Newsletter

Sudden Endings & New Beginnings (9 Listings)

This week we are in NYC, Las Vegas, Toronto, London and At Home. Nine Listings.

Noah Nelson

26 Apr 2025 • 10 min read

Promotional image for ‘The Endings’ (Source: Strange Bird Immersive)

2025 #15

We start this week with the big news that you've probably heard by now: last Sunday, seemingly out of nowhere, Emurisve's Life And Trust sent out notices to ticket holders that the show was canceled. The Saturday night run had been the last ever for the show. They had informed cast and crew just an hour previously, if online chatter is to be believed.

The show's Instagram page was temporarily down and when it returned there was only one post: which declared that the run was over.

More on what this all means – or doesn't mean – below but at this very moment I'll direct your attention to the emergency GoFundMe that has been set up to support the cast & crew who quite suddenly found themselves out of a job.

Meanwhile, Elsewhere In Manhattan

Is there an Official Phantom of the Opera ARG happening in Manhattan to herald the imminent arrival of the immersive production dubbed Masquerade which turns Andrew Lloyd Webber's megahit into a processional that hopes to capture both the Phantom fans and immersive fans?

Michael Andersen of ARGNet believes so, and he breaks down what's up in the aptly titled I Think There Might Be an Official Phantom of the Opera ARG over at ARGNet.

The LA Immersive Invitational Is One Week Away

In LA next weekend? Then your plans are SET:

The LA Immersive Invitational Showcase is going down on May 4th the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s The Village at Ed Gould Plaza. Half of every ticket goes to support the LA LGBT Center, the largest LGBT service org in the WORLD.

It's also your ONLY chance to catch brand new work from Last Call Theatre, Cherry Poppins, The Queen's Fools, Spy Brunch, Spies Among Us, Spectacular Disaster Factor, and more including the return to LA of creators Keight Leighn and Jon Pedigo.

Tickets are on sale now, and you will kick yourself if you miss this event which is ALWAYS a good time.

Keep Your Eye On The Nine

Is it nine listings, or seven? Well that's the real question this week, as two of our listings are multi-city affairs. We've also got a new piece of VR theatre in the mix, and once agin the team has loaded up EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE with more listings than I can safely put in here and still expect people to open the blasted newsletter.

This week we are in NYC, Washington D.C., Dallas, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and London. Nine Listings.

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Just like our website, we're NoProscenium.com there!

IN THIS ISSUE

ON THE SITE & PODCAST

The Site

The Rundown this week had an impressive run of FIVE REVIEWS including the latest from Strange Bird Immersive in Houston, paint bombs in Denver, myths unveiled in LA & Toronto.

The Podcast

This week on the show we’re marking the imminent Halfway to Halloween point of the year with two interviews.

First up: Jason Egan of Egan Productions — whose Saw, It, and Blair Witch escape games are perennial favorites in Las Vegas, joins us to talk about his origins in haunts, and his latest endeavor: The John Wick Experience at AREA15.

Then David Markland, co-founder and executive director of Midsummer Scream the world’s largest horror and Halloween convention which will be returning to Long Beach this August, joins us to talk about Midsummer and the state of the horror scene as a whole.

The Patreon Report

Big thanks to Kate Grey for becoming our latest Patreon backer.

We wouldn't be here without our Patreon backers, and we need a few more to get us back over the 500 backer mark and get us back on track to $3500 a month.

The sustaining backers of No Proscenium are:

Sydney Guillory, Lonnie Hanzon, Jerome Joseph Gentes, Tome Wilson, Ryan, Erin Reilly, Chris Wollman, Samantha Davison, Jay Bushman, Cameo Wood, Daryle, Lekker Lecool, Elaine, After Hours Theatre Company, The Ministry of Peculiarities, Kurt Collins, Anonymous, and Yan Budman.

SPOTLIGHT: NEW YORK

ROLLING STONE PRESENTS AMPLIFIED: THE IMMERSIVE ROCK EXPERIENCE at ARTECHOUSE

Designed by an all-star creative team—including former Rolling Stone editors, award-winning designers, and world-class filmmakers—Amplified is a one-of-a-kind celebration of the music that’s shaped generations. Located at ARTECHOUSE NYC, a century-old boiler room turned digital art space, this 270º immersive experience offers insider access to the world of rock n’ roll on an unprecedented scale. With over 1000 photographs, 200 videos, and 1300 Rolling Stone covers, Amplified transports visitors through six decades of music history, revealing rock’s impact on not just sound, but the world.

art, music, projection; all ages, Manhattan, $39, April 30- Aug 31

Collider Fellowship at Lincoln Center Open Studio

Friday, May 2, the Collider Fellowship at Lincoln Center will host their last Open Studio, a marathon celebration of immersive art, sound, and connection at the Rose Building. There will be performances, workshops, and works-in-progress to drop into from 1-7PM, or stay to view them all.

performance art, mixed reality, tech; all ages, Manhattan, Free, May 2

SPOTLIGHT: CHICAGO

Drink the Past Dry

The nondescript neighborhood bar in the middle of Chicago looks like every other bar in every other neighborhood in the city. A few regulars sit sipping drinks, making small talk, doing the things people always do in bars. But this bar has a secret. It can take you anywhere in time….

…but only once and only within the walls of the bar, so it turns out not to be as popular a place as one might think.

But there are some souls who still need to reach out to the past — or to the future — and this is where they come when they do

site-specific, theatre; 16+, PWYC, April 27 - June 1

SPOTLIGHT: LAS VEGAS

Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, the Immersive Rock Experience

Step inside Illuminarium Las Vegas for an electrifying immersive experience that puts you in the middle of rock’s most iconic moments! Rolling Stone Presents: Amplified, the Immersive Rock Experience is brought to life through the images, sound, and legacy of Rolling Stone magazine.

art, music, projection; all ages, $39, through Oct. 21

SPOTLIGHT: TORONTO

A Taste of Hong Kong

Jackie Z welcomes you to A Taste of Hong Kong. Come join Jackie for a snack-sized tasting class of Hong Kong’s best treats! Jackie will introduce you to famous foods such as curry fish balls, siu mai, and more, while sharing the highlights and history of Hong Kong. All the way from its colonial era to the present, this class will give you an intimate look at the pride and determination of Hong Kong people.

Please note food will be cooked during the performance, but any food cooked on stage will not be consumed by the audience. Contact our box office if you have any questions.

storytelling, food; all ages, $C15-65, May 13 - 17

The Perfect Bite

In collaboration with Netflix, Secret City presents a one-of-a-kind Murder Mystery Dinner experience. Set in the captivating and thrilling universe of the Knives Out film series, this immersive event will have you on the edge of your seats as you and your team work to uncover the truth.

As a member of the culinary industry elite, you’re invited to an exclusive event hosted by acclaimed Chef Maribelle Moore. Decipher the clues hidden within Maribelle’s menu. Each course contains vital information with food-based puzzles.

The menu Chef Moore created will reveal a dark secret about the Salty Six, the renowned culinary supergroup formed by herself and five other chefs back when they were students.

puzzles, food; 13+, C$179-629, June 20 - Aug. 24

SPOTLIGHT: LONDON

City of Floating Sounds

Picture the scene: dozens of strangers meet at select locations around London and walk through the city together, playing different strands of Huang Ruo’s City of Floating Sounds out loud from a bespoke app, creating a full symphony as they go. Sound intriguing? Grab your phone and some comfy shoes and join a moving orchestra!

Your first step is to choose from six different starting points around the city to connect with other participants and begin the experience. Your app will select one of 12 strands of the piece to play aloud, and guide you to follow your chosen route, layering with the music played by others around you.

The path you take and other audience members you meet all change what you hear, meaning no two performances are the same.

music, walk; 13+, £17, April 30

The Perfect Bite

puzzles, food; 13+, £$140-499, June 5 - Aug. 30

SPOTLIGHT: AT HOME

Shadows Over San Oscuro

Step into the shadows of 1934 San Oscuro, a city where gilded spires pierce the sky and corruption runs deep in its foundation. In the wake of Prohibition's end, the criminal alliance known as The Board has evolved beyond bootlegging into a sophisticated network that controls everything from gambling to labor unions. While wealthy industrialists toast to their success in glittering jazz clubs, working-class neighborhoods struggle under the grip of protection rackets and political corruption.

As a seasoned member of the Ghost Precinct—an elite group of clandestine detectives operating outside the law—you'll work alongside senior investigators to infiltrate The Board's operations. Your missions will take you from smoky backroom card games to abandoned warehouses, from glittering theater premieres to rain-slicked alleyways where secrets are traded like currency. Every choice you make could bring you closer to dismantling The Board's empire... or deeper into their web of influence.

VR; 13+, $46.90, April 27

A Few More Thoughts About Life And Trust

So before we get started, I want to remind everyone about the emergency GoFundMe that is still up for the cast & crew of the show. As much as this has been a shock to the system for everyone in the immersive space – creators & fans alike – it's the cast & crew who are actually hurting at this point.

As I'm writing this we still don't know why the show closed all of a sudden on a Sunday. The closest we've heard on the grapevine is that there was some kind of money issue. No one but the brass at Emursive knows, and at this point they're not talking. They might never talk.

In the conversations I've been having with folks there have been a lot of theories. Reddit and some Discord convos centered on the Instagram feed being scrubbed, and that pointing to some kind of legal issue. But the feed getting scrubbed could also just be a way of controlling the comments: there's only one post now and the comments are turned off. Which is a hell of a lot easier to deal with from a PR standpoint.

My own first thought was that some expected money fell through, much as what happened with Embracer Group a few years ago. They bought up every video game studio and property that wasn't nailed down from Borderlands to Tomb Raider, in a plan that reportedly hinged on getting a big check from an arm of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia. Like $2 billion big.

When that fell through the whole plan fell apart and they started selling off. Of course, they didn't just hit a switch and shut down operations. So that might not be what's happening here. Again: only Emursive knows.

In the rush to mark the passing of big project, the actual causes of a project’s demise can be missed. Such was the case with Starcruiser, where the conventional wisdom has overlooked the larger economic forces at play with The Walt Disney Company that factored into the decision to cease operations. Something similar could be at play here, and a rush to declare large scale theatrical immersive projects as a thing of the past is myopic when Sleep No More is about to open in Seoul and the immersive Phantom of the Opera is opening later this year in NYC.

Theatre as a whole is a hits business, and the NYC run of Sleep No More needed that show to be “good” as much as it needed the business model of The McKittrick Hotel: a venue which could play host to multiple events at once, along with concurrently running nightlife and dining facets. The two went hand in hand. Life And Trust was an attempt to reproduce the formula, thirteen years later, delayed by Covid and launching in a very different landscape.

The landscape ahead is even more uncertain. Not just in our corner of the entertainment industry, but in the economy as a whole. That's going to make the business of immersive even tougher, and make learning the right lessons from the demise of Life And Trust all the more important. Right lessons derived from the facts, and not speculation. (My speculation included.)

That uncertainty is also going to put a premium on the art of immersive. On honing the craft so that the hits hit harder, and to sate the desires of those who have experienced the highs that this form can reach. Because there's no putting this genie back in the bottle, no matter how much some folks try.

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