This time out Blake Weil, Patrick McLean, and Kevin Gossett report back from the NoPro Book Club and dive into Neal Stephenson's seminal Snow Crash, the 1992 book that brought us the term "metaverse" laid the groundwork for countless imitators and an industry.

Coming up next from the NoPro Book Club: Laura Hall's Planning Your Escape. The club meets for its discussion group next Tuesday, April 12th at 8pm EDT/5pm PDT.

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This week we talk with Amy Ashton, producer of La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival which runs April 21st - 24th at San Diego’s Liberty Station — it’s the longest-running theatre festival of its kind here in the United States and this marks the beginning of an annual cycle for the festival. [4:36]

Then solo performer Siobhan O’ Loughlin will be here to chat about the upcoming remount of her piece Every Day I’ll Hope, which returns to LA this month. [37:00]

Plus Kathryn Yu has this week's immersive headlines and the Pick of the Week [32:49].

Associate Producer: Parker Sela

Music: Chris Porter 

Headlines: Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor of No Proscenium

Producer and Host: Noah Nelson  

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The Review Crew goes on another deep dive, single-topic discussion this week about Cadences: The Story of a Distance of its Pair. Leah Davis and Blake Weil recount in detail their experience play-at-home LARP from Soft Chaos. The conversation also goes into their LARPing experience and thoughts on storytelling, as Patrick McLean peppers the pair with questions. Note: while there are “spoilers” about gameplay functionality and the story Leah and Blake created, anyone else’s playthrough of Cadences would definitely be completely different. 

A limited number of physical copies of Cadences are still available to order on Indiegogo along with a digital download available on itch.io.

Upcoming NoPro Events

March 31 @ 6pm PDT/9pm EDT - Community Forum: Expectations & Advisories

April 12th @ 5pm PDT/8pm EDT - Book Club: Planning Your Escape

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Some know Josh Randall as the co-creator of the seminal immersive horror production BLACKOUT, others as the director of large-scale promotional activations at Comic-Con and in Hollywood, and yet others as part of the team at Two Bit Circus in LA — some of us even know him as all three. This week he's here to talk about something radically different: his performance in a site-responsive production of Will Eno’s Thom Pain (based on nothing) that he’s staging in his own garage in Los Angeles.

Settle in for an incredibly personal interview with one of the most provocative minds I know.

Plus: Kathryn Yu is here with this week's headlines.

SHOW NOTES

Peabody Award Legacy Winners

PGA Innovation Award Winner

Review Rundown

Community Forum: Expectations & Advisories (Discord; March 31)

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In honor of this week's Game Developers Conference, we're dropping this NoPro Bonus Round segment, a sequel to episode 332 with Heavnue CEO Alex Coulombe. Our conversation picks up right after the end of that conversation with a dive into how the current state of cloud gaming architecture is setting the stage for the virtual, ah, stages of the tomorrow. Then we get even nerdier after that. Originally planned as a backer-exclusive, we're putting this one out there for everyone. If you haven't listened to episode 332 yet, start there! Host: Noah Nelson

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Like it says on the tin: a special bonus episode all about the ARGs of The Batman and how they have, and haven't, woven themselves into the fabric of the movies they've promoted. Michael Andersen of ARGN.com joins host Noah Nelson to nerd out on the still ongoing ARG for The Batman (the main url for which is rataalada.com), the history of Batman movie ARGS -- why so serious? -- and Noah derails the conversation to just talk about Batman in general because its the one thing he's loved longer than Star Wars.

Check out Michael's detective work at this ARGN.com post.

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We're joined by Diana Williams, Kamal Sinclair, and Yasmin Elayat of the Peabody Award's new Digitial and Interactive jury to discuss the new category of the prestigious awards ahead of the reveal of the Legacy award winners at the Peabody ceremony on March 24th. This is a major milestone for a wide range of creative projects that until now have fallen outside the Awards mandate.

Plus: Headlines

Upcoming NoPro Events

DIY Publicity 101 (March 21- Zoom, Paid Ticket)

AMA: Tara O'Con (March 24 - Discord, Free)

Community Forum: Expectations & Advisories (March 31 - Discord, Free)

Walkabout Mini Golf VR Tour (April - Free, game/headset required)

Book Club: Planning Your Escape (April 12 - Discord Free)

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The Review Crew takes another trip—this time to Little Sodaburg. Fresh off a playthrough of The Traveler’s Guide to Little Sodaburg, Kevin Gossett, Allie Marotta, Blake Weil, and Patrick McLean discuss this delightful escape game. They chat about what makes it work so well, how it taps into the rare brand of comedy in immersive theatre, and more. Fair warning: The Crew talks generally about the show up to the twelve-minute mark and then its full spoilers through for the next twenty-plus minutes.

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Like it says on the tin: NoPro's Executive Editor Kathryn Yu and Publisher Noah Nelson share their impressions of some of the offerings in this year's SXSW XR Experience field. Included in this episode:

Madam Pirate: Becoming A Legend

Surviving 9/11 - 27 Hours Under The Rubble

On The Morning You Wake (to the End of the World)

Gumball Dreams

Minimum Mass

& More

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This week's doubleheader goes deep into live immersive again with a talk with Josh Jacobs (CEO) & Jenny Weinbloom (Head of Studio) of Impact Museums, who are part of the partnership that has brought Immersive Van Gogh around the country and have plans that dive into everything from immersive theatre to STEM museum style experiences. [7:20]

Then we check in with Eric Shamlin, head of entertainment at Media Monks and chair of this year's Producers Guild of America Innovation Award committee. Eric is a long-time friend of the show, and we wax philosophical on the state of play in immersive. [41:55]

SHOW NOTES

NoPro Book Club (Discord RSVP)

Publicity 101 for Immersive Creators (Seminar)

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