The No Proscenium Podcast

Last week we were fortunate enough to have two of our staff at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, exploring all the XR goodies at the New Frontier.  XR correspondent Will Cherry and our host Noah Nelson trade notes on a very exciting class of 2020. The verdict: VR storytelling is maturing rapidly alongside the tech, thanks to pieces like The Book of Distance, Scarecrow, Atomu, and All Kinds of Limbo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week Yuval Sharon, Artistic Director of The Industry and co-director of that company's upcoming opera Sweet Land, joins host Noah Nelson to talk about his approach to making opera. Yuval has created the seminal works Invisible Cities and Hopscotch here in Los Angeles, propelling the conversation about how audiences engage with opera forward and raising the bar for immersive creators of every stripe. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We first met Jeff and Andy Crocker at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2018, where their piece Escape From Godot turned the festival on its ear for a whole day, only to fade into the night. Since then Escape... has popped up at Indiecade, the Denver Film Fest, and will soon be a featured selection of the HERE Summit & Festival in Pasadena this March.  Host Noah Nelson talks with Jeff & Andy, aka Mister and Mischief, and Escape... and their new work The Builder and the Dove. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke and Madison Rhodes of Cross Roads Escape Games join us to talk about how these horror-loving theatre kids wound up running one of the most innovative and immersive escape game companies in Southern California. Join host Noah Nelson as we talk about their smash debut hit The Hex Room, the game-changing The Psych Ward, and the 2019's pop-up theatre piece The Seance. Plus: some updates on the HERE Summit & Festival. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second half of our end of the year/beginning of the year roundtable with Anthony, Kathryn, Kevin, beer, and Noah. Plus: the latest programming announcement from the HERE Summit & Festival, taking place March 27-29 in Pasadena, CA. Beer Notes: Enegren Belgian Dark Strong Ale 5th Anniversary edition. (Moorpark, CA) Bruery Terreux's Tart of Darkness (2016, Placentia, CA -- we get this one wrong!) Brewery Ommegang Valar Morghulis Dubble Ale (Cooperstown, NY) WARNING: there is cursing because there is drinking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week the team gets together for the first time in a long while, and then we add beer and whiskey to the mix and… Anyway, join Noah, Anthony, Kathryn, and Kevin for the first of four parts. Then Blake gets added to the mix.  We’ll be dropping parts III & IV next week on the main feed, and a special Rise of Skywalker bonus episode with Zay and Noah into the Patreon feed (but open to all) over the weekend. Take a break from the chaos of the world and return to earlier in the week, when life was simple! ADVISORY: swears, probably. We were drinking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we've got a special episode as Michaela Holland (NoPro NYC social correspondent) guest hosts a conversation with Abraham Burickson of Odyssey Works. Michaela has attended the company's Master Classes in the past, and she and Abraham talk about that and dive into the ideas that drive the company, which has been making cutting edge work since 2001. Speaking of: the deadline for the call participants for the next Odyssey is Jan. 5th, 2020.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.     Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.