This week on the show we’ve got a double feature.

First up: Graham Wetterhahn of After Hours Theatre Company and NoPro’s own Parker Sela stop by to talk about Dark Library Paris: 1925, a new immersive cocktail experience that’s running in North Hollywood at present.

Then: immersive theatre creator Michael Bontatibus, whose company Witness we have covered in the past here at NoPro, joins us to talk about the state of immersive theatre as a whole, based on a recent essay he wrote entitled "What Happened to Immersive Theatre? How traditional and immersive theatre could rebuild together."

SHOW NOTES

• Dark Library Paris: 1925 
• After Hours Theatre Company
• What Happened to Immersive Theatre?
• Witness
• The 2025 NoPro Audience Award Nominees
• Secret Cinema: Grease
• Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas Tickets On Sale Announcement

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This week on the show we’re joined by Planning Your Escape author and one of the creators of the upcoming Mystery Ave. in Portland, the one and only Laura Hall — who will not be talking about EITHER of those things but instead talking about the Center for Immersive Arts — her project to help preserve key parts of the history of immersive art.That includes the resurrection of the classic Alternate Reality Game forum known as the Unforum, as a static archive that captures a key moment in time.

SHOW NOTES

• Center for Immersive Arts
• The Unforum (Archive)
• Planning Your Escape
• Mystery Ave.
• NoPro’s 10 Most Anticipated New Immersive Works of 2025 (Part I)
• Immersive Review Rundown: Worlds Beyond, Worlds Within
• CALL SHEET FEBRUARY 2025

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This week we are joined by Scott Cramton, the founder of American Immersion Theater which includes The Murder Mystery Co., who put together thousands of interactive events around the country each year — many of them for private clients — but who have once again returned to public shows most recently with Speakeasy Die Softly at Carmine’s in Times Square in New York City.

SHOW NOTES

• American Immersion Theater
• The Murder Mystery Co.
• Speakeasy Die Softly
• NoPro’s 10 Most Anticipated New Immersive Works of 2025 (Part I)
• Immersive Review Rundown: Worlds Beyond, Worlds Within
• NOW PLAYING: ThotBot Implantation Center
• NOW PLAYING: Last Call Theatre presents Love Game
• CALL SHEET FEBRUARY 2025

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This week on the show, Stefanie Frey the Director of Organizing & Mobilization for Actor’s Equity Association — joins us to talk about how Equity — the union for actors and stage managers — has been expanding its membership into places like escape rooms and themed restaurants that touch upon our world of immersive experiences.

SHOW NOTES

• Actor's Equity Association

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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.

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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 Next Stage Immersive Summit speaker Wendy McClellan Anderson
• GoFundMe for 2025 Next Stage Immersive Summit speaker Suzanne Down of Cirque Berzerk
• LA Immersive Industry Mixer at Squirrelor's Tavern

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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

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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

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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

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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

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