoy this gentle and individualized journey through how we communicate. There are moments of choice, chances to engage, and opportunities to let loving text carry you forward.
NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?
PS: As someone who is always chasing the high of a one-on-one, I knew I wanted this piece to be as intimate and personalized as possible. It was originally much more structured and rigid, but through beta testing I discovered that as each person’s experience with affection and writing is unique, their journey through I Do Adore You should be the same. As a creator it was tough to let go of my painstakingly crafted sentences, but I hope the audience experience is much more fulfilling for not being shoehorned into a one-size-fits-all structure.
NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?
PS: If the readers are anything like me, they too have a box full of emotionally-charged paper ephemera, in some cases dating back decades. Take a dive into the back of your closet, crack open your high school yearbook, and re-read the words you wrote and that were written to you that you decided, for one reason or another, to hold on to. Take a trip down your own personal memory lane, and remember how excited you were to receive that card/letter/note. And don’t forget to pop over to your local postal service branch and buy some stamps!
Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, home of NoPro’s show listings.
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