The No Proscenium Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 198 - Candle House Collective sings a 'moonlight serenade' May 17, 2019

Show notes

NoPro managing editor Kathryn Yu sits down with Evan Neiden, the creator behind Candle House Collective. The group has been creating ephemeral immersive experiences -- usually for an audience of one -- both in-person and remotely.

Episode 197: Vader Immortal May 09, 2019

Show notes

We visit Facebook's LA campus to talk with the team behind Vader Immortal, the launch title for the Oculus Quest that finds you captured by the Dark Lord of the Sith and set on a task only you can accomplish. Director Ben Snow, narrative designer Mohen Leo ILMxLAB and Oculus' Colum Slevin (Head of Media, AR/VR Experiences at Facebook) join us to talk about the brand new adventure which debuts this month.

Plus: host Noah Nelson's hands-on impressions of Vader Immortal and the Oculus Quest.

Read our review of Vader Immortal on the NoPro site.

Episode 196: Tribeca immersive Triptych May 03, 2019

Show notes

NoPro Executive Editor Kathryn Yu speaks to creators at the Tribeca Film Festival, exploring three different pieces currently showcasing at the Virtual Arcade through May 4.

She sits down with Kevin Cornish of Moth + Flame to talk about 2nd Civil War, where participants have the power to change the narrative of the VR film using a voice interface; they also go through an immersive theatre one-on-one with a performer before and after the VR experience. (Note: this interview took place in a busy cafe area.)

She also talks to Brandon Padveen, Associate Producer at MWM Immersive, about War Remains on the rooftop of Spring Studios; he discusses working with Dan Carlin of Hardcore History to create this “immersive memory” and designing the free-roaming VR experience, which includes a large set, realistic props, wind effects, rumbling floors, and more. (Read her War Remains review.)

Then she chats with immersive creator and director of the Columbia University Digital Storytelling Lab Lance Weiler to talk about his latest project, Where There’s Smoke. The work is an immersive experience for four people exploring Lance’s relationship with his father (a former volunteer firefighter and hobbyist fire photographer), his father’s battle with cancer, and two mysterious fires that happened during Lance’s childhood. He describes the project as a non-linear documentary, an immersive theatre piece without performers, and an escape room without any escape. (Read her Where There’s Smoke review.)

Episode 195: Overlook Film Fest 2019 Preview Apr 26, 2019

Show notes

Friend of the show Landon Zakheim and host Noah Nelson head to a park on a sunny Easter Sunday to talk about horror... um, kinda?

We dive into the immersive lineup at the 2019 Overlook Film Festival, which is full of fun surprises this May 30th - June 2nd in New Orleans.

Plus: Noah has some personal news.

Also: check out the LEIA Immersive Intensive, and a Behind The Scenes essay from Peter Billington of Fable on working with Third Rail Projects on 'Wolves in the Walls,' currently at Tribeca!

Episode 194 - I want to live in your mouth Apr 19, 2019

Show notes

Writer/Director David Ruzicka (Creep: Lore, The Willows) and creative producer Eric Vosmeier join host Noah Nelson to talk about their dark fantasy confection, I want to live in your mouth, that has transmogrified North Hollywood's Zombie Joe's Underground Theater into the stuff of childhood fever dreams.

It's a conversation where we dig in deep into the various flavors of horror in immersive, and lessons learned over years of producing.

You can also read our own Kevin Gossett's review of the show.

Head's up: there's some cursing at the start (my bad) but most of the episode is clean.

Episode 193 - The Nest Returns Apr 12, 2019

Show notes

The Nest -- which blended elements of escape rooms and podcast dramas -- was one of our favorite shows of 2017. The show's two LA-based creators Jeff Leinenveber and Jarrett Lantz, aka Scout Expedition Co., are bringing the piece back in an extended format this year.

This week they launched a Kickstarter campaign that will help with that effort, and they're on the show to tell us about what they have up their sleeve.

Show Notes:

LA Times Festival of Books: Noah's talk. The Scout Expedition talk. The Unsent Podcast. Dr. Alex Avila's Love University show.

The LEIA Immersive Intensive - April 27th in LA

Episode 192: Tales By Candlelight Apr 05, 2019

Show notes

Co-creators Christoff Visscher (Cantrip Candles) and Spencer Williams (Walk The Night) join host Noah Nelson to talk about their new collaboration Tales By Candlelight. This scent guided storytelling experience mixes the best of tabletop roleplaying with an olfactory journey to create an artifact of a place that never was. A place drawn from your imagination.

Join us on the trip.

Also: if you're in LA this month don't miss our talk at the LA Times Festival of Books or LEIA's Immersive Intensive.

(Plus Noah rambles on about whatever at the end of the show.)

Episode 191: The Mystery of 'The Willows' Mar 30, 2019

Show notes

On this very special episode, No Proscenium accepts an invitation into the home of a 'The Willows.'

Special thanks to Melinda DeKay, Misha Reeves, and Daniel Montgomery of Just Fix It Productions for helping us unravel the threads.

Episode 190: A Trip To Baltimore's Submersive Productions Mar 22, 2019

Show notes

Managing Editor Kathryn Yu goes on the road to Baltimore for a conversation with four of the folks at Submersive Productions: co-artistic directors Glenn Ricci and Ursula Marcum, as well as artistic associates Susan Stroupe and Lisi Stoessel. Join us as we dig into topics like their devising process, making open world shows, the care and feeding of the audience, telling history “at a slant,” getting the audience to feel complicit during a piece, focusing on diversity and inclusion while making immersive work, and making their productions more accessible. We discuss their past shows such as The Mesmeric Revelations of Edgar Allan Poe; H.T. Darling’s Incredible Musaeum Presents: The Treasures of New Galapagos, Astonishing Acquisitions from the Perisphere; their episodic series The Institute of Visionary History which included an eight-hour durational performance called A Horse By the Tail in the Night; plus their upcoming movement-based large-scale participatory piece MASS/RABBLE which is coming April 3—14 to the Baltimore War Memorial.

Episode 189: Broken Ghost Immersives Mar 16, 2019

Show notes

What happens when two Shakespeare nerds decide to ditch the proscenium and start incorporating their love of Dungeons and Dragons, board games, and video games into interactive and improvisational theatre projects?

That's the story of Ian McNeely and Austen Anderson of Broken Ghost Immersives who are the co-creators of experiences like The Wake, The Bunker, and Rogues' Gallery. NoPro's Managing Editor and NYC Curator Kathryn chats with Ian and Austen about procedural narrative, putting the audiences into the heart of a story, what happens when you give participants a lot of agency, controlling multiple characters remotely, how Henry V relates to The Bunker, writing your own comic book origin stories, and more.

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