Coming Soon: CATACOMBS

Having been involved in Chicago’s immersive scene for nearly a decade, Whitney LaMora excels in devising site-specific/evocative, intimate experiences for small groups of audiences. But now with being a co-owner of Dorothy, a lesbian bar found in Chicago’s West Town, she’s exploring larger scale work. To begin, LaMora is directing CATACOMBS, a world premiere production written by Katherine Gwynn.

Performing in Dorothy before the regular bar service begins, CATACOMBS is about that very task as the bar’s (unofficial) manager Ari finds themselves without sufficient staff to open. Through a service app, Ari is able to find Beau, who’s hot, charming, and able to load a dishwasher. And just as things begin to steam up between the two (along with dishwasher), Beau reveals they have a long history with Ari over many lifetimes.

We checked in with LaMora about this unique experience, which opens on Thurs. Sep. 11th and runs through the 27th.

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

Whitney LaMora: CATACOMBS is an original play written by Katherine Gwynn and devised specifically for Dorothy, Chicago’s only Lesbian Bar owned by myself and my wife, Zoe Schor. CATACOMBS follows Ari, a bartender left to open the bar by herself who hires a last minute service worker who quickly arrives — named Beau. After introductions, a little innocent flirting and the beginning of a night working together, Beau reveals they aren’t there from the service app. Instead, they know Ari, or sort of know Ari, or, really, has known her for many, many lifetimes.

The play is a celebration of lesbian and queer love over thousands of years and is a bit of a love letter to the service industry. Our 42 person audience will be seated at the bar and around the cocktail lounge, very much immersed in the action and movement of our two actors. While not interactive, the actors move throughout the space often standing by, seated next to or otherwise sharing physical space with our audience.

NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?

WL: I have a history of making immersive theatre for the spaces that I lead and Dorothy has been no different. I developed a one person immersive and interactive experience last summer called DIMENSION which took place at the Dorothy bar during regular nights of service and ended up speaking with Katherine around that time after they posted about the lack of queer, biting, emotion-filled work being made. I confessed I’ve been wanting to develop a show specifically for Dorothy, with a vision to use the actors’ time to actually set up the bar for the night with audience members seated around our U-shaped bar. With that vision, plus my obsessive timeline rules (70 minutes, no intermission), they wrote this incredible play. The vision and action has expanded beyond the bar and we quickly realized the actors didn’t have the time to tell a story and actually set up a bar for actual service — but our result is still as / is more beautiful than any original visions.

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

WL: I think of it as immersive candy for those who dig the intentional approach. Immersive fans seek out experiences that aren’t traditionally shaped and that’s exactly what CATACOMBS is — a social environment turned stage. Our bar manager at Dorothy described it as the one chance you get to be in a bar and can clearly hear and see the drama unfolding around you instead of simply pretending that you’re not listening in. The proximity to the actors is exciting, the full bar experience is exciting and getting to watch two actors span time and space throughout our intimate environment will be the perfect fit with the immersive community.

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

WL: Sight lines and making sure the audience had a full experience when sight issues occur has been the biggest element of challenge and creativity we’ve had to manage. With the original vision of the audience only being seated at the bar (save for folks with mobility issues), I originally envisioned a 15–20 person audience. Once we really accepted that it would truly hinder the movement of the actors and the action & visibility could grow stale over 70 minutes, we expanded everything throughout the bar, ultimately landing on 42 audience members. We bought body mics for our performers so while they won’t always be 100% seen, you will always hear them. It’s let our creativity thrive and we ultimately get more people in to see this queer love story experience

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

WL: I’ll let our playwright Katherine handled this one:

a choose your own adventure list in no particular order!

1. you could listen to the song “Nobody” by Mitski

2. you could listen to the song “Loud Bark” by Mannequin Pussy

3. you could listen to the song “Psalm 151” by Ezra Furman

4. you could read the novella This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

5. you could attend a protest for liberation while holding the hand of someone you love

6. you could watch two dogs run unleashed together in the park

7. you could scream! that scream you’ve been wanting to scream for hours, days, months, years! you could scream and then in the aftermath, soothe your throat with a negroni, or a shot of whiskey, or a honey-sweet mead — whatever your favorite drink is. Whatever you want.

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