COMING SOON: CASTING

Immersive dance choreographer and multimedia artist Koryn Wicks is remounting Casting, an intimate experience that invites attendees to explore the choices we all make when wanting to stand out and make personal connections.

We invited Wicks to tell use more about the experience and what it entails in this latest edition of COMING SOON.

Casting will performing at the Denver Film Festival from November 9th to November 11th. It runs several times each day and tickets are $20. For more, follow @kw_immersive_dancecreator on Instagram.

This is No Proscenium’s COMING SOON, a look at upcoming immersive experiences and events. To learn more about how your event could be considered for this feature, check out How To Get Covered By NoPro.

No Proscenium: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?

Koryn Wicks: Casting is an intimate immersive experience combining dance, theater, and interactive sound and video installations. In the show, the audience is auditioning for an absurd Hollywood movie which then devolves into something more abstract and meditative.

Casting is immersive in the way it engages the audience as active participants in the action of the performance. A large part of the show is structured like a real audition. The audience is given tasks and feedback, they are asked to play scenes, and make choices. If that sounds intimidating, know that this all takes place in a silly, absurd world that invites you to play.

NP: What was the inspiration for your experience?

KW: Casting was actually created during the 2019 LA Immersive Invitational, so it came about somewhat spontaneously. The Invitational is a 48 hour festival in which immersive makers have two days to create new work. The festival assigns a space, prop, and line of dialogue to each participant/group. Casting still uses the original prop we were assigned at the festival, so when checking out the show in Denver see if you can guess what it was.

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Honestly, I can’t remember how the form of Casting took shape. It was a fast and furious process. I was lucky to have an incredible group of collaborators to work with and their contributions were essential to this piece. I remember having a lot of fun during the process; lots of laughter, lots of interesting discussion. I feel like a lot of what I ended up doing in the process was curating, shaping, and organizing the brilliant ideas everyone brought to the project.

Casting’s original collaborators were: Writer and Performer Sam Alper, Vocalist Hanah Davenport, Lighting Designer Morgan Embry, Sound and Video Designer Alex Lough, and Dancers Samantha Scheller and Sami Flores.

NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?

KW: Casting really gives people the opportunity to play. It takes an intimidating experience (auditioning) and makes it ridiculous so the stakes are lowered and everyone can feel empowered to engage. The play in Casting is supported by a strong structure, the audience’s role and relationship to the piece is clearly defined, and they are set up in such a way that any choice is the right choice and will lead to a new, unique, and wonderful run.

The play element in Casting is fun on an individual level but also brings the audience together as a group. Throughout the performance, you really get some lovely opportunities to watch other people make choices. During our last run in LA, I noticed that people seemed to leave the experience feeling like they had gone through something together. I heard from a lot of attendees that they had lovely conversations with strangers after the show and felt like the show facilitated connection.

NP: Once you started designing and testing what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?

KW: I don’t want to give too much away, but in Casting audience members engage with performers both verbally and physically. My primary background is dance and choreography and I found it interesting how easily the audience transitions from verbal interactions to engaging with movement. I feel like the interactive elements in Casting support each other really well, without overtly trying to. This has led to some really wonderful, touching, and intimate moments with audience members.

NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?

KW: If you’ve ever auditioned for anything in your life, think back on that experience. If you haven’t, think back on a job interview, or any other time you felt put on the spot and had your performance evaluated. Then get ready for the fun version.

Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, new home of NoPro’s show listings.

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