The No Proscenium Podcast

This week we're talking about the state of XR -– from what's happening with the new tech to the out-of-home experiences that are actually drawing audiences – with a ridiculously talented panel of practitioners, professionals, and press.Joining host Noah Nelson in the virtual NoPro studio Scarlett Kim (Center for Unclassifiable Technologies and Experiences) , Ray Mosco (General Immersive), Rory Mitchell (Mercantile), and NoPro's Toronto curator Katrina Lat.SHOW NOTESScarlett KimRaymond MoscoRory Mitchell - Mercantile AgencyKatrina LatSony Pictures Invests $100 Million in Cosm, Shared-Reality Venue Owner (Variety)LIVE from AWE 2026 ft. Malia Probst, Mary Matheson, and Shelley Peterson (The AI XR Podcast)Tender Claws: Body ProxySiggraph 2026AWE NiteThe Immersive Experience Institute Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Out of the blue, we're back, with season 2 of the podcast.This summer we're catching up with our favorite folks, hanging out and talking what we've seen, what they've been making, and generally celebrating the fact that immersive is here and not going anywhere.To kick us off in the new era we're joined by: associate producer of the podcast, and an immersive creator in her own right Parker Sela, Executive Editor Emeritus of No Proscenium and co-founder of The Immersive Experience Institute game designer Kathryn Yu, and Artistic Director of After Hours Theatre Company Graham Wetterhahn.The topics du jour are the Without Walls Festival and L.A.'s immersive scene which has been really hopping this year.SHOW NOTESThe Immersive Experience InstituteAfter Hours Theatre CompanyWithout Walls FestivalTea Party at the End of the WorldSuzikAgain AgainThe Apple Avenue Detective AgencyHandle With CareNight WatchL.A. Immersive SceneDatalandDark Library: The Time MachineYou Must Be Here For The ReadingHatch EscapesUndersignedDrowned Out ProductionsConfessionThe Elysian's Spaghetti FestivalBrassroots DistrictHollywood FringeYoko Ono: Music of the MindHospital of EmotionsGhost Town AliveBeyond L.A.The Still PointMasquerade Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, a visit to Dungeons & Dragons The 20-Sided Tavern in Los Angeles – where the show is wrapping its current stand this weekend before heading off to Scottsdale, Arizona and Dallas, Texas.We sit down with Alex Stompoly, one of the Tavernkeepers of the Tavern to talk about the unique role he plays in the production which is part MC, part rules lawyer, and carries with it some creative heft of its own.SHOW NOTESDungeons & Dragons The 20-Sided TavernAlex StompolyNo ProsceniumEverything Immersive Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've reached the end.Of Episode 500 and Season One.Which means one last word from our host.See you in Season Two.(But don't act too surprised when we pop up a few times for some specials between now and then.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We start Part 7 off where the show began, way back in Episode ZERO, which we first released on SOUND CLOUD as a pilot for a potential series, with an interview with Annie Saunders of Wilderness, whose The Day Shall Declare It jump started that renaissance era and got the local performing arts world taking things seriously.Annie and I look back on that, and on the roadblocks that have kept her from making work here at that scale since. And then I talk to some of the other folks who come up in our conversation and those who helped shape the way I thought about and moved through the LA arts scene — like Lauren Ludwig and Monica Miklas of Capital W, and designer Tommy Honton who did so much work on the permitting crisis that hit LA in the wake of tragic events in Northern California in 2016. And, of course, Jacob Patterson, who ran Think Tank Gallery in DTLA and gave countless projects and artists a home… including this podcast for a while.One last jaunt through LA for Season One. Because you know we had to.SHOW NOTESAnnie SaundersWildernessThe Day Shall Declare It14th Factory(NPR)Jacob PattersonMonica Miklas/Aviary Creative WorksCapital W PerformanceTommy HontonLauren Ludwig Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to PART FIVE of the Episode 500 marathon "An Unstructured Conversation About Immersive Theatre," which, really, could also be the title of the whole dang podcast but that might just break the very ontological concept of SEO.Come to think of it, that might not be a BAD thing.On this part of the Megasode we touch base with Episode One guests Genevieve Gearhart & Julianne Just of The Speakeasy Society, who are about to launch their new show Family Meal this October, the first new Speakeasy Society show in LA in some time! Plus we're joined by Jay Bushman, who in so many ways, is responsible for us interviewing Gen and Julianne in the first place.SHOW NOTESThe Speakeasy SocietyFamily Meal (Seed & Spark Campaign)Jay Bushman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Look: when you do a thirteen or so hour long retrospective on a ten year long project you’re going to wind up with a part that stands out to you as the center of it all, and I knew going into the recording process that the central interview for this part would be that for this run.The only real question was where to put it and what to pair it with.There were a lot of options, as over the past few weeks I’ve had a lot of great conversations, but at the end of the day I had to follow my heart…We lead off with what was supposed to be an interview with Kathryn Yu, Anthony Robinson, and Zay Amsbury — three of the folks who have shaped what No Proscenium into what it is. But the technology had other ideas. Then: another jaunt through the immersive cosmos featuring Afterhours Theatre Company founder Graham Wetterhahn, IKantKoan’s Jessica Creane, and game designer and researcher Nicholas Fortugno, all of whom both Kathryn and myself traveled aboard the Galactic Starcruiser with.Episode 500: it's about the friends we made along the way, and the ones we talked into joining us for the ride.SHOW NOTESStone XocovezaAfterhours Theatre CompanyIKantKoanNicholas Fortugno Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the past ten years NoPro has been your guide to Everything Immersive… and this is the first part of the multi-part celebration - slash - victory lap that is EPISODE 500.Over the course of this weekend, for about TWELVE HOURS, give or take, okay maybe closer to THIRTEEN HOURS we will be checking in with over two dozen of our favorite people to chat about this thing of ours — this immersive, experiential, spatial thing of ours …It’s a series of conversations that is nostalgic, silly, sometimes profound, often rambling, that covers theatre, technology, theme parks, games, defunct restaurant chains, roadside attractions, margaritas, and puppets.These are, in fact, the friends we made along the way and more than a few of the friends we dragged along with us for the ride over the course of the TEN YEARS of making this show.And at the end… well, I guess we’ll both just have to stick around because even I don’t even know yet.For this first part — entitled a A Quick Jaunt Through The Immersive Cosmos — we take a stream of consciousness trip through experiential hyperspace with 5 interviews.Actors Siobhán O'Loughlin & Dasha Kittredge, Tender Claws co-founder Samantha Gorman, Producer Scarlett Kim, and director Rory Mitchell.Show NotesSiobhán O'LoughlinDasha KittredgeTender ClawsScarlett KimThe Mercantile Agency (Rory Mitchell) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re joined by Gillian Leitten, CEO of The Lumen Prize because today is that day that the 99 finalists for the Prize are announced (check the Show Notes) and Leitten is here to talk with us about the prize which celebrates artists forging new systems of meaning through technology’s evolving creative frontier.We give a special focus on the Hybrid and Experiential categories, the later of which is the evolution of last year's Interactive/Immersive category and for the second year in a row features the most finalists of any category, 16 in total.SHOW NOTESThe Lumen PrizeThe 2025 Lumen Prize Finalists Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Zach Morris of Third Rail Projects and Charlie Miller of The Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Off-Center join host Noah Nelson to talk about the upcoming Sweet & Lucky: Echo — a companion story of the 2016 hit Sweet & Lucky –– which helped put Denver’s immersive scene on the map.SHOW NOTESSweet & Lucky: EchoThird Rail ProjectsThe Denver Center for the Performing Arts’ Off-CenterThe Next Stage Immersive Summit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 NOTESMeow Wolf's PhenomenomalyMeow Wolf DenverMeow Wolf Las VegasMeow Wolf & Niantic Spatial The Next Stage Immersive Summit Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.SHOW NOTESDreamParkDreamPark raises $1.1M to transform real-world spaces into mixed-reality theme parks (Games Beat)The Next Stage Immersive Summit Program GuideThe Next Stage Immersive Sumit Badges Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.SHOW NOTESDC Heroes & Villains Festival - Six Flags Magic MountainDC Heroes & Villains Festival - Six Flag Great AdventureWow! Entertainment Inc. Scott Stein @ CNETOverlook Film FestivalThe Next Stage Immersive SummitMiami Immersive Intensive Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.