The No Proscenium Podcast

This week we're joined by Graham Wetterhahn, Sara Beil, and KJ Knies of After Hours Theatre Company to talk about The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, their current collaboration with the Shakespeare Center LA. The gang at After Hours Theatre Company are some of our favorite people to talk shop with.Show NotesThe Tempest: An Immersive ExperienceAfter Hours Theatre CompanyShakespeare Center LANext Stage: Spotlight Sessions & Deep DivesImagi-Ne'er-Do-Wells w/ Jenn Wong & Noah Nelson - April 23, 2023Review Rundown for 4.4.23The Immersive 5 with Brett Jackson of Imagi-Ne’er-Do-WellsDesert X 2023 Begets Apathy and Heartbreaking Magic (Review) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we head down to San Diego to talk with Optika Moderna's David Israel Reynoso about LA LUCHA, the company's latest immersive theatre piece that will preview during the Without Walls Festival (April 27-30) and then full open in May. Reynoso's previous shows Waking La Llorona and Las Quinceañeras stand tall in NoPro's immersive pantheon, and we expect LA LUCHA to to the same. Plus: a few more notes on WOW, and some updates on The Next Stage and our ongoing Patreon campaign.SHOW NOTESDon’t Miss These Shows At Without Walls Festival 2023Immersive Review Rundown for 3.28.23Intercon U 2023 — A NoPro DiaryNoPro Pod: Getting Down with the ‘Brassroots District’ and Planning Your EscapeCall Sheet March 2023The Next Stage Scholarship & Subsidy ApplicationThe Next Stage Badges Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Those of you who follow the world of experiential marketing have definitely heard of Giant Spoon, the full stack advertising agency that has put together some of the most talked about marketing activations of the era. Favorites of ours like SXSWestworld, The Last of Us premiere, or maybe our favorite thing ever: The Ink Hole puppet speakeasy for The HappyTime Murders. We talk a lot about production here, but we wanted to understand more about how these activations come into being from the client/agency side of the equation, and no one is better for insight into that process than Giant Spoon co-founder Marc Simons. Fresh off being named the most innovative ad agency in the world by Fast Company, we sat down with Marc to get a handle on the view of the experiential marketing world from his point of view.SHOW NOTESGiant SpoonCall Sheet March 2023Review Rundown for 3.14.23The Next Stage Summit 2023The Next Stage Pricing InfoNoPro Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week a special teamspeak episode of the podcast featuring the NoPro Staff including Leah Davis, Patrick McLean, Laura Hess, Blake Weil, and for the first time on the show Parker Sela, our associate producer.We recorded this a couple of weeks ago, chatting about what we’ve been going to see and experience with a touch of what we’re looking forward to.The conversation ranges WILDLY, but at around the 55 minute mark we get into a discussion and a description of artist Paul McCarthy’s White Snow for about 20 minutes. That involves discussion some pretty graphic imagery, and younger ears or those who just don’t want to get into sexualized material may want to hop ahead.So yeah, that’s an EXPLICIT tag. We’re so 90's.SHOW NOTESDoors Of DivergenceLiving PaintingsPOV: you are an ai achieving consciousnessPaul McCarthy’s WS White SnowInterconUA Blistering Case of SXSW FOMO (A NoPro Guide)Review Rundown for 3.7.23CALL SHEET March 2023 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the show our dear friend artist Nancy Baker Cahill is back for another enlightening conversation about digital art — both her work and the big currents that are shaping this constantly evolving world — from XR to working on massive public pieces that are immersive in a whole other dimensions, with stops along the way to talk about museum grade NFTs and incorporating generative AI into the work. SHOW NOTESNancy Baker CahillNoPro Podcast Episode 177: Nancy Baker CahillQuest’s Back Catalog Could Be A Knockout, But Meta Pulls Its PunchesImmersive Review Rundown for 2.28.23Hunt A Killer Reviews Round UpSXSW: Sport And Immersive: The Past and Future of Fan EngagementSXSW: Is This Really Live? Performance in the Age of XRSXSW: This is Not a Person Part 2 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the show NoPro’s London curator Shelley Snyder takes over the interview duties to talk with Immersive Everywhere’s Brian Hook about the company’s upcoming debut of The Great Gatsby in New York City after a long London run, along with a few updates about Gatsby’s future in the UK.It's the first of what’s set to be some regular podcast dispatches coming out of London thanks to the continued support of our Patreon backers. SHOW NOTESImmersive EverywhereThe Great GatsbyReview Rundown for 2.22.23Call Sheet for Feb 2023Everything Immersive Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the show YET ANOTHER doubleheader, only this time we’re staying on the VR side of things with a check in with ILMxLAB and then with the organizers of the XR Live Performance festival.First — From ILMxLAB we talk with Director Jose Perez III and CG & Lighting Lead Ronman Ng about the PLAYSTATION VR2 launch title Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge: Enhanced Edition. This is what it says on the tin: an Enhanced Edition of the game we already love, and we get into just what is going into the new edition, what the PSVR2’s haptics are opening up for designers, and the state of VR on this eve of the launch of the highly anticipated peripheral for the wildly successful Playstation 5.Then Braden Roy and Brian Tull of The Ferrymen Collective are here to talk about something at the other end of the VR spectrum: the XR Live Performance Exhibition now underway which is putting the spotlight on one of VR’s all too secret joys: live interactive theatrical performances staged inside virtual worlds.  SHOW NOTESILMxLABStar Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge: Enhanced EditionXRLive Performance ExhibitionThe Ferrymen CollectiveReview Rundown: The One With Murder Mysteries, An Evil Ikea, and a Baby in a Well‘NOWISWHEREWEARE’ Brings Us to ‘The Stars’ and Back (REVIEW)NoPro's CALL SHEET, February 2023NoPro Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the show another doubleheader, this time reaching into two different parts of the immersiverse.First up we have a great talk with Nate Koch, the prolific producer who has been part of Sleep No More, Queen of the Night, and the epic opening of Hermès’ flagship store in New York City to talk about a career that balances creating art and working with some of the biggest companies in the world as clients for experiential marketing. It’s the first time Nate and I have talked, and we have a fantastic conversation. Then Athena Demos and Doug Jacobson of Big Rock Creative are back on the show to chat about the surprise closing of AltSpaceVR, where they’ve been hosting the award winning virtual Burning Man celebration known as BRCvr, the future of that particular project and of Big Rock Creative as a whole… and we get into some broader thoughts about the state of VR at this particular moment in time.SHOW NOTESEnveekayWith a Musical Block Party Extravaganza, Hermès Feted its New (and Marvelous) Madison Avenue Home (Vogue)Big Rock CreativeAltspaceVR is shutting down as Microsoft’s mixed reality division shrinks (The Verge)BRCvrCALL SHEET FEBRUARY 2023 (NoPro)NoPro’s 10 Most Anticipated New Works of 2023 (So Far) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the show a DOUBLEHEADER with a double dose of horror.First, our good friend Bryan Bishop stops by wearing a brand new hat: he’s the Immersive Curator for this year’s Overlook Film Festival — the horror focused genre festival which is coming up in March in New Orleans, and he’s here to tell us all about what’s on tap for the festival. Then Winston Fisher, Co-Founder and CEO of AREA 15 dials in to give us the lowdown on the recently announced next phase of the Area 15 District in Las Vegas, which will include the first YEAR ROUND Halloween Horror Nights attraction from Universal. SHOW NOTESOverlook Film FestivalFangoria Article on Overlook's immersive offeringsArea 15Universal Is Bringing A Year-Round Horror Attraction To Vegas' Area 15 (Las Vegas Weekly)NoPro’s 10 Most Anticipated New Works of 2023 (So Far)A Shift at ‘Saint Jude’ (Review, NoPro)The Immersive 5 with Patchwork Adventures (NoPro) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week a special episode of the pod as Leah Davis, our New England correspondent, takes over the host duties for a panel on LARP in 2023. They’re joined by Darker Larper aka Dann, a LARP creator and academic and Nicholas Fortugno, Director of Gaming Pathways at City College of NY and co-founder of the Come Out and Play festival. (Plus Noah is there in the background, engineering and chiming in a little.)Show NotesNYC Immersive Community MeetupThe Nest40 Watts From Nowhere on KCRWCall Sheet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.