The No Proscenium Podcast

This summer a spectacle has bloomed at Meow Wolf’s Convergence Station in Denver and Omega Mart in Las Vegas, bringing a new interactive performance layer that unfolds on a continuous loop and new characters from uncharted corners of the multiverse in the form of dancers, puppets, and shimmering creatures called Flickerwermz.

It’s called Phenomenomaly and it’s running now through August 9th, and the event is inspired by the world — our world — of immersive theatre and dance. Joining us this week to talk about the event are Alexandra Renzo Contracted Creative Director of Phenomenomaly & Brie Lipari General Manger of Meow Wolf Denver.

SHOW NOTES

• Meow Wolf's Phenomenomaly
• Meow Wolf Denver
• Meow Wolf Las Vegas
• Meow Wolf & Niantic Spatial
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit

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This week on the show it’s a hangout show as members of the NoPro Review Crew — namely Toronto curator Katrina Lat, New York correspondent Nicholas Fortugno, our associate producer Parker Sela, and catching up part way through NYC curator Allie Marotta as we chat about a whole lot of things including the brisk sales on Masquerade — that’s the immersive Phantom of the Opera that goes into previews next month, Tribeca Immersive, Voidspace Live, and whatever else tickles our fancy.

• Masquerade
• Tribeca Immersive
• Voidspace Live
• Toronto Fringe
• Fairyland Summer Solstice Ceremony at the Apothecary
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit

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This week on the show we’re joined by long time friend of the show Brent Bushnell — co-founder of Two Bit Circus, scion of the famed Bushnell family, and one of the earliest subscribers to the No Proscenium newsletter — who is here to talk about a new venture he is a co-founder of along with Aidan Wolf and Kevin Habich — DeamPark which turns mixed reality headsets into a configurable virtual theme park — transforming public spaces into ticketed playgrounds filled with dynamic virtual characters and which recently raised over a million in seed funding.

• DreamPark
• DreamPark raises $1.1M to transform real-world spaces into mixed-reality theme parks (Games Beat)
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit Program Guide
• The Next Stage Immersive Sumit Badges

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This week on the show we’ve got another double header.

First up, Jake Pinholster the Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Creative Producer & Director Scarlett Kim — the producers of Worlds in Play, join us to talk about the upcoming gathering of play practitioners—game and theatre artists alike— which is coming to Monticello, Illinois this August.

Then joining us is Prescott Gadd, creator of Spies Among Us, a mystery adventure that takes place on weekends in DTLA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood — and for that interview we’ll be joined by No Pro’s own Kathryn Yu.

• Worlds In Play
• Spies Among Us
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit
• Next Stage: Intensive Schedule
• Next Stage: Speakers & Guests

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This week on the show we’ve got an extra-long double header with some real clarity of purpose as we take a look at IMMERSIVE inside Theme Parks.

First up, Mike Ostrom, Manager of Entertainment and Events for Six Flags Magic Mountain and WOW! Entertainment Inc’s Mark Brymer join me to spill the details on DC Heroes & Villains Festival - an immersive theatrical takeover of and Six Flags Magic Mountain and Six Flags Great Adventure this summer which kicks off at Magic Mountain in Southern California later this month, with a Grand Opening on June 21st and will hold its grand opening at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ on Aug 8th.

Then we have an all-star AFTER DARK with CNET’s Scott Stein, Overlook Film Festival’s Landon Zakheim, and NoPro’s Kathryn Yu and Parker Sela as we gather together to talk about Scott & Landon’s time at Universal’s Epic Universe, Kathryn, Parker, Landon, and Noah's time at Universal Fan Fest Nights, and the state of immersive — especially LIVE PERFORMER DRIVEN IMMERSIVE — in theme parks in 2025.

• DC Heroes & Villains Festival - Six Flags Magic Mountain
• DC Heroes & Villains Festival - Six Flag Great Adventure
• Wow! Entertainment Inc.
• Scott Stein @ CNET
• Overlook Film Festival
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit
• Miami Immersive Intensive

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Today on the show we’re talking about this year’s Tribeca Immersive offering at the Tribeca Festival which is currently running in New York City.

This year the lineup has come together thanks to a unique partnership between Tribeca, Onassis ONX, and Agog: The Immersive Media Institute. To tell us how that all came together we’ll be joined this week by Casey Baltes, VP Tribeca Games & Immersive; Jazia Hammoudi, Program Director at Onassis ONX; and returning to the show is Chip Giller co-founder and Executive Director of Agog: The Immersive Media Institute.

• Tribeca Immersive
• Agog: The Immersive Media Institute
• Onassis ONX
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit

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This week on the show we go into the field for a visit to Sypher Arts Studio where Labyrinth Masquerade founder Shawn Strider and producer Jacquie Adorni give us a tour of the treasure trove of costumes that make up the living tapestry that is the Labyrinth Masquerade — the Twenty Seventh edition of which will take place this coming August 15th & 16th at the Historic Biltmore in Downtown Los Angeles.

The Masquerade hosts thousands of guests each year, with many cosplayers and costumers going all out to create elaborate characters. The Labyrinth Masquerade is the place to see and be seen whether you are a Sylph from an airy dimension never visited by humans, or a hapless mortal wisked away from their prom night by a mischievous sprite. To get a sense of how hard folks go check the Photo Gallery in Show Notes below.

SHOW NOTES

• Labyrinth Masquerade
• Labyrinth Masquerade Photo Gallery
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit
• The Matrix in Shared Reality

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Little Cinema's Jay Rinsky joins us to talk about his most ambitious project yet:  bringing The Matrix — the 1999 blockbuster that defined action movies for a generation — to Cosm’s titanic video domes. In classic Little CInema style they’re using theatrical techniques to bring the world of The Matrix outside the film frame and onto the wrap around canvas of Cosm’s big screens.

• The Matrix in Shared Reality
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit

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This week on the show we are joined by Katy Naylor of Voidspace to talk about Voidspace Live, the interactive arts festival which is coming up in London June 7th & 8th and which is featuring a wonderful cross section of London’s always bubbling immersive & experiential scene.

• Voidspace Live
• The Next Stage Immersive Summit
• NoPro Backer Focus Group (Round One - Pillar of the Community Tier & Above)

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We wrap up our Detor into Andor: A Star Wars Story's second series with one more trip along the Rimma Trade Route to talk with Jay Bushman about the final arc – ever – of the series which pushed Star Wars storytelling in bold new directions.

Spoilers Abound.

Night Drive - Synthwave Cyberpunk by Elysium Sound

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