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 AB5.

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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.

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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.

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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 read it. And while you're at it: check out our 'Jumanji' review and the NoPro Holiday Gift Guide.

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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 Episode III

- Will Cherry's review of The Under Presents

- Our bonus episode with Edward Saatchi of Fable Studio on Virtual Beings

- And Ari Herstand's article about how California's new freelance laws are going to hurt independent musicians.

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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 going to run laps around everybody. Let's gooooo.

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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 the shadow of Griffith Park.

Note: there be cursing ahead.

Plus: a note about how tickets to next year's HERE Summit are going to work.

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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 check in on how the parallel track of online interactive storytelling has matured in the last half-decade.

Plus: updates on our Patreon campaign and on the HERE Summit in 2020.

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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 thing plays out via email and Instagram's video messaging, creating a campy emotional thrill ride that can be experienced wherever you are.

Show Notes: The rules for our Dismember The Alamo contest.

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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.

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