The No Proscenium Podcast

This time out we check in with two of New York City's most inventive immersive creators.Cynthia von Buhler of Speakeasy Dollhouse has created a slew of intriguing immersive theatre pieces over the years, and none is more storied than The Illuminati Ball which returns this April in an intimate new edition. We settle in for a long talk with von Buhler – our first – about the upcoming revival of the Ball, her stunning graphic novels that interweave with her theatrical work, and about what fuels her prolific creative output. [8:00]Then we check in with long-time friend of the site Andrew Hoepfner about the currently running Bottom of the Ocean and how his background as a church pianist formed his quest to bring ritual into immersive work. [43:54]Upcoming NoPro EventsNoPro Book Club: Snow Crash (March 15th)DIY Publicity 101 for Immersive Creators (March 21st)AMA: Tara O'Con (March 24th) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the Crew — Kevin Gossett, Kathryn Yu, and Blake Weil — are ready to take you on a tour of Murderville. After checking out Netflix’s new “immersive adjacent” show, they discuss how immersive it is, what kind of immersive audience members the celebrities on the show might be, and whether it works. Then they try to figure out if future seasons could learning anything from immersive theatre and if immersive theatre could learn anything from the show. Plus, Kevin and Blake talk wistfully about the best reality show ever (The Mole), and Kathryn discovers a dark secret about NoPro. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, architect turned XRchitect Alex Coulombe swings through to talk about Heavenue, the new XR performance platform he's developing that made its debut with a Christmas Carol performance at the Actor's Theatre of Louisville this past year. Heavenue leverages the powerful tech that is making game streaming possible to bring audiences into more visually rich XR worlds without having to invest in expensive PCs to drive the experience. Plus: headlines.Show NotesAlex on TwitterUpcoming GDC talk about Heavenue on the VR track on March 21 Associate Producer: Parker SelaMusic: Chris Porter Headlines: Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor of No ProsceniumProducer and Host: Noah Nelson   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The best-laid plans can go right off the rails, and in this episode, the Crew - Kevin Gossett, Laura Hess, Patrick McLean, and Blake Weil - jump onto the tracks to detail some of their recent run-ins of when designs, expectations, and audiences straight up fail to click. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The 2022 NoPro Audience Awards are here! This week's show is a recording of the reveal of all the winners of this year's Immies, as voted on by our readers & listeners. For a complete list of nominees, check out the website. You can also find a collection of AMAs on our Discord featuring award nominees and winners.Speaking of the Discord, we're launching a Book Club in its hallowed halls. The first book up for discussion is Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, and the meetup will take place on March 15th. Associate Producer: Parker SelaMusic: Chris Porter Producer and Host: Noah Nelson   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This time out: Kevin Gossett and Noah Nelson jump online for the immersive game En Route, while Edward Mylechreest and Leah Davis return to the McKittrick Hotel to haunt Sleep No More [20:37], which has returned to New York City, retooled for the New Normal. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

NoPro's Executive Editor Kathryn Yu is joined by Danny Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman of Tender Claws to discuss the recently released Virtual Virtual Reality 2, the sequel to their cult hit VVR. [6:28] The game dropped this week on the Meta Quest and Rift, and is scheduled to arrive on Steam VR later this month. Then Robert Motum, creator of the Site-Specific Theatre Bot on Twitter, drops in for a quick chat with host Noah Nelson.Plus: an update on the RALLY in our Patreon campaign in this make-or-break month of February, and a reminder that VOTING ENDS TONIGHT for the 2022 NoPro Audience Awards.Associate Producer: Parker SelaMusic: Chris Porter Headlines: Kathryn Yu, Executive Editor of No ProsceniumProducer and Host: Noah Nelson   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week starts off with Allie Marotta & Kathryn Yu comparing notes on their experiences with Bottom of the Ocean, diving deep into explaining the secrets they were asked to tell sea shells (trying saying THAT five times fast!)Then Blake Weil & Patrick McLean do an even deeper dive into the book Turn Your Life Into Art: Lessons in Psychomagic from the San Francisco Underground [19:00], opening up a conversation on the importance of safety over danger in designed experiences. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we catch up with Jen Davis-Wilson, aka Fionna on VRChat, and her efforts as part of the VRC Prefabs World Builder Community to curate some of the most interesting worlds out of the thousands upon thousands created for the social VR platform. The ongoing product of which you can find at NoPro's sister site Everything Immersive. Plus: headlines from a busy news week and a heartfelt thank you and a BIG UPDATE on our Patreon campaign as NoPro enters a make-or-break month.Don't forget: the voting period for the 2022 NoPro Audience Awards is still open, and we've started a round of AMAs with some of the nominees in our Discord.Associate Producer: Parker SelaMusic: Chris Porter Producer and Host: Noah Nelson   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Crew is back!This week Kevin Gossett & Patrick McLean tackle Blaseball's latest experiments as Kevin attempts to make a fan out of Patrick. Then Laura Hall, Leah Davis, and Blake Weil lead the discussion [12:00] about Finding Satoshi (no, not that Satoshi), an NHK documentary about the last loose end of the legendary Perplex City ARG which took over a decade to solve. Note: spoiler warning for some of the surprises in Finding Satoshi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.