This week on the show, the Review Crew – in the form of NYC curator Allie Marotta, East Coast Editor at Large Blake Weil, Exec. Editor Emeritus Kathryn Yu, NYC correspondent Penelope Ray, and host Noah Nelson – gather to talk about the end of Sleep No More ’s era defining run in New York City and the last run of shows and parties at the McKittrick Hotel, the show’s venue in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood which now recedes into history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informatio...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 470
The original plan for this week was for us to have no episode while The Next Stage Immersive Summit was on. Because of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in LA brought about by the wildfires The Next Stage is postponed. We'll have more on the plans for that at a later date. In the meantime check the show notes for how to help those in LA. Show Notes LA Fires: How You Can Help (compiled by Kathryn Yu) GoFundMe for immersive actor Brandon Bales’ family to find a new place to live GoFundMe for 2023 Ne...
Jan 17, 2025•10 min
A quick check in from LA as the fire situation evolves, including updates on The Next Stage Immersive Summit, which at present is still on at the Pasadena Playhouse Jan 17-19. We will check in next week. SHOW NOTES GoFundMe for Suzanne Down to recover from the Eaton Fire Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jan 10, 2025•16 min
This week on the show, Parker Sela takes up the host duties to interview Nicole Orabona and Nathan Leigh of CirqueSaw about their remote repertory season consisting of Void Main , a revival of POV: You Are an AI Achieving Consciousness and workshop dates for labRats and just why an online theatre company is going to all the trouble of coding its own platform. SHOW NOTES CirqueSaw @ WellAttended (ticketing site) CirqueSaw Instagram Next Stage Immersive Summit: Program Guide Hosted on Acast. See a...
Jan 03, 2025•56 min•Season 1Ep. 469
This week we wrap our End of the Year podcasts with our annual gathering of the NoPro Crew to look back at the year that was in immersive and look forward to what might be. Joining us for the chat are NoPro Toronto Curator Katrina Lat, New York Correspondent Nicholas Fortugno, correspondent-at-large Martin Gimenez, and Senior LA Reviewer Kathryn Yu. SHOW NOTES In the Matter of the Death of ‘Tamara’: A Post-Mortem – LA Times, 1993 The Next Stage Immersive Summit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...
Dec 27, 2024•1 hr 39 min•Season 1Ep. 468
At the end of every year we pull together a roundtable of journalists covering immersive to look back on what was and this year we’re talking with our colleagues in London, starting with NoPro curator Shelley Snyder, the Voidspace’s Katy Naylor, Immersive Rumors' Graham Fitzgerald, and Franco Milazzo stage critic for Broadway World UK. SHOW NOTES Voidspace Immersive Rumors Franco Milazzo, Broadway World The Next Stage Immersive Summit NoPro's Best of 2024: Immersive Moments Hosted on Acast. See ...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 1Ep. 467
This week Ilana Gilovich , Chief Storyteller for Emursive Productions , joins me for our first-ever conversation and yes, we get into just what the Chief Storyteller for the production company behind Life And Trust and the McKittrick Hotel – home of Sleep No More in NYC — does and nerd out as only two theatre kids meeting for the first time can do. Happy Holidays: it’s one of THOSE No Pro episodes and a good one at that. Plus: the latest updates on The Next Stage Immersive Summit including HASBR...
Dec 13, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 466
This week Shawn Kittelsen SVP Creative at Skydance Interactive, the creators of the just released Skydance’s Behemoth (available now on PSVR2, Steam VR, and Meta Quest) joins us to talk about the game which puts players into the role of Wren, a lone hunter who sets off for the Forsaken Lands to lift a terrible curse. The only way to do so is by saying the towering gods known as Behemoths. In this talk we get into storytelling in VR, the way dynamic, spatial games systems lead players to embody c...
Dec 06, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 465
This week we have a delightful doubleheader. First up we have Ryan Payton , director of Batman: Arkham Shadow . I’ve been following Ryan’s career since he founded his studio Camouflaj back in 2011 back when I was doing stories about the rise of crowdfunding and here we are on the cusp of 2025 talking about the greatest game to be released on the Meta Quest platform so far. In this conversation we get deep into the storytelling that drives the action of Batman: Arkham Shadow , which is some of th...
Nov 27, 2024•1 hr 45 min•Season 1Ep. 464
This week we have a doubleheader as first we are joined by Third Rail Project’s Co-Artistic Director Jennine Willlet and musician Coyle Girelli to talk about their new collaboration True Love Forever, which has just opened in NYC. Then Immersive Experience Institute co-founder Kathryn Yu joins me as we break down just how next year’s Next Stage Immersive Summit — coming up Jan 17-19 in Pasadena, CA — is going to work as the event evolves some new forms and formats. SHOW NOTES True Love Forever T...
Nov 22, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 463
On this episode: a preview of our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide with Kathryn Yu, Kevin Gossett, Patrick McLean, and Noah Nelson. Find the perfect gift for the immersive fan in yourself (even if that's just you). SHOW NOTES GIFT GUIDE LINKS Box TWO by Neil Patrick Harris and Theory11 Clue: Treachery at Tudor Mansion The Morrison Game Factory Star Trek: Resurgence Alan Wake 2 Star Wars: Outlaws Life & Trust Gift Experience McKittrick Snow Globe Star Wars Etsy Universe Meow Wolf Vista Boss 2120 NOT G...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 462
The last time British-Iranian theatre maker Javaad Alipoor joined us was way back in May of 2021 when we talked about Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran — which at the time we said was “an incredible multi-media theatre piece that links a constellation of Big Ideas into an incredibly human story.” His most recent work Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World is just about to wrap up it's tour of the US and is the final part of a trilogy of plays – after T he Believers Are Bu...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 461
After our annual break we are back this week on a double header. First up, the one and only Nick Moran of Phantom Peak will be joining us to talk about the London favorite, which has conjured a Wild West town not far from the Canada Water station. What is in that Canada Water and why are there so many platypuses involved? We WON’T learn the answers to those questions but we will learn all about Phantom Peak and why it’s taking so long for it to make it to the United States in this dynamic conver...
Nov 01, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 460
This week on the show we gather the Review Crew to chat about our various Spooky Season and Autumnal Escapades. Nick Fortugno, Blake Weil, Katrina Lat, Laura Hess, and Patrick McLean join host Noah Nelson as we go coast to coast over to London, and into the wilds of VR in search of chills and thrills. SHOW NOTES The Next Stage Immersive Summit Denver Immersive Invitational Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The Afterlife Experience Jimmy Fallon's Tonightmares House of Exquisite Corpse IV: Superstitions Ph...
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 1Ep. 459
This week on the show we’re joined by Wesley James and Dallas Nichols of Phoenix based design + build firm LINE LAB for a conversation about building unique immersive environments for places like The Nemesis Club , and Platform 18 and the UnderTow Tiki Bar at Century Grand - all of which have received glowing reviews and accolades. But before we do that we’ll we kick things off with Tia Shearer Bassett , organizer of The From Home Fest to tell us all about this immersive festival which you can e...
Oct 11, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 1Ep. 458
This week we’re joined by Carmel Clavin of Spectacle & Mirth , who just wrapped a tour of two immersive works — J ourney to the Kingdom of Hypnos and City Liminal — to talk about the challenges and opportunities of touring immersive work around the globe through the network of Fringe Festivals and beyond. And we break down the Badge Pricing and On-Sale dates for the 2025 Next Stage Immersive Summit. SHOW NOTES Spectacle & Mirth Badge Pricing & On Sale Dates for the 2025 Next Stage Im...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 457
This week we’re climbing The Ladder of success with Terry Pettigrew-Rolapp and Tommy Wallach of Hatch Escapes in Los Angeles as we talk about The Ladder , their long in development new game that turns escape game conventions on their ear and establishes itself as a new can’t miss immersive attraction. SHOW NOTES The Ladder Hatch Escapes The Immersive Industry Report Surveys The Next Stage Summit Scholarships GhostRave (Use code GRPG for 10% off) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more in...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 1Ep. 456
This week we heading to heaven and a galaxy far far away… sort of. The Heaven is Cowboix Hevvven , currently being built inside Meow Wolf’s RADIO TAVE in Houston, and we’re talking to Cole Bee Wilson, the creator of this new space which is Meow Wolf’s first fully functioning dive bar inside one of their exhibitions. We talk to Cole from just outside the worksite, in the middle of a busy build, and it’s a fantastic chat. Then we connect with Mike and Emily Hyde of Hyperspace Props, the popular cr...
Sep 20, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 455
Another double header! First up, today is iPhone pre-order day, and that makes it a great day to drop my interview from July with Adam Lisagor, the man behind Sandwich — the firm that got its start making ads for apps and companies big and small because of the the original iPhone and has gotten BACK into the app development game for the Vision Pro with the apps Television and Theatre — with the later being used to broadcast a live event captured in 3D and Spatial Audio at this June’s Apple World...
Sep 13, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 454
We kick off our Spooky Season 2024 coverage with an LA double header. First up: Justin Fix , Stephanie Turek , and Daniel Montgomery of JFI Productions are here with us to talk about the return of CREEP — the show that started it all for JFI and which has been one of the foundational rocks of LA’s Spooky Season for nearly a decade now. This year’s CREEP is a collaboration with the CBS series GHOSTS , and we’ll learn how that teamup is making a difference with the 2024 show. Then Matt Dorado — kn...
Sep 06, 2024•52 min•Season 1Ep. 453
This week a doubleheader: Stephen Dobbie and Colin Nightingale of A Right/Left Project whose ORIGIN - A DEEP LISTENING EXPERIENCE is returning to London this September as part of London Design Week join us first. Stephen and Colin have been collaborators for two decades now, including their work with Punchdrunk stretching back to the early days of the storied companies. As a Right/Left Project they’re exploring new forms, iterating quickly, and have established their own signature style. Then we...
Aug 30, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Season 1Ep. 452
This week we’ve got a really unique edition of the podcast because a year ago I messed up! Last August I interviewed Doug North Cook , the CEO & Creative Director at Creature a new VR video game studio & label that draws upon the team's deep roots in both video games and VR, and is using a model that means indie studios can get the benefits of working with a larger publisher without giving up control over their work. And then I forgot to share the interview! So we're making up for it by ...
Aug 16, 2024•1 hr 31 min•Season 1Ep. 451
We’re celebrating this milestone the best way we know how — by getting members of NoPro’s esteemed Review Crew together to wax philosophical about the state of things in the immersive cosmos. This time out associate producer Parker Sela, New York City correspondent Nicholas Fortugno, and New England Curator Leah Davis join host Noah Nelson for a discussion that touches on the notions of “immersive before immersive” and “immersive after immersive” — and while we’re at it there are bits about Plas...
Aug 09, 2024•1 hr 33 min•Season 1Ep. 450
This week: we’re back to the double header groove, first with a stop to chat with Aaron Blanton & Este Olivia, owners The Ghoulish Sanctuary , a Haunted Mansion inspired Airbnb in Kissimmee, Florida and then we look to the future with Corvas Brinkerhoff, one of the co-founders of Meow Wolf to talk about his new venture the in-development SUBMERSIVE , an immersive art spa that is planned to launch in Austin . SHOW NOTES The Ghoulish Sanctuary Submersive Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy ...
Aug 02, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 449
Listen in on host Noah Nelson's first conversation ever with legendary ARG designer Adrian Hon as they talk about game design, escape games, defining immersive, training actors and more. It’s a winding conversation between two folks who love this stuff more than anyone reasonably should. SHOW NOTES Adrian Hon Edinburgh Fringe Immersive Creators Meetup w/Adrian Hon Zombies Run! Perplex City Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 26, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 448
This week on the show we have another double header, this time focused on escape game companies with a theatrical flair… or is that theatre companies who got the escape game itch? First: Tina Keenan , Managing Director of Toronto’s Secret City lets us on on their secrets: from their days of working with SCRAP to bring the escape game pioneer’s work to Toronto all the way to THE PERFECT BITE , their collaboration with Netflix . Then Jeffrey Carpenter & Tami Dixion of Pittsburgh theatre compan...
Jul 19, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 1Ep. 447
This week on the show: NoPro London Curator Shelley Snyder talks with Parabolic Theatre's Owen Kingston about the return of Bridge Command to London . Plus: Majestic Repertory Theatre's Troy Heard , writer & director of the new immersive adaptation of Jane Austen's EMMA and actress Coco Lane Rigbye (Emma) join host Noah Nelson to dish on the new production that opens this week in Las Vegas . SHOW NOTES Bridge Command Jane Austen's EMMA NoPro's Front Page Something Wicked Stirs In Kansas City...
Jul 12, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 446
This special edition of the podcast features NoPro's Nicholas Fortugno , Parker Sela , and Noah Nelson along with special guest Jeff Crocker (Mister & Mischief) as they trade notes on Julia Masli 's ha ha ha ha ha ha ha , in full Spolier Cast mode. SHOW NOTES ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (Boston) ha ha ha ha ha ha ha (Washington D.C.) Julia Masli Escape From Godot Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Jul 03, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Sometimes the timeline just makes you break format, which is what we're doing this week as an avalanche of projects have been unleashed. This week's episode sees us covering work in the fields of theatre, VR, escape games, and role playing games. Let's break it down: First up, Jef Aldrich & Jon Taylor , the creators of the Düngeonmeister series of books of unconventional tabletop roleplaying game supplements join me to talk about their latest, The Deck of Many Drinks , and nerd out about som...
Jun 28, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 445
This week a double feature double dip with two segments on Neotropolis , the cyberpunk festival in California's Mojave Desert that invites revlers to shed their mundane lives and embrace a neon soaked, cybernetically enhanced alternate reality. We kick things off with a panel featuring NoPro’s own Anthony Robinson , Reality Escape Pod co-host Peih-Gee Law , and Live Action Attraction’s Brett Jackson — who were part of the same camp at Neotropolis and in the case of Peih-Gee and Brett were part o...
Jun 21, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 1Ep. 444
