Luke and Madison Rhodes of Cross Roads Escape Games join us to talk about how these horror-loving theatre kids wound up running one of the most innovative and immersive escape game companies in Southern California. Join host Noah Nelson as we talk about their smash debut hit The Hex Room, the game-changing The Psych Ward, and the 2019's pop-up theatre piece The Seance. Plus: some updates on the HERE Summit & Festival . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 17, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 232
The second half of our end of the year/beginning of the year roundtable with Anthony, Kathryn, Kevin, beer, and Noah. Plus: the latest programming announcement from the HERE Summit & Festival , taking place March 27-29 in Pasadena, CA. Beer Notes: Enegren Belgian Dark Strong Ale 5th Anniversary edition. (Moorpark, CA) Bruery Terreux's Tart of Darkness (2016, Placentia, CA -- we get this one wrong!) Brewery Ommegang Valar Morghulis Dubble Ale (Cooperstown, NY) WARNING: there is cursing becaus...
Jan 10, 2020•2 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 231
This week the team gets together for the first time in a long while, and then we add beer and whiskey to the mix and… Anyway, join Noah, Anthony, Kathryn, and Kevin for the first of four parts. Then Blake gets added to the mix. We’ll be dropping parts III & IV next week on the main feed, and a special Rise of Skywalker bonus episode with Zay and Noah into the Patreon feed (but open to all) over the weekend. Take a break from the chaos of the world and return to earlier in the week, when life...
Jan 03, 2020•1 hr 35 min•Season 1Ep. 230
This week we've got a special episode as Michaela Holland (NoPro NYC social correspondent) guest hosts a conversation with Abraham Burickson of Odyssey Works . Michaela has attended the company's Master Classes in the past, and she and Abraham talk about that and dive into the ideas that drive the company, which has been making cutting edge work since 2001. Speaking of: the deadline for the call participants for the next Odyssey is Jan. 5th, 2020 . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...
Dec 24, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 229
Get ready to get weird as we touch base with the team behind ' The Under Presents ,' the groundbreaking virtual reality experience that takes immersive theatre techniques and applies them to VR storytelling... and then layers in an experience with live actors dropping into the virtual world on top of that. Samantha Gorman and Tanya Leal Soto of Tender Claws join us, along with actor James Cowan, one of the performers currently appearing inside The Under. Plus: a little talk about California's AB...
Dec 20, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 228
This month I had the pleasure of checking out American Contemporary Ballet's take on The Nutcracker Suite -- the perennial holiday favorite -- which they frame with an immersive twist. Interested in what I saw, and in the company's approach to using immersive techniques for a more traditionally tuned audience, I caught up with ACB's Artistic Director and Choreographer Lincoln Jones. Plus: word on your chance to check out ILMxLAB's Lightsaber Dojo without needing an Oculus Quest of your own . Hos...
Dec 13, 2019•58 min•Season 1Ep. 227
Director Lola Kelly joins us to talk about her new work with The Unmarked Door -- ' Crimson Cabaret ' -- which invites guests into a den of spies at the height of the cold war. With original songs by The Unmarked Door founder Rolfe Kent, and puzzles woven into the show by MOON/SHINE Experiential , the cabaret is an unexpected holiday treat for Los Angeles. Join us for a talk about the show and the art of acting and directing for immersive. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...
Dec 06, 2019•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 226
We've wanted to get Curtis Hickman, co-founder and chief creative officer of The VOID, on the podcast forever. This time out we finally get him, and we get Jake Zim -- Senior Vice President, Virtual Reality at Sony Pictures -- as part of a twofer. We talk about Sony and The Void's longstanding collaboration, the latest example of which is ' Jumanji: Reverse The Curse ,' which is the most fun I've had at The VOID yet. Plus: we tease ticket info for the HERE Summit, but you can just click here to ...
Nov 27, 2019•53 min•Season 1Ep. 225
How did we get so lucky? Last week we sat down with Ben Snow (director of 'Vader Immortal'), Alyssa Finley (producer Ep. II and III), and John Nguyen (design director, Ep. III) of the ILMxLAB and Colum Slevin head of media in the AR/VR experiences team at Oculus to talk about Vader Immortal Episode III , the final chapter of the series. We dig into what the team has learned across the arc of three episodes, and so much more. Plus: two Noah rants. Woof. Show Notes - My review of Vader Immortal Ep...
Nov 22, 2019•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 224
This week on the show we travel up to CalArts and talk with Sam Dubois, the creator of Albany CA's The Avenue Adventure . Sam, now a sophomore at the University, got his start by creating the Albany Haunt when he was 12-years-old. He then ran it for five years. The Avenue Adventure was Sam's first crack at an Alternate Reality Game, and he managed to get the local Chamber of Commerce signed on. Look, what I'm saying to you is this: the next generation of immersive creators are here and they are ...
Nov 15, 2019•54 min•Season 1Ep. 223
Nick Rheinwald-Jones & Katelyn Schiller are the co-writers of ' Safehouse '82 ,' a spy thriller that follows up on Rheinwald-Jones' 'Safehouse '77' which featured the two as actors. Since that show Schiller has become co-artistic director of the company Rheinwald-Jones founded, with the pair collaborating on this summer's 'The Pod' at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. We talked with the co-writers on the eve of the opening of the new show, at the safehouse itself in an undisclosed location in t...
Nov 08, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 222
Bernie Su is the multiple Emmy winning showrunner, co-creator, and executive producer of ' Artificial ,' the first scripted narrative series on Twitch which also won Twitch its first Emmy. Bernie's been at this for a while, with ' The Lizzie Bennet Diaries ' being one of the seminal works of the transmedia age. As live immersive and interactive creators look to expanding their work across mediums -- just check out our last podcast episode for an example -- we thought it would be a good time to c...
Nov 01, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 221
As individual performers keight leighn ( bedrumplai , snow fridge ) and Elisabeth Stranathan ( blackout , bedrumplaii )have an otherworldly intensity to them, as if they existed both in our reality and in a metareality just two steps to the left of our own. Together they form the G8B4 -- which so far specializes in one on one experiences for audiences in person and online. , their current offering, puts the audience into the role of a cheating spouse whose fling comes back for revenge. The whole...
Oct 25, 2019•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 220
Actor Alex Demers (The Johnny Cycle: The Living, The Blue Blade) joins us to talk about the craft of acting in immersive and his own journey into the immersive field. Plus: a big update on the 2020 Summit , as in DATES, LOCATION, and NAME and some notes on a new musical in LA -- CAGES . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Oct 18, 2019•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 219
Dave Bushore of Marvel Studios and Ian Bowie & Michael Koperwas of ILMxLAB join us to talk about ' Avengers: Damage Control ' the all-new collaboration between their companies and The VOID . The VR adventure is the biggest yet to hit The VOID's hyper-reality centers, and it puts you in the role of new recruits who must take the latest Wakandan/Stark tech and use it to help the post-Endgame Avengers defeat a resurgent evil. Read our review. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...
Oct 15, 2019•26 min
Julia Henning, founder of The Halogen Company , is a familiar presence on the LA immersive scene. As an actor, she's performed with Just Fix It Productions ( Haus of Creep ), The Speakeasy Society ( Johnny III ), and in Darren Lynn Bousman's Lust Experience and Theatre Macabre . As Creative Director of Halogen, she's taken the company into both traditional and immersive endeavors, with One Exit , and the planned Sea of Odds . Show Notes: Inside Immersive: Haus of Creep (video) Hosted on Acast. S...
Oct 11, 2019•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 218
Last week, at VIFF Immersed , Ricky Brigante of Pseudonym Productions gave the opening keynote and our own Noah Nelson moderated the closing panel with the competition judges. So naturally, the night before, Ricky and Noah stayed up drinking and talking, and recorded it all for you. This after the back and forth of first Noah’s and then Ricky’s column on growing the audience for immersive. Recorded live in an awesome hotel room that the Vancouver Film Festival was kind enough to provide us with....
Oct 04, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 217
Eric Gradman, CTO and Mad Inventor at LA's Two Bit Circus meets up with Noah at their DTLA headquarters to talk about the technical side of immersive and their all-new story room Dr. Botcher's Minute Medical School . Head's up: there's cursing. Show Notes: This week's Picks of the Week Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Sep 27, 2019•57 min•Season 1Ep. 216
Survivor: China and Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance player Peih-Gee Law joins NoPro's Anthony Robinson ( Survivor: Fiji ) and Room Escape Artist 's David Spira for a talk about how Survivor is the ultimate immersive experience for its players, and their shared love of escape games and puzzles. All to celebrate the premiere of Survivor: Island of the Idols . Originally scheduled as part of our Everything Else livestream series, this bonus episode heralds the beginning of new podcast programmin...
Sep 25, 2019•1 hr 24 min
John Henningsen, Artistic Director of LA's Thymele Arts sits down to talk with Noah about just what the performing arts incubator in East Hollywood is, its role in the immersive world, and the future of immersive in LA. Note: John very graciously gives us a desk in the co-working space free of charge, but that's not why we're talking to him. We're talking to him because he and Thymele are an integral part of LA's immersive scene. SHOW NOTES Those Who Play: Notes on Building An Immersive Audience...
Sep 20, 2019•1 hr 42 min•Season 1Ep. 215
Choreographer Koryn Ann Wicks stops by the studio to talk about her work exploring immersive in dance. Her I Love You So Much, SQUEEZE ME TO DEATH is getting a remount at the Bootleg Theater this October in LA, and her and her team recently took home the grand prize of the LA Immersive Invitational for their work CASTING . We dive in on the language of dance and immersive in this one. Show Notes Our review of I Love You So Much, SQUEEZE ME TO DEATH I Love You So Much, SQUEEZE ME TO DEATH fundrai...
Sep 13, 2019•1 hr 9 min•Season 1Ep. 214
Graham Wetterhahn, Founder of After Hours Theatre Company ( One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, The Last Five Years: A Multisensory Experience) joins host Noah Nelson to talk about the founding of the company, their immersive-adjacent work, and the first LA Immersive Invitational -- which was a total blast. Show Notes: The 2019 Immersive Design Summit videos are here! Denver Immersive Retrospectacle highlights ! Talking Spies with Nick Rheinwald-Jones. E.I. livestream on pop-ups . And bookmark next...
Sep 06, 2019•1 hr 26 min•Season 1Ep. 213
The co-creator of Blackout Haunted House , Josh Randall, joins host Noah Nelson to talk about the storied show -- which has inspired many others in the horror genre -- and his storied career. "Each and every conversation I've ever had with Josh has challenged how I see our field, and this is no exception. I look forward to years more of them." -Noah Check out Blackout's Kickstarter . Show Notes: VIFF: These Sleepless Nights , NYFF: Convergence , Delusion: Alt-Delete , Haus of Creep , Without Wal...
Aug 30, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 212
This week Jonathan Pedigo and Alex Leff, the co-creators of Bar of Dreams Los Angeles , join host Noah Nelson to talk about pranks, comedy, and creating interactive experiences. It's a fun conversation that goes in directions you don't quite expect. Plus: we check in with Scout Expedition Company about The Nest , the tickets for which went ON SALE today! And there are LIMITED DATES available already. Note: while the interview with Jeff & Jarret of Scout is squeaky clean, there's some explici...
Aug 24, 2019•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 211
Jacob Patterson of Think Tank Gallery and Bobby of the Pizzaboyzzz join us as we visit the Tank at the edge of the Arts District in DTLA. The current show is Nothing Cheezy , a pizza-themed collaborative art show that acts as both a parody of the ubiquitous "selfie palaces" and, well, it's also a selfie palace. The show has been extended through mid-September and features special events pretty much every night for the price of admission. Get ready for a freewheeling discussion about street art, ...
Aug 16, 2019•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 210
Three interviews from the floor of the world's biggest computer graphics conference that explore the state of the art of immersive tech: From Magic Leap Studios , Dan Lehrich VP of Production; the CEO of Glassbox Technologies , Norman Wang ; and the Chief Creative and GM of Intel Studios , Diego Prilusky . Augmented reality, virtual production, and volumetric filmmaking are our topics of the day, so get ready to go into the future on this episode of the NoPro Podcast. Want to keep the show going...
Aug 09, 2019•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 209
Jackalope Live Action Studio's Matthew Webb rejoins us to talk about their latest forays into making blockbuster LARPs. We talk Night City, their Cyberpunk 2020/2077 game ( check out some awesome photos of the event along with us at the top of the show ), and the revamp of The Night In Question , the Studio's successful Vampire: The Masquerade game which has led to their announcement at GenCon this week of The Elysium Chronicles , a serialized immersive LARP launching in 2020. For more from Matt...
Aug 02, 2019•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 208
Kathryn Yu sits down with Jordan Chlapecka and Kendra Slack of Linked Dance Theatre to talk about Remembrance , their 11th site-specific, immersive show coming soon to a historic house on Governors Island in NYC. In Remembrance , audiences will have the ability to explore the fading memories of a woman with Alzheimer's Disease as they enter her home as guests during her 65th birthday party. The three discuss the company's approach to blending movement, text, and live music; what they’ve learned ...
Jul 26, 2019•1 hr 48 min•Season 1Ep. 207
Join host Noah Nelson and guest Dan Rutstein, president of immersive technology company Laduma , as they talk about the current frontier of immersive tech. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Jul 19, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 206
Kathryn Yu sits down without Ricky Brigante and Sarah Elger of Pseudonym Productions who have recently moved their immersive theatre company from Orlando to Philadelphia. The three of them have a wide-ranging conversation about Sarah's background in architecture and theme park design and Ricky's background in theme park journalism, the forming of their immersive theatre company, creating their first show, running an immersive theatre business in a place like Orlando, their recent experience goin...
Jul 12, 2019•1 hr 18 min•Season 1Ep. 205
