IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE DESIGN
The Peculiar Portal
“A Charmingly Inventive Experience.” — NoProscenium.com
A long-lost sister. A mysterious Oddity Shop. A 90-Minute immersive
adventure between two worlds.
The Idea: With this project, I wanted to combine the best parts of live, immersive theater and escape room puzzle solving in order for players to experience a hands-on story where they themselves are the heroes. This was the Chicago debut project of my Immersive Theater company, Hidden Wonders Immersive.
The Story: Players are invited to an Antiques & Oddities shop to celebrate its last days of business. The shopkeeper confides in them that he doesn’t want to close the shop because of its connection to his long-lost sister, who he believes disappeared through a magic portal. When the portal re-opens for the first time in decades, the players find themselves on a mystical adventure between two worlds.
The Experience: Groups of up to 10 players entered an oddity shop built inside the lobby of a storefront theater in Chicago. There they met and interacted with characters portrayed by actor-improvisors, who tasked them with Escape Room-style puzzles and challenges to take them from our world to a magical realm, which we built inside the blackbox theater.
Never Too Late
An Immersive Experiment in Regret Removal
Designed with Portland Action Theater Ensemble, this pop-up Escape Room was a reflection on the nature of regret. It served as a fundraiser for their upcoming theater production.
The Idea: If the technology existed to eradicate regrets from your memories, would you do it?
The Story: Players are all scientists working for Never Too Late Psychonautic Services. Through cutting edge technology, they are able to physically enter the memories of Stan—a new client of the company—with one goal: eradicate the regrets.
The Experience: Built inside a movement studio in an old seed factory building in Portland Oregon, players encounter three mini-Escape Rooms in one: a campsite, an open mic, and a living room on Christmas Day. They are given 60 minutes to solve puzzles in each location in order to uncover and erase the regret that took place in each memory.
Hack The Airwaves
An Immersive Act of Rebellion at an abandoned Radio Station
A pop-up Escape Room designed for and built with March Forth Productions in New York City.
The Idea: An adventure rooted in the idea of feminism as an act of rebellion.
The Story: In a bleak Handmaid’s Tale-esque future where women are barred from gathering, you and the Resistance break into a radio station to broadcast a message of hope and solidarity.
The Experience: This experience was offered to party-goers at a fundraising gala for March Forth Productions. It involved slipping an ID card off of a sleeping security guard, logging in to a radio station’s hidden archives, and solving a series of puzzles to activate the radio tower and send out a broadcast.