COMING SOON: TEMP CUPID

Spectacular Disaster Factory has a knack for taking live action roleplaying mechanics and applying them to dynamic immersive theatre productions that are high on concept & audience participation. Their 2018 & 2019 productions of One Last Thing Before You Go & Give Up The Ghost created lasting spooky memories, while 2019’s Rock Band Murder Mystery gave us all an excuse to dust off our plastic instrument chops while living our skeezy rock star dreams.

This February sees the return of 2020’s Temp Cupid, a pre-pandemic romantic comedy that puts the audience in the role of “a magically invisible employee of Cupid, Inc., assigned to help Lonely Hearts find true love.”

This revival will take place at Downtown LA’s The Count’s Den, home to many an experimental immersive production, with tickets starting at $65 for a run that starts on Feb 9th and wraps up on the 18th.

We checked in with Spectacular Disaster Factory’s Aaron Vanek & Kirsten Hageleit about this latest offering.

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

NoProscenium: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?

Aaron Vanek & Kirsten Hageleit: Temp Cupid puts participants into the role of a seasonal worker hired by Cupid Inc. to help achieve the company’s target goals for the Valentine season–that is, nudge seven Lonely Hearts (our ensemble) toward TRUE LOVE (tah-wooo wuuuvvvvv!). Temporary Cupids do this by shooting foam arrows at the cast, which makes them attracted to or repelled by the other cast members. Although working for Cupid, Inc. means participants are unseen and unheard by the Lonely Hearts, they still directly affect the narrative.

It’s silly, but it can also be emotionally satisfying to see if enduring love can be attained, and what is the best way to do that? How true love happens is up to the participants to discover.

NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?

AV & KH: While carpooling to Whittier for another run of Give Up the Ghost in 2019, our crewmember Cindy Kapp asked if there was another way to do a show with unseen & unheard participants who could affect the actors that wasn’t so “grimdark” as Ghost or its antecedent, One Last Thing Before You Go. Aaron’s muse immediately ran this thought-train through his head and out his mouth: “Yeah, like a romance. Falling in love. Valentine’s Day! Cupid’s arrows!!” Before we reached the location for Ghost, the Disaster Factory had a blueprint for its next show.

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

AV & KH: We are following our “reverse haunted house” structure from One Last Thing and Give Up the Ghost, which means participants exist in the fiction but are invisible and silent to the cast, yet can influence the plot when and how they want (with some common sense restrictions) in a sandbox setting. Even if a participant doesn’t do anything but passively observe, their non-actions still affect the story.

We found through analyzing different immersive experiences that not everyone wants to complete a task, solve a puzzle, talk to an actor, or even be recognized inside the Magic Circle at all times. So, we empower participants to decide when, where, and with whom to interact. How they interact is set by our rules. But the big question, why they interact is an inquiry we offer to the participants to answer independently. We come from decades of live action role playing (larping) and are guided by this paraphrased quote from a Nordic larper: “Larp is an art form that allows people to tell stories about themselves.”

We hope that Spectacular Disaster Factory events stimulate your own stories about yourself.

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

AV & KH: We ran Temp Cupid just before the COVID lockdown–February 2020–and learned that some people can be really cruel to the characters! But even that is fun to watch, and some participants really dig it. We also were very touched by comments from LGBTQIA+ and polyamorous folks who could create relationships that reflected their experiences.

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

AV & KH: Play The Sims, read romance literature or “shipping” fanfic and brush up on the Seven Types of Love according to the Greeks–there might be a test! (there won’t be a test) There is so much commerce and culture around this manufactured holiday that you just have to go outside with open senses.

Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or a horrible cynic or anywhere in between, Temp Cupid makes for a great first date, singles night, long-term relationship rekindling, solo escapade, or even, if you are sick of all the romance floating around this time of year, a way to express your own issues about love.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️xxooooxxxxoooo ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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

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