Coming Soon: The ThotBot Implantation Center
The immersive installation & multimedia concert returns to Somerville, MA for an extended run
After a sold out run at the start of the year, The ThotBot Implantation Center is reopening its doors in Somerville, MA to fix glitched ThotBots in Greater Boston.
If your ThotBot is glitched, it might be time for a tuneup.
We checked back in with ThotBot Universe creator Rebecca Kopycinski about the new, extended run which starts this October and is set to roll out new dates through March once more people know their ThotBots can be serviced.
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NO PROSCENIUM: Tell us a little bit about your experience! What’s it about? What makes it immersive?
Rebecca Kopycinski: Picture it. June 21, 1995. A mysterious event that will come to be known as Impact has devastated the planet. In the chaos that follows, a group known as The ULTRA rises to power and launches the ThotBot Pilot Program, a brain implant designed to erase harmful memories and dull stormy emotions while accruing “Value” for its owner based on their loyalty, thoughts, and actions. Don’t you want to be great again? Get ThotBot. It’s easy. Just Comply-Add Value-Redeem.
The ThotBot Implantation Center is a meticulously constructed waiting room in a post-apocalyptic brain implant clinic. An audience of 14 per night step into this dystopian world for an hour of self-directed exploration. A tacit ULTRA Tech insists you complete your intake form before delving into the various materials, media, and treasures to discover.
But wait, there’s more.
After intermission, return to the space for a multimedia concert where attendees will meet the protagonist, Reagan Esther Myer. A series of CCTV videos documenting Reagan’s Implantation Center intake interview punctuated by live music performance detail the harrowing months she spent in a ravaged post-apocalyptic world before deciding to join the ThotBot Pilot Program.
NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?
RK: I like to joke that building an episodic storyworld was more of an accident than an intentional strategy. It began with what was supposed to be a standalone multimedia one-woman musical called “Reagan Esther Myer.” I had been making music for years, then I started to add video, then some theatrical elements. The desire was to tell a more robust story and use all my skills and talents in consort to do that.
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After that show had been mounted, a friend said, “I want to know more about this world.” I had already made the ThotBot Implantation Center website, so why not make the actual ThotBot Implantation Center? And since music is my first discipline, I always like to have a concert element. Plus I wanted to be sure there was more of Reagan’s story at a different point in the timeline, thus the second half of the evening.
Since then, the story has expanded by way of an audio drama called After Impact and an immersive theater show called “Remediation” which is like you’re going to an underground meeting of the Resistance to learn how to intentionally glitch your ThotBot and thus subvert The ULTRA.
NP: What do you think fans of immersive will find most interesting about this latest experience?
RK: The parallels to our world. The premise was conceived during the 2016 primaries. I thought: What if Trump won (hahahaHAHAHA that’ll NEVER HAPPEN) and everything awful is blown out to the Nth degree i.e. climate change, class disparity, misogyny, racism, etc. But then throw that back into 1995 and add an apocalyptic event. It’s eerie how many of my little inventions and ideas and details have appeared in our news. Chilling, really.
NP: Once you started designing and testing, what did you discover about this experience that was unexpected?
RK: The newest revelation is that there are people in the area that think the flyer I put up around town is the entire art project (I guess a compliment to the design). So I’m working during this run to dispel that myth.
NP: What can fans who are coming to this, or thinking about coming to this, do to get into the mood of the experience?
RK: I design every ThotBot Episode to be a stand-alone experience, no prior knowledge necessary. But should one want, the in-universe website gives some general info about ThotBot. Season one of After Impact, an audio drama, is available wherever you stream podcasts.
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