Coming Soon: Three Sisters — An Immersive Experience

While having performed several live experience events around Chicago, Sandbox Theatre Collective has done so in many non-traditional spaces such as living rooms and local business. So it’s not surprising they’re making the formal leap into creating a full immersive production!

Sandbox is performing the Russian classic Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov, allowing audiences to choose which characters they wish to follow throughout three floors and the outside garden of the United Church of Rogers Park on Chicago’s far Northside between August 7th to the 17th. If we didn’t know any better, that sounds like a classic textbook definition of a sandbox experience. Hmm, coincidence, we wonder?

We checked in with Three Sisters Producer Lexy Weixel about this new adaptation.

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

Lexy Weixel: Three Sisters is a classic play by Anton Chekhov, written in 1900. The three sisters — Olga, Masha, and Irina — live in a provincial town in Russia with their brother Andrey, but dream of returning home to Moscow, which they were forced to leave 11 years earlier. With their father passing away just a year before the play begins, these childlike adults have become directionless.

I’ve only ever seen this play performed on a proscenium stage or in a black box theatre. The audience sits in their designated space and observes these characters from afar. Since Chekhov is hailed as one of the founders of realism in theatre, I believe this play lends itself to an experience where the audience is WITH the characters, not just watching them.

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This production invites the audience to sit with the actors at the dining table, in the living room, bedroom, or backyard. The characters speak directly to you and engage with you because you’re attending a party at their home. You’re served cake and finger sandwiches, along with wine or sparkling juice. The setting is also a multi-level church, which we have free rein over. It calls on the audience to follow the actors as they move through different rooms, sometimes with multiple scenes happening simultaneously, where you have to choose who to follow.

NP: What was the inspiration for your upcoming experience?

LW: I studied in Moscow for six weeks during college and have always been a huge fan of Anton Chekhov, so Three Sisters was an easy choice for a show to produce. However, our director, Audrey Napoli, is the person who has truly taken steps to make this a fully immersive experience. I saw an immersive show she directed last summer in her apartment, based on some of Chekhov’s text, and I was blown away by what she was able to accomplish. After seeing it, I reached out and pitched her to direct this production on a much larger scale. She said yes, and the rest is history! We’ve been planning this since around January, so it’s amazing to see it all come together finally.

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

LW: Getting to be part of a show is very rare for an audience member. This experience encourages engaging with the cast, inviting you to fully immerse yourself in the world you’re seeing. We also have a system where you choose either a green or red sticker when you check in, signaling to the actors if you want to be fully involved or just observe. Additionally, we have an immersive consultant, Kristen Alesia, working on the show. Since day one of rehearsals, she has advocated for the audience, ensuring what we’re doing makes sense, feels safe, and is accessible.

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

LW: Immersive theatre is hard, especially at this scale. We’re using three floors of the church and their outside garden. It’s been a lot of realizing, “Oh, how is this person going to hear this line when they’re two floors below us right now?” Our ingenious stage manager, Ellen Adalaide, suggested using baby monitors throughout the space so actors can hear their cues from different rooms.

It also takes a village. We have 14 actors and a production team of 12. Everyone has to come in prepared to work hard and make it magical. Despite the volume of work, it’s truly been a fun and joy-filled 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?

LW: Come dressed in fancy 1900 attire! We would love for the whole audience to be dressed up. You are attending a party after all! And visit us on Instagram to follow along for updates and behind-the-scenes features.

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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