Podcasts about immersive theatre

Dan Corder is joined by Producer Jake Maisel to unpack the wild, witty, and weed-infused world of Baked Shakespeare: The Tragedy of Macbeth. Now in its 5th season, Baked Shakespeare has taken South Africa - and international stages - by storm, blending classic Shakespeare with cannabis-fuelled chaos. They finish their run at The Masque Theatre on the 28, 29 and 30th March and then will head to The Courtyard Café in Stellenbosch on the 12th,13th & 25th and 26th of April. Tickets Available via Quicket!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Creative director and choreographer Brandon Powers takes host Tjaša Ferme on a deep exploration of the merging of extended reality (XR) with theatre. He explains how theatremakers' knowledge as spatial creatures is exactly what the virtual reality (VR) world is looking for.

This week Megan and Jordan are immersing themselves in the world of immersive theatre, from the history to personal experiences recent and historic - it's time to go beyond breaking the fourth wall.Jordan covers the basics of Immersive Theatre for actors, what it is, expectations for actors, Equity standards, how it's been commercialised, what the future holds and the Post-Immersive Manifesto. Megan enlightens us on the pioneers of the genre such as Punchdrunk Theatre, Fruit for the Apocalypse and more. Touching on the political origins, the rise of site specific theatre and successful shows around the world.Discussions include improvisation, celebrating Megan at the Moonshine Saloon, You Me Bum Bum Train, scare acting and assaulting nuns, Disneyland, Dismaland, the Willy Wonka Experience and so much NUANCE.Tangents include Megan's babadook birthday, Jordan's tuberculosis, pro-library, a twilight ep, did you light a candle or is your house on fire? and seams where there shouldn't be seams.You can find us as @actingupthepodcast on all socials ;)We are @megan_alderson_ & @jordan.skidsArtwork by @those_who.tryWanna be on the pod? Email actingupthepodcast@gmail.com

This week on the show we've got a double feature.First up: Graham Wetterhahn of After Hours Theatre Company and NoPro's own Parker Sela stop by to talk about Dark Library Paris: 1925, a new immersive cocktail experience that's running in North Hollywood at present.Then: immersive theatre creator Michael Bontatibus, whose company Witness we have covered in the past here at NoPro, joins us to talk about the state of immersive theatre as a whole, based on a recent essay he wrote entitled "What Happened to Immersive Theatre? How traditional and immersive theatre could rebuild together."SHOW NOTESDark Library Paris: 1925 After Hours Theatre CompanyWhat Happened to Immersive Theatre?WitnessThe 2025 NoPro Audience Award NomineesSecret Cinema: GreaseUniversal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas Tickets On Sale Announcement Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this conversation with director Coral Cohen and sound and video designer Ettie Pin, we discuss the process of making a gamified play, Third Law. Insights from the makers take us through game theory, and how the audience had the unique opportunity to shape the world of the play and the trajectory of the characters.

I dig into my archives to unpack the one-on-one, immersive theatre piece that I saw online back in 2021 called TM that used a Socratic dialectic to interrogate you as you're going through a process of joining an imaginary cult. I spoke with Ontroerend Goed's artistic director Alexander Devriendt to get a lot more context for how he designs immersive theatre productions for folks who typically don't like immersive theatre. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

This episode dives into the performance art of Lebanese artist Rima Najdi. From Hollywood's portrayal of Arab women to navigating complex personal and political landscapes, this thought-provoking discussion highlights the power of performance art in creating social change.Kunafa and Shay is a podcast produced for HowlRound Theatre Commons by co-hosts Nabra Nelson and Marina Johnson. Kunafa and Shay discusses and analyzes contemporary and historical Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) theatre from across the region. Kunafa and Shay highlights MENA/SWANA plays and theatremakers, spotlights community-engaged work in the region and diaspora, and analyzes the past, present, and future of MENA/SWANA theatre in the United States and beyond. Theatre artists and scholars Nabra Nelson and Marina Johnson bring their own perspectives, research, and special guests in order to start a dialogue and encourage further learning and discussion. The name, Kunafa and Shay, invites you into the discussion in the best way we know how: with complex and delicious sweets like kunafa, and perfectly warm tea (or, in Arabic, shay). Kunafa and Shay is a place to share experiences, discuss ideas, and sometimes engage with our differences. In each country in the region, you'll find kunafa made differently. In that way, we also lean into the diversity, complexity, and robust flavors of MENA/SWANA theatre. 

I interviewed Uncanny Alley: A New Day co-directors Rick Treweek and Stephen Butchko along with Ferryman Collective's Deirdre V. Lyons and Christopher Lane Davis at Venice Immersive 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

Plus, a chat with Jenn Zuko at Blue Dime Cabaret and our weekly Colorado Headliners   In this episode of the OnStage Colorado Podcast, hosts Alex Miller and Toni Tresca get immersed in the immersive theater scene in the state. Touching on two Westword stories Toni wrote this week, we get into what makes an immersive production immersive, the companies creating it in the state and what the future looks like for this growing art form.   Later in the episode, Toni catches up with Jenn Zuko from Blue Dime Cabaret. The popup cabaret was performing at DV8 in Boulder, but with the venue recently closing they'll be at Liquor Pie in Westminster in the coming months. Blue Dime Cabaret serves up a mix of burlesque, vaudeville, comedy and more.   And as usual we'll walk through this week's Colorado Headliners, our Top 10 list of cool stuff to check out onstage in Colorado. This week's Headliners:   Always … Patsy Cline, Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, Johnstown, Sept. 17-Nov. 10.  Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express, Vintage Theatre, Aurora, Sept. 20-Oct. 20  Wicked Wanderings, Chautauqua Park, Boulder, Sept. 21-Oct. 27 The Rocky Horror Show, Two Cent Lion, The People's Building, Aurora, Sept. 21-Oct. 3 Kimberly Akimbo, Buell Theatre, Denver Center, Sept. 22-Oct. 5 Murder at Haunted Blood Mansion, Adams Mystery Playhouse, Denver, thru Nov. 10 Dial M for Murder, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Sept. 19-Oct. 6 The Bluebird, Millibo Art Theatre, Colorado Springs, Sept. 19-22 Enemy of the People, BETC, Denver Savoy, Sept. 26-Oct. 13 Devil's Crush, Wonderbound, Denver, Oct. 17-27 Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Upcoming Shows01:26 Reviews of Recent Theater Productions05:12 Audience Engagement and Feedback08:45 Theater Criticism and Community Response15:18 Exploring Immersive Theater in Denver26:47 The Evolution of Immersive Experiences35:56 Upcoming Shows and Colorado Headliners45:53 Interview with Jen Zuko of Blue Dime Cabaret

Scott Cramton's journey is nothing short of inspiring. Born with a cleft palate, Scott underwent seven surgeries by fourth grade and overcame speech challenges through dedicated therapy. His love for the arts became his driving force, leading to the creation of American Immersion Theater, the premiere provider of immersive entertainment experiences.  With a passion for immersive and interactive entertainment, Scott has revolutionized the theater experience, creating engaging, participatory performances that captivate audiences. American Immersion Theater, the umbrella company for several niche theater businesses including The Murder Myster Co., has grown to offer a wide range of productions, from murder mystery dinners to elaborate interactive events. Scott's vision and creativity have positioned him as a leading immersive theater figure, consistently pushing traditional performance art's boundaries.  AIT has 25 locations across the country and employs over 2000 performers who are part of nearly 8000 shows a year. With scripts that have been performed over 50,000 times, Scott is one of the most produced immersive or even mystery playwrights in the world. From public and private parties to working with some of the largest brands like Lucas Films, Apple, Netflix and Disney, he also recently entered a strategic partnership and received an investment from prolific horror producer Jason Blum.  https://americanimmersiontheater.com/ https://www.murdermysteryco.com/   “ATTENTION SPOTIFY LISTENERS: IF you want to WATCH this with VIDEO, you can also subscribe to our video version: https://open.spotify.com/show/5e9KnBRZdjUTXTvCe6Nrqm?si=6639537c61044396” @stagelync Thank you to our sponsor @clear-com The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

Scott Cramton's journey is nothing short of inspiring. Born with a cleft palate, Scott underwent seven surgeries by fourth grade and overcame speech challenges through dedicated therapy. His love for the arts became his driving force, leading to the creation of American Immersion Theater, the premiere provider of immersive entertainment experiences.  With a passion for immersive and interactive entertainment, Scott has revolutionized the theater experience, creating engaging, participatory performances that captivate audiences. American Immersion Theater, the umbrella company for several niche theater businesses including The Murder Myster Co., has grown to offer a wide range of productions, from murder mystery dinners to elaborate interactive events. Scott's vision and creativity have positioned him as a leading immersive theater figure, consistently pushing traditional performance art's boundaries.  AIT has 25 locations across the country and employs over 2000 performers who are part of nearly 8000 shows a year. With scripts that have been performed over 50,000 times, Scott is one of the most produced immersive or even mystery playwrights in the world. From public and private parties to working with some of the largest brands like Lucas Films, Apple, Netflix and Disney, he also recently entered a strategic partnership and received an investment from prolific horror producer Jason Blum.  https://americanimmersiontheater.com/ https://www.murdermysteryco.com/   @stagelync Thank you to our sponsor @clear-com The StageLync Podcast is a branch of our larger StageLync Community. Come visit us at www.stagelync.com

Plus, our Colorado Headliners for the week and an interview with Naomi Grossman, who brings her ‘American Whore Story' to the Denver Fringe Festival   In this episode of the OnStage Colorado Podcast, hosts Alex Miller and Toni Tresca take a look at Colorado's growing reputation as a hotspot for immersive theatre. From Denver Center's Off-Center program to The Catamounts, Audacious Theatre, Control Group and more, immersive-style performances are gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional theatre.   We'll also check out this week's Colorado Headliners — our top most interesting shows or programs coming up around the state. This week's Headliners (in no particular order) are:  1. Creede Repertory Theatre summer season 2.  Rocky Mountain Repertory summer season 3.  Little Theatre of the Rockies summer season 4.  Junestasy Pride Drag Cabaret 5.  Bill Burr 6.  Sarah Silverman 7.  Arvada Center summer concerts   Later in the podcast, Alex interviews Naomi Grossman, who played the super-creepy character of Pepper on American Horror Story. Her one-woman show American Whore Story relates that experience as well as other parts of her life and will be at this year's Denver Fringe Festival.

複数の場所で演劇が同時並行に進み、見た場所のストーリーに没入できる「イマーシブシアター」での体験を語りました。ネタバレはありません！01:10 イマーシブシアターとは？ - 会場内がすべてステージの演劇で、同時並行に進むストーリーをどこで何を見てもOK02:44 イマーシブフォート東京「ザ・シャーロック」を7人で体験してみたら…（ネタバレ無し）06:46 「江戸花魁奇譚」70分濃密な体験、かつR18指定09:47 役者やダンサー、ミュージシャン、パフォーマーにとっての新たな職場10:28 DAZZLE主催のイマーシブシアター「Unseen you」一軒家がステージで毎日上演11:52 観客はその世界に存在するものとして扱われる12:39 イマーシブシアター独特の体験・感覚と、席に座って受け身で見るという視聴体験との違い14:19 ニューヨークで上演中の「Sleep No More」16:07 イマーシブシアター「Lost in the Pages」をオンラインで視聴＆体験してみた16:33 現場にいる人たちの体験にオンライン視聴者が影響する可能性がある19:18 西武園ゆうえんちの中にある「豪華列車はミステリーを乗せて」19:59 登場キャラクターとしゃべりながらストーリーが進む20:46 キャラから振られる役割は、物語の進行に影響する23:27 自分が動くというのは体験として記憶に残りやすく、満足感もあるエピソード内で取り上げた情報へのリンク： イマーシブフォート東京 Unseen you Sleep No More （New York） Lost in the pages 豪華列車はミステリーを乗せてテック業界で働く3人が、テクノロジーとクリエイティブに関するトピックを、視点を行き交わしながら語り合います。及川卓也 @takoratta プロダクトマネジメントとプロダクト開発組織づくりの専門家 自己紹介エピソード ep1, ep2関信浩 @NobuhiroSeki アメリカ・ニューヨークでスタートアップ投資を行う、何でも屋 自己紹介エピソード ep52上野美香 @mikamika59 マーケティング・プロダクトマネジメントを手掛けるフリーランス 自己紹介エピソード ep53Official X: @x_crossing_ https://x-crossing.com

Welcome to "Behind the Curtain," the captivating theatre podcast that takes you on a thrilling journey beyond the stage. I'm your host, Hollie Nelson, and I'm thrilled to have you joining me on this journey of exploration and discovery. On this weeks episode, I'm taking to Molly Cleere. She is currently playing Konstantina in Mamma Mia The Party. We talk about so much in this episode from growing up, to immersive theatre and trying to highlight YOUR strengths. Instagram @behindthecurtain_pod

This week, we spoke with Kathryn Yu, co-founder of the Immersive Experience Institute and the former Executive Editor of No Proscenium, who loves immersive theatre! You can find out more about immersive theatre at Everything Immersive, at The Immersive Experience Institute, and at No Proscenium. Kathryn would also like to invite you all to the 2024 Los Angeles Immersive Invitational, which is produced by After Hours Theatre Company in collaboration with The Immersive Experience Institute. At this event, multiple teams make a short form immersive experience over the course of 48 hours, all based on the same prompt! The event culminates in a public showcase on April 21 in Glendale, CA. Tickets are on sale now at this link.

Welcome to another conversation from the high/low art divide between opera-singer-turned-experimental-performer Ema Katrovas and comedian-and-TV-writer-turned-novelist Nicholas Anthony.  This episode is the second half of a two-part series recorded in New York City - this time, fresh off of our experience of Sleep No More at the the McKittrick Hotel, an immersive theatre experience created by the British theatre company Punchdrunk. So what is Sleep No More? Is it a theatrical experience based on Shakespeare's MacBeth, Alfred Hitchcock's film noir Rebecca, and a real witch trial that took place in 1697 in Scotland, which is how it's advertised? Or is it an aesthetic haunted house? Or is it just an elaborate method of selling cocktails? Let's find out... Sleep No More website: https://mckittrickhotel.com/events/sleep-no-more/ Music: The bar did not end up getting back to me about who was playing live music that night. If I ever find out, will credit the musician/singer here. (If you or someone you know played Scallywags Irish Pub on 9th Ave Between 38th and 39th street late on January 10th, please let me know!) As background for my description of the experience, I used a recording someone uploaded to YouTube after smuggling a recording device into Sleep No More (!) - given that it's been up for a while, it seems the creators don't mind much: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYg0thPEPVw&t=2602s Peggy Lee's rendition of "Is That All There Is?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sWTnsemkIs Links:

Spark is on at the Hamilton Arts Festival this weekend. Artistic Director Charlotte Nightingale talks to Jesse.

"I think that we always try to find ways of defining ourselves against culture, archetypes, and narratives. And one of the things that interests me most is the process of trying to figure out what story we're in, to try to figure out who we are relative to stories. I don't think we are reducible to archetypes exactly, but I think that constant trying on the different hats, metaphorically speaking, and saying: Am I this? or Am I that? Am I a vamp? Or am I an ingenue? I would say that probably, as a woman, I am very, very aware of it. I think there is actually some kind of self-knowledge that is linked to knowing something true about ourselves."Tara Isabella Burton is the author of the novels Social Creature, The World Cannot Give, and Here in Avalon, as well as the nonfiction books Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World and Self-Made: Curating Our Image from Da Vinci to the Kardashians. She is currently working on a history of magic and modernity, to be published by Convergent in late 2025. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic, Granta, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.www.taraisabellaburton.comwww.simonandschuster.com/books/Here-in-Avalon/Tara-Isabella-Burton/9781982170097?fbclid=IwAR30lnvlXMrDJtCq_568jUM3hvzr6yUz_GUUZSkbR2RarreOF6PMcvhabBgwww.amazon.com/dp/B07W56MQLJ/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=strange+rites+tara+isabella+burton&qid=1565365017&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr0www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

In this episode, the director of the upcoming immersive theatre production, The Stacks, Ben Gougeon, is interviewed about the show.

This week, we spoke with Jada, a writer who loves immersive theatre! You can find out more about immersive theatre at Jada's favorite immersive-related website, No Proscenium. Follow us @throuthewindow on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tumblr ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠to stay up-to-date on our projects, and don't forget to use #LoveThisThingCast to tell us about the things you love!

Guest Heidi Boisvert believes that our bodies are archives of stories and if we can't get those stories out, the whole fabric of society will break down. When she worked in tech, addressing social issues, she had a crisis of faith and figured that bringing people into physical spaces and working with the body might be one way of mitigating deleterious effects of technology. Now, she's creating a media biogenome.

The Aside Podcasts are a free resource supported by Drama Victoria - Australia's oldest Drama Association In this episode of The Aside Sam Mackie joins us to talk about how he teaches Immersive Theatre for VCE Theatre Studies. Please feel free to email asidepodcast@outlook.com to ask a question. We will try and answer on a future podcast.

Connor and Dylan are dropping an extra TWIN TALKS on the feed! The people have asked, so we're back at last with some one on one chatter. We kick off with some insight into Connor's recent coffee creamer habit, why Dylan is mad at the shock over Troye Sivan's bedroom preference, and our upcoming parallel birthday parties. Drama! Connor treats us to a recap of his recent summer return trip to London, including his show-going experiences at Brokeback Mountain and Mamma Mia: The Party! There's discussion of Mike Faist, ABBA, and a little tease for what's to come in part 2 of this episode, available only on our Patreon: DRAMA+. Subscribe now for our exclusive discussion of Guys & Dolls in the West End, who Dylan's ultimate celeb crush is, and an intriguing DraxMoi submission about The Glee Project. Listen and love, y'all!Hear PART 2 of this episode by subscribing to DRAMA+, which also includes bonus episodes, Instagram Close Friends content, and more!Follow DRAMA. on Twitter & Instagram & TiktokFollow Connor MacDowell on Twitter & InstagramFollow Dylan MacDowell on Twitter & InstagramEdited by Dylan

Put on your mask and let's get into it This week, Caleb Zane Huett, children's author, and one of the founders of Haunted Table Games - the company behind the ultra successful Triangle Agency, sits down with Ally and Nigel to discuss the world of immersive theatre. In this episode we discuss creating immersive spaces, how to find personal experiences in theatres, how to ensure everyone in a TTRPG has a similarly enjoyable time, the world of the Triangle Agency, and we sleep no more. If you liked the episode, please feel free to tell us about it! You can send your comments and suggestions to our podcast Twitter (@HyperfixationsP), or our Instagram (@Hyperfixationspod), and join our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/NQJFFHgpgf You can can find our guest Caleb can be found on Twitter @czaneh and Instagram @czaneh Haunted Table Games can be found on Twitter @HauntedTable, and on Instagram @hauntedtable You can visit their website here, join their discord server here, and sign up for their newsletter here Haunted Table are currently fundraising for their TTRPG The Triangle Agency, check out the campaign and the various rewards on offer at their Kickstarter page now And your hosts can be reached individually here: Ally - Twitter: @alleykat_, Instagram: @ally_k_keegan Nigel -  Twitter: @spicynigel If you would like to come onto the show to discuss one of your Hyperfixations, please feel free to reach out at any of the aforementioned social media. Thank you so much for listening, you rock! Intro/Outro Song: Strollin Along by David Renda, find it here - https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/royalty-free-music/download/strollin-along/339

An MBA and now a theatre professional, Pritesh started his journey into theatre in 1999 with an amateur theatre group (Brahman Sabha Malad Kala Krida Vibhag - plays creating social awareness and participation in various drama competitions at all levels) and moved on to working with theatre companies who were active in the experimental theatre circuit. He was doing his MBA at the same time, and immediately after his post graduation he got an opportunity to work for many world-class banks (Kotak Mahindra, HSBC and ABN Amro) Constant learning and understanding of theatre as an art form and the need for cutting edge communication in the 21st century led to the foundation of ‘utopia communications' in 2009, wherein the sole endeavor is to explore theatre and build contemporary plays and use theatre as a major catalyst in creating communication programs with an impact on educational institutes, corporate, ngo, and individuals. Last 11 years introduced him to the world of commercial theatre arena and today he is a writer, director, light designer for many theatre productions in the city; and also in these years he has led utopia along with its team of trainers and artists to design and execute many interesting training and entertainment programs. Theater and its possible application in every aspect of communication are where he now sets his foot on.   Subscribe/Follow now to receive regular updates about the latest episodes You can follow us and leave us feedback on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @eplogmedia, For advertising/partnerships send you can send us an email at bonjour@eplog.media. If you like this show, please subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts, so other people can find us. You can also find us on https://www.eplog.mediaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2022 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the first digital benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends July 31st 2023. The winner will be contacted via Twitter. Show references: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miloft/https://thebusinesscreative.com/ Mark Lofthouse is a themed entertainment creative and digital designer. During his 16-year career within the themed entertainment industry he's had the opportunities to work with theme parks, heritage sites and leisure facilities across Europe - creating fantastical experiences that wow audiences. His background spans varied roles from operations management of theme parks and head of business for a manufacturing business right through to the lead creative for scare mazes - this combination of creative and operational knowledge has helped him carve out a varied career that now sees him working with the biggest names in theme parks!The Business Creative are a Creative Agency specialising in entertainment experiences that connect an audience to a brand, in a real life environment. Transcriptions: Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip The Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Each episode, I speak with industry experts from the attractions world. These chats are fun, informative and hopefully always interesting. In today's episode, I speak with Mark Lofthouse, an Immersive experience specialist. We discuss the career path Mark took to work in the sector and the four pillars you need to succeed as a creative designer in the theme park industry. If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify and all the usual channels by searching Skip The Queue. Kelly Molson: It is so good to have you on the podcast. I feel like we've been talking about doing this for ages and we're finally here. Welcome. Mark Lofthouse: Thank you so much. Yeah, it does seem like it has been forever ago, doesn't it? Actually, that we started talking, but we're here, life is good. That is all we can ask for. Kelly Molson: Exactly. And we're going to have a good chat and good things are going to come from it. But first, I need to ask you some icebreaker questions. So what ingredients would you go for in your perfect sandwich? Mark Lofthouse: You know what I'm a bit of a fan of? I like chicken, but spiced chicken. I love a bit of cake in my life, so I'd have that. I'd have jalapenos on it, turkey, bit of lettuce, some onions, a bit of chorizo, if they've got it. Yeah, but that's like my perfect sandwich. And lots of chipotle sauce. The Southwest chipotle sauce is like to die for. It's my favourite thing ever. Kelly Molson: I love it. Mark likes a bit of hot stuff there. Yeah, you had me at chorizo. Not going to lie, you had me at chorizo. All right. Okay, good. If you could enter the Olympics for anything, what would you be Olympic level at? And when I say anything, I'm saying, like, the Olympics could be, like you could be like the Olympic baker or like, the Olympic complaining champion. What would you be like Olympic level at? Mark Lofthouse: I think I'd be like maybe jumping to conclusions. I think something like napping. Do you know what I think? Genuinely think that would be the best Olympic sport ever, wouldn't it? Kelly Molson: Olympic level napping? Mark Lofthouse: Yeah, because you know what, I work that much and I'm always on the go all of the time when I have a nap, I feel like I'm the best person ever at napping. So I think I genuinely would be the best at that. I'd win gold. Kelly Molson: Are you like one of these people that a nap anywhere? If I said to you, now you can go and have a 20 minutes nap if you want, you'd be like, yeah, I've done. And 20 minutes later you'd wake up, because it would take for me if someone gave me 20 minutes nap. I'd be like, oh, I've got to think about that for a while. And then I'll lay down. But I might look at my phone and then I might get a five minute nap out of that 20 minutes. Mark Lofthouse: Yeah. If you give me the opportunity to go and have a nap because it doesn't come around very often, I will be very good at that. I'm a very efficient napper. Kelly Molson: Okay, good. I like that. Efficient napper. Olympic level napper. Mark Lofthouse: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Gold medal. Kelly Molson: All right, final icebreaker. I would like to know what your favourite visitor attraction is. It's a really horrible question that I ask people who come on a visitor attraction focused podcast, but I'm intrigued to know what yours is. Mark Lofthouse: Right, I have two kind of contrasting ones. I'm always a fan of theme parks and specifically Fantasy Land in Germany is probably my favourite. And I think it's because it's quite hard to get that true immersive, which obviously that word is batted around so much, but to get that true escapism feel is really difficult to come by. But the park seems to do it seamlessly and I think I've always been such a huge fan and in admiration as well, of what they managed to achieve. So that is one of them. But I also love going to kind off the beaten track places that you think, you know what, let's give it a go, let's go and try and do it. And then it becomes one of the best places to visit. Mark Lofthouse: So one of them, as much as it's a visual attraction, it's kind of a natural attraction as well. So the fairy pools in the Isle of Skye, now, it's becoming more and more popular because of Instagram, but it's literally just a little ravine that comes through off the mountain with water coming through it. And it was the best day out I've ever had. Literally spent the entire day jumping in and out of natural pools and waterfalls. And honestly, it was just the best visitor attraction I've been to. But it was such a natural setting. It was completely natural. Wasn't man made at all, apart from the car park, that was it. And it was just the best. So if you're ever in the Isle of Skye, you have to go and do it. Kelly Molson: That sounds absolutely a bit of me, Mark. What an amazing place. Mark Lofthouse: Yeah. And the photos that I've got are just the best as well. I love them. I love looking back at them.Kelly Molson: Instagrammable moments it is all about. Oh, good. All right.All right. I like that. Okay. Your unpopular opinion I'm going to feel. Mark Lofthouse: About for saying this, and my connections on LinkedIn, please don't judge me for saying it. My unpopular opinion is that I'm much more excited about the products and experiences that Universal are creating over Disney. I know that it is quite controversial. So, again, this is kind of splitting hers because I love both of the companies, but I think from a proposition point of view, that the level of detail, the type of attraction, type of experiences that Universal are working on as a creative team. Not just in the park, but now they're opening this Halloween Horror Nights experience in Las Vegas, where it's nowhere near their park and the new park that they're opening in the States as well. I think it's just so exciting for that company. They just seem to be growing and growing and opening new avenues of business. Mark Lofthouse: And I think I love Disney, and that is an understatement. But I'm so much more excited about what Universal are putting out there at the moment. But it is an incredibly unpopular opinion when you voice that because there is such this tribe mentality between Universal and Disney. But there we go. I've said it. It's out there. Kelly Molson: All right, listeners, we need to know what your opinion is on Mark's. Are you agreeing with them or is this an unpopular opinion? Tweet us and let us know. Brave man, Mark, for the industry that you work in, brave. Mark Lofthouse: I probably just shot myself in the foot there. Kelly Molson: Maybe a tiny bit, but tell us what you do. Mark Lofthouse: I kind of a jack of all trades when it comes to visitor attractions and themed attractions, really. So, by heart, I'm a creative. I've been based in this for about 16 years now, working as a freelance creative for theme parks, heritage sites, leisure facilities. And that will be anything from coming up with marketing material, graphic design, digital design, right through to project management, event management, and overseeing creative concepts for them specifically in events, primarily. So, yeah, I've been doing that for 16 years now. So it covers such a wide variety of things to do. So one day I might be working with the Business Creative, who's an amazing creative agency who I work with a lot, and coming up with kind of concepts for Haven and Tui and these kind of leisure facilities. Mark Lofthouse: But then the day after, I might be working on a terrifying horror attraction in the USA, coming up with a branding, coming up with the proposition and what that is. So it's so varied, the work that I do, but I'm kind of an operational mindset in a creative body is the best way to explain it. Kelly Molson: It's a really weird combination. When we first got into contact, I kind of very much saw you as like a designer, like a graphic designer kind of thing. And I was like, “Oh, well, I can really relate to some of the stuff that you do because that was my background as well”. And then when we started talking, I was like, gosh, your role is really complex and quite unique in what you do. Mark Lofthouse: Yeah, absolutely. I think I've kind of just collected skills over the time that I've been working. So it's things from I've been a digital designer for a company and that's all I did. I created Decks, I did graphic design for companies and then the job I got after that was the operations manager of a theme park. So it's just that leap and that jump is really hard to explain to people. But I've got quite analytical mind and I've got quite a, like three put is my thing at theme park. So always having to look at efficiencies, especially in operations. So it was really weird for me to take the leap from creator to go, “do you know what, I'm going to go and do that”. And I just did it. Mark Lofthouse: I took a leap of faith, did it, thought I could do it, and it turned out really well for me. And it was such a I learned so many skills by doing it that it's kind of second nature now. So I've got a kind of desired skill set, which is operational mindset, but somebody who understands creative, who also understands the operations of it. Because it's the same with many companies where you have these incredible creative people who work there but it's really hard for them to understand how their creative idea can actually form a live experience because it's so different to go yet that works creatively on a piece of paper or on a computer. But then to actually go, well, that won't work because the corridors are too narrow to have that amount of guests passing through it and things. Mark Lofthouse: Whereas I kind of do all of it from beginning to end, which is a lot of work. But no, it's really good. It's just things that I've started to pick up and do and it's just kind of second age of doing now. It's just what I know. I don't know how to do any different apart from do that really it's brilliant. Kelly Molson: And I love talking to people about how they take their skills and how those skills kind of form their wiggly career path. What we're going to talk about today is about developing a creative career in theme park industry. And we're going touch a little bit on the mindset that you probably need for that as well. So my creative career started at I was at school. I had to pick what I wanted to do for my GCSEs. There was a media studies module that I was like, "Oh, this is really interesting for me". So there was an element of design. I was always kind of like into art very much on the kind of design, like the graphics and kind of illustration side. So there was a graphic design module, there was a photography module. There was like a media studies module. Kelly Molson: So I guess it was like really early filmmaking and things like that and all of those things. I was like, "Yeah, this is great". On from my GCSEs, I then focused on graphic design. So went to the local college, did my BTEC National Diploma. And then after you did that, I could either go and do the HND which was you apply to go to university or back then, this is quite a long time ago. It wasn't as difficult to get junior designer roles without those qualifications. So you could kind of, “What do you want to do? Do you want to go and do another couple of years at Uni or do you want to go and get a job? Kelly Molson: And I chose to go and get a job and kind of then my career went blah, blah, and we can talk about that another time. How did you with your mixed kind of bag of skills, how did you kind of start your creative career? Mark Lofthouse: It's really scary how similar we both are. So I in school was the same, got to buy options. I'd always since being a child, I've been obsessed with theme parks, always. And it always takes back to I always remember going to it was when Morecambe Frontierland was open, so we're talking early 90s. And I've got such strong core memories from that time going to theme parks. We used to go there quite a lot. Every summer we used to head over that way to the lakes and I've always been obsessed with it, so I always knew when I was in school I wanted to get involved somehow. Don't know how, I couldn't even predict how that was going to happen, but I was going to be involved. I was determined. Mark Lofthouse: I knew I was going to be involved within the themed attraction industry specifically. Don't know how, but I got to choose my options same as you pick graphic design, because I knew I was all right with the computer, I knew what I was doing, kind of found the way around. I did my entire coursework. Everything was on a theme park, branding theme park, obviously branding a theme park, currently park, marks park, collateral and that type of thing. I did really bad in my GCSE, I will admit. I didn't do the best. I didn't knuckle down when I needed to. I didn't spend the time regrettably. I wish I would have, I wish I'd have kind of focused more now, but I'm not hugely academic. I like to learn through experience and I do think it's just a mix, isn't it? Whether you're one or the other? Kelly Molson: Well, yeah, it is. And actually it's okay if you don't do that well in your GCSEs. And I think what we're going to talk about proves that it's absolutely okay to not do that well in your GCSEs. Mark Lofthouse: Absolutely. I've got two cousins at the moment and they're kind of going through that struggle, go with the like, “Oh, we did really well, but we can't find this and that and the other”. I'm like, everything works out. Everything happens for a reason. Everything works out. I'm a firm believer in it. Set school didn't do the best. And then I was like, right, I'm going to go to the local college. I did media production, funnily enough, and it was during them two years that I realised I hated it and didn't want to do it anymore. I finished, I got my coursework, but I was in that weird time there where I went, “What now what do I do? Where do I go? I didn't want to go to university”. I said, I'm not academic, didn't want to go. Mark Lofthouse: But what I had been doing, kind of simultaneous with the college work, was I got in touch with a company who produced Halloween attractions, because I love theme parks, I love Halloween events, halloween is my favourite time of year. So I got in touch with a company who was kind of prevalent in the UK, and they still are, called Atmosphere Scare Entertainment, and they just produce Halloween events primarily for clients all over Europe. And I got in touch with them and I became a performer for them for one Halloween, which was literally me sitting in some sheets, jumping out of people. That's my extent of performance. Everyone's got to start somewhere. Mark Lofthouse: But I got hooked and I got hooked into seeing visitors reactions to something that you'd worked on, something that you did and how you interacted with that, and I got really hooked in it. So I then got my qualifications, left college and then just started working with the company more and more. So it became I was a performer for the first year and then I had a bit of design work the year after. Bit more, bit more, and eventually ended up scaling up to I was working freelance for them, but I was the  Deputy Creative Director of the company by the age of 21. Kelly Molson: Gosh, wow. Yeah, that's a great turnaround from someone a minute ago was like, I did really badly in my GCSE. I'm Deputy Creative Director by 21.  Mark Lofthouse: The only thing that got me there was well, it was two things. And it was that undetermination. I knew I was going to do it. I enjoyed doing the work I was doing, I don't know, the same as everyone. When you enjoy doing something, you put more of yourself into it. There's a really beautiful Greek phrase called Meraki, which is to put yourself so much into something that it becomes part of you. And it's kind of just a philosophy I've always run with and I love the idea of it. So I kind of just scaled up with the company and that was kind of it. And that's how it happened. I left the company in 2017, I think it was where I became the event manager of a safari park, just because I had kind of event background and knew what I was doing. Mark Lofthouse: And then I had the opportunity after two years to go to Dreamland Margate to look at operations and have a look at guest experience. And I moved all the way down to Margate, lived in there for a season until the end of 2019 and then came home and the inevitable happened in February. So what happened to themed attraction? Isn't sure. What happened to entertainment? It just ceased to exist, obviously, when the pandemic hit. So I became the business operations manager of a manufacturing business, which I never thought I'd do, which was manufacturing hand sanitising liquid, which as you can imagine during that period was a very difficult job to be in. So, yeah, I did that and then that kind of leads me up to where I am now. Mark Lofthouse: I started working with the business creative a year back, looking after sort of the operations creative operations, and then now I'm a creative partner with them. So I develop the concepts, I work on branding, I work on decks, proposals, that type of thing for them, and help them kind of get into new business avenues, which themed entertainment, Immersive Entertainment, Immersive Theatre is primarily one that we're looking at. So that's kind of a little bit of a whirlwind tour of me. Kelly Molson: Gosh, I love that. Yeah, that's been really wiggly, isn't it, if we're talking about a wiggly career. What I liked is that one of my questions was going to be, did you always think that you would work in the sector, but obviously from a really early age you were quite focused on that was going to be your thing. And I think it's really interesting because a lot of it's not. It's definitely not what I did. I didn't ever think I thought I wanted to be a designer and I'd love to be a graphic designer, but I never actually pinpointed a specific sector or a specific role, even within graphic design. And it's interesting how something that you've focused on can really define where your career goes. Kelly Molson: But even if you don't, actually, you can kind of come to it a little bit later with the skill set that you gain along the way. Because if I look back now, if I hadn't worked in all the different roles that I had, I probably wouldn't have made it to running my own agency because I wouldn't have had the kind of variety of skill set that I needed to kind of do that, and I wouldn't have seen all the different ways that certain agencies run and how they operate to be able to get to that point. Mark Lofthouse: Definitely. I think you can't learn enough. You can always absorb, you can always take advice, you can always work on yourself. And I think you don't know who you're going to bump into along the way. Like, there's some clients that when I was 17 and 18, doing graphic designs from my laptop on my knee when I was watching TV, like, we've all been there. Some clients I met there are now just incredibly huge companies who are doing entertainment around the world. And I think you don't know who you're going to bump into. You've just got to make sure that you're presenting your positive, happy, good, self and reliable to work with. Because, trust me, the person you meet when you're 17, you don't know where they're going to be in ten years. Mark Lofthouse: They could be owning the biggest company on earth and you don't know. And I just think it's so important to make sure that any connections that you make, you try to keep them good. You try to keep a good connection with people, because you definitely meet people who you would never expect to see them again. But actually, they probably hire your services again in the future, or you might hire those. So it's so key, I think, just absorb and learn everything you possibly can from people. And so important. Kelly Molson: Yeah. So it's not just about what you're learning, it's about the connections that you're making along the way as well. That's really important from asking for feedback and asking for support from people. What I wanted to ask is, what kind of support did you get along the way? So you spoke really highly of your kind of ex manager that really supported you into that role at a considerably young age to be in that role. What kind of things did they do to support you on that journey? Mark Lofthouse: I think a lot of it was belief that actually they just believed in what I was doing. They believed that I could do that for the company and help them as well. And I think a lot of the time they mentor me. So actually, when I was designing things, when I was 19, 20, before I started getting more involved in it, I designed things a certain way, like, for example, a Halloween attraction, I'd be designing it and I'd think it was the most terrifying, scary thing ever. And it just wasn't realistic and feasible to deliver at all. And actually, I learned so much from them putting a helping hand on my shoulder and guiding me through that process and going, “Actually, if you change this way, it'll work, because this and this.”Mark Lofthouse: And I think having that mentorship from people and it wasn't just him. I've had it kind of through my life, and I know I've been fortunate to have that with people. But I think if you put yourself out there and say, “I need guidance, I need help,” the good people will come through and help you with it. And absolutely, I think we all work in this quite niche and small industry, and I know that there is competition for seeing companies, not a lot, but why not help people in need? And I think we've got this new generation of amazing artists coming through the ranks at the moment who have got a really good tech mind as well. And I think we need to nurture what they have. They've got this mindset that a lot of us don't have. We need to nurture that talent. Mark Lofthouse: We need to grow with it and help them out because they'll help us learn as well. I think it's just this whole learning circle that you might be helping someone, you might be, I was getting help at a certain age, but actually, then when I started to go back to say, but why are you doing it that way? And I kind of questioned, then he learned from me that way as well. And I think it's really key that actually it is a learning circle where if you question things as well, it really helps. And I think to kind of answer your question, I have been very fortunate. Mark Lofthouse: I know that I've had this kind of support throughout my career with people in so many different wide variety of industry, but it's about reaching out and connecting with them because how do they know that you need help? How do they know that you're there? You can't have this fear at all about connecting with people. And I've noticed, especially with on LinkedIn, people who are just coming out of university, people who are just going into university, they'll reach out on LinkedIn and say, "Can I have help with this?" Mark Lofthouse: Or "I didn't really want to ask, but can we just have a call?" And I was like, "Yeah, absolutely, go for it." Because I was in that position once and I think we all were. Mark Lofthouse: We've all had somebody who helps us in bad situations and I think we need to put that back out there because there's this kind of disconnect at the moment and it needs to go. We all need to help each other as much as possible to navigate the murky waters that we're currently in. Kelly Molson: Yeah, you're absolutely right. You've just reminded me of something that we spoke about when Danielle and Ross from Drayton Manor were on a few episodes back in. Danielle, she was super focused and she always knew that she wanted to work in the attraction sector, but she told a story about how she just basically just connected with everyone and anyone and everyone that she thought she could on LinkedIn in that sector and just asked them, just ask them for support. " "Can I come and do this for you? Can I come and do this? Or have you got any jobs? I'm really good at this. Help me." And I think that took me back a bit because I was like, it's absolutely the right thing to do. But how many, I think she was 17 at the time. How many 17 year olds would do that now? How many of them would put themselves out there to actually do that? And I think it's a good message to promote because somebody will help you. Of ten people that you contact, a couple of them will come back to you, right? That's a really good response rate and you will get that next step further along towards what you're trying to achieve. Mark Lofthouse: What's the worst that could happen? They ignore your message. Kelly Molson: Exactly. Mark Lofthouse: It's not the end of the world. You want to see my LinkedIn. If I want to connect with someone, or if I want to find out something or see if there's any collaboration efforts, I message every single person I want to connect with. Because why not? What is the worst that can happen? Someone's going to go, “Not today”. Doesn't affect me. Kelly Molson: It's what the platform's for connecting and chatting? Yeah, I've just done exactly the same. So a couple of weeks ago, I sent out about 30 DMs to people, all people that I'm connected with, but we've just never spoken. And I'm like, "Why have we never spoken? We should like, let's grab a virtual coffee." I've got calls booked in with, like, 15 of those people. I mean, shout out to the other 15 people who have ignored me, but, you know, that's fine. Like, what's the worst that can happen? They don't come back to you. People are busy, like, they're not always going to respond, but you might just hear at the right time with the right person. I've got a brilliant oh, my God, I've got a brilliant case study of that. Kelly Molson: So when we first started this podcast so we started this podcast in the middle of 2019. We did the first episode and that first season ran until, I think it was a thing, until the February March of 2020. And then were like, "Oh, my God, the world has ended. What is going on? Is anyone going to listen to a podcast without visitor attractions?" They're all shut and I was like, "no, actually, do you know what? People need something now. They need something uplifting, actually. If I can get people on that are willing to talk about the exact experience that they're going for, now, this is perfect, right? That's going to help loads of people.” Kelly Molson: And the people that I reached out to, genuinely, I was sending emails going, oh, God, I feel sick sending that email. They're going to look at it and go, who the h*** are they? Like, why would I go on your podcast? Everybody said yes. Honestly, everybody said yes. I messaged Lee Cockerel, the Ex VP of Disney on LinkedIn, and said, "Listen, just massive fan. We've got this podcast. Would you be up for chatting on it? It would mean the world to us." And he was like, "Yeah, absolutely." I could not believe it. Couldn't believe it. So you just take a chance. Mark Lofthouse: Do you know what? I think the fear of the unknown is worse than the fear of clicking send on a message and you need to get over it. Everyone does. And I think I've been in that position. I was. Like, "Oh, my, I can't connect with that. Imagine you're at Disney." That is, just say no.  And I think putting yourself out there is so important. I think there's obviously little tips and tricks that you can do on LinkedIn, but I do think you just need to put yourself out there and I think people will more than likely help and I think everyone's going to somewhere. And I think my advice for people starting in the industry wanting to get into it is connect with people, chat with people, ask for 10 or 15 minutes of their time. Mark Lofthouse: It's not a lot to jump on a call and if people say no, that's absolutely fine, move on to somebody else. I'll just do what we do and copy and paste the message and send it to loads of people. I'm joking. I don't really do that. Kelly Molson: I personalise all of my messages, Mark, thank you.  Mark Lofthouse: I do. Kelly Molson: You've defined that you have 4 pillars that you think you need to succeed in the industry. And I really want to talk about this. So we've got mindset, hard work, creativity and feedback. And we've talked a little bit about feedback, but I do want to come circle back to that. Can you kind of just talk us through those four pillars and explain kind of what you mean about those and why they're important for succeeding in a creative role in the theme park industry? Mark Lofthouse: Yeah, absolutely. I think we'll start with mindset. Let's face it, we're kind of in a doom and gloom place at the moment, where you read the news, you're in this dark place with the news, all you see online is social media, people representing themselves a certain way. You compare yourself to them. I think, especially in a creative world, you've got to take yourself out of your ordinary life, mindset wise. So if you're coming up with ideas, you're coming up with creative concepts. Forget everything that you know, forget everything that is going on in the world and just put yourself out there with it. I think it's so difficult as well. We all go through bad spells with our mental health, don't we? You think, nothing's getting done, I'm facing that brick wall. You will overcome it. Mark Lofthouse: And I think it's so easy, especially in the creative world, that when you get to a mental block, you can get really defeated by it. You think, I'm just not very good at this. I just don't know what I'm doing. I can't get over this. I've had it a couple of times with some storylines that I've been trying to write, some narratives that I've been trying to write, and it just won't come out. I know what I want to get to, I know where I want to get to, I can't get there. And then I had this kind of brainwave I used to get in really dark mindsets where I was thinking, “I'm not good at this anymore, I'm just going to give it up, I'm going to go, I'm working a supermarket, something, I just don't want to do it anymore”. Mark Lofthouse: And actually, I got into the mindset of, “Put it down, walk away, come back in ten minutes”. And it really helped me. And I know it sounds ridiculous, I know everyone's going to be thinking, well, obviously, but when you're especially when I was freelance, if I walked every ten minutes, I saw that as pound signs above my head, that was time gone, that was money wasted. But I was probably losing more money sitting there getting aggravated at my computer, staring at a blank screen than what I would be if I come back in ten minutes, refreshed, had a drink, had something to eat, and I was in a better place. So I think from a mindset perspective, if you're not feeling it that day, creative work, that's fine, just do something else. Mark Lofthouse: If you're not feeling creative, why not start working on an Excel sheet? Because a lot of the time, I find specifically for me, if I'm not feeling creative, I need to do something operations wise, or I need to do something finance or something that separates, exactly that. And even if you're literally doing something that is completely relevant, it's not actually anything that you should be doing. It really helps you separate yourself and then you get back straight into it. So I think from a mindset perspective, it's to analyse where you are. If you're not feeling it, go away for ten or 15 minutes, go back to it, otherwise you're going to waste a lot more time by sitting there doing that. Does that make sense? Kelly Molson: Yeah, absolutely. Great advice. Mine's always just get outside. It feels like you get like that brain fog where you feel like nothing that you're doing is heading you in the right direction that day. So mind is always like, yes, get away from the desk, stick your head outside, take the dog out for a walk. If you happen to have a dog and a cat.Mark Lofthouse: That's literally what I do. I've got a dog, I take him out for 5-10 minutes just around the block, or I get the lizard out and play with I'll show you the lizard a bit, but I've got a lizard and I get him out and play with him in the front room. I just use something to separate myself. I know that sounds like euphemism. It is, genuinely. I'm just going to put that.  Kelly Molson: Pet podcast - we had Matthew on with Bug the Owl last week. Now we've got Mark and his bearded dragon. I've obviously put something out in the universe about guests with strange pets. Mark Lofthouse: We need more animals in our lives. Don't we need more animals? Kelly Molson: I totally agree, Mark. Yeah, good one. I love that. Okay, so hard work. Next one. Mark Lofthouse: It's not easy if you want to get involved in the creative world, it is not easy. And I'm not going to sell this under any illusion that it's an easy task to do. You're going to sit in an office, draw a couple of bits, and then you go home and get paid a lot of money. That's not how it works. I'm quite transparent as a person. I'm more than happy to tell people that because I think I was naive when I started, especially graphic design wise. I thought, it's great. I can sit at home. I can just do a couple of designs per week, and I'm done. That's not how it works. It really isn't. And I learned that quite quickly. Mark Lofthouse: And I think a lot of some people coming into this industry that I've met kind of are under either that illusion or under the mindset of, this would be great. I'm just going to be creative, and I'm going to have fun with work. Yes, it is fun, but there's a lot of hard work you need to put in. I think when I was starting out especially, it's really hard. Y You can prove that, you can write things. You can prove that you are good at customer service. How do you prove that you're creative? It's a really hard one to do. And I think when I started this, I started originally when I was 15, 16, when I started putting myself out there a little bit. But when I was 16, I used to think, "oh, this is fine. People are just going to believe that I've created". And it was a genuine mentality that went through my head. I was like, this is going to believe it. Yeah, this is going to know that isn't the case at all. Mark Lofthouse: And I think I had to put myself out there so much that I ended up doing fake case studies, not representing that they were real, but just to show what I could do. So I put together some propositions for attractions. I did a lot of concept artwork. I ended up spending so much time that I became a full time job for a little bit that I was just putting myself out there on a piece of paper, because how else are you going to get a buy in? Mark Lofthouse: And I think that's a lot of people kind of forget that with companies that they're purchasing your services. It is a business transaction, in essence, as well. So they've got to believe that you can do what you can do. If you went to Pesco and it was an empty wrapper and you took it out and you just had to believe that there was a sandwich in that, for example. Doesn't work that way, does it? You've got to prove that you can do what you can do. And my recommendation to anybody getting in it is spend time to work on your portfolio, spend time to work on creative concepts. Nobody might buy them. Mark Lofthouse: I still, to this day, work on things what are just kind of a labour of love process, that I work on them because I like the idea, I want to get it out my brain, I want to get it on paper because you never know where it's going to be. I had a couple of years back, I sold some skirma's concepts to a client that I had when I was like 18 and it took that long for them to get signed off, but they've eventually they've happened and they've been produced. But my emphasis is expect to put a lot of work in to get where you want to because it's not an easy process. Mark Lofthouse: And I think a lot of universities, a lot of kind of educational programmes will kind of instil the mentality a little bit of when you leave here, it'll be easy to get a job and you can do this, that and the other. Sometimes the harsh realities, that isn't the case sometimes. You've still got to put the effort in, you got to work so hard to get yourself out there and prove that you can do what you can do. Otherwise it's so hard, it's competitive to make it. You've really got to put yourself out there and put the effort into it as well. Kelly Molson: Yeah. There's a big thing about being noticed as well. Earlier when I said about back when I was deciding what I wanted to do and do I go to university or just try and get a junior job?  Kelly Molson: I went down the junior job route because just felt that suited me better at the time. But competition was still really high for junior jobs because you didn't need the qualifications back then. They weren't as rigid about needing a university qualification. But then obviously the competition was a lot higher because there were more people going for those jobs and so you've had to put a lot of hard work in to even stand out in that part of the process, let alone like, what your portfolio looked like. Exactly like you, I spent so much time on my portfolio on projects that weren't real because I had to prove that I could do that role. But the first part of it was actually getting the interview in the first place, so you had to put in a lot of hard work about how you were going to be noticed. Kelly Molson: What did your CV look like? In the end, I'll have to dig it out. I'll put it on Twitter, but my CV was like I wanted to be a packaging designer, so my CV was like the little mini boxes of Kellogg's, the special pack, what were they called? The pack that you get. So mine was one of those, but like the Special K, because obviously K for Kelly. So I did this special K box that had all of my information on it, but in the style of this little box of cereal. And then I put some cereal in it, put my covering note in it and popped like a gift in it as well, which sounds great, but then I got a few messages from people going, "Yeah, that just got battered in the post. And basically we opened the box, broken bits of cornflake everywhere." Okay. At least I made a statement right when you opened it. Mark Lofthouse: Yeah, at least you got in touch. I think that's such a key point, though, isn't it? That actually, it's so competitive nowadays and I think I really feel for people trying to get in it. Don't get me wrong, I still find it difficult to kind of get some of them jobs off the line, or especially with the business creative as well. There's so many agencies that people are looking at using it's competitive to get these jobs, isn't it? We're all after the same pot of money from a client. In essence, it is difficult. And like I said, under no illusions do I want to make it sound as though you can just get one of these jobs by people believing in you. I think it's really key to put the effort in and I think it'll help you as well develop as a person. Mark Lofthouse: When you talk about interviews, this is a true thing. I used to do fake interviews, so I used to get people that either relatives or distant relatives. It wasn't people that could throw me off or anything. I used to do fake interviews and things because how else are you going to get that experience? You can't, and those little tiny things, just get in touch with someone and say, “Could you set up a fake interview with me and you and ask me questions?” Because it's so different. Being in a scenario where you're faking it with friends and family, you're having a bit of a laugh, but actually sitting there, having that meeting with somebody and having that interview is so difficult. It's not a fun task, is it, for anyone? Mark Lofthouse: So I think even doing fake interviews with things like just relatives or people that you may just know of and things, it's so important to get that experience because how else are you going to get it otherwise? Kelly Molson: Yeah, that's really good advice. Yes, good. What you said about all these things, it's all about building your personal brand, is it? It's all going into, like, how much effort you put in is what you're going to get out of stuff. All right, cool. Third pillar, creativity. Obviously, if you are trying to develop a creative career in the theme park industry, you need to have a level of creativity about you. But what do you mean specifically about this pillar? Mark Lofthouse: So, as you said, it's quite a key one, isn't it, to be a creative you need to have creativity. But I think what comes with it is exploration, research and doing so we can all have ideas. Every single person on Earth is creative to some extent. People can hone into that better than other people can, but everyone's got creativity inside them. It's so key to actually go and explore and do things and research and get other people's opinion on your creativity. Because I think we've all been there, where we've gone, “Oh, this is brilliant, it's a great idea”. And then someone else has looked at it and gone, I don't have a clue what you're talking about. I don't get it at all. Mark Lofthouse: We've all been there and I think even I remember reading an article online and it was from an imagineer, and they were saying that actually sometimes that they've done it where they've gone, this is a brilliant idea. And all the team members have looked at it and gone, what on earth is that? I don't understand it at all from guest perspective. So in terms of creativity, it's about honing the creative skills that you have listening to and it kind of leads us onto the next one. But I think listening to feedback, getting that influence from people, but also going visiting attractions, going visiting places, absorbing everything from your surroundings and taking home key aspects of what was exciting about that. So think of the horse racing, for example. What can you take home? How did that make you feel watching that? Mark Lofthouse: What was it about the experience that excited you about it? Or equally, walking in a forest somewhere you feel a certain way and it's really key to understand those feelings that you have and what causes them, because that helps your creativity along the line. So, like I said, we walk in the dog. I sometimes feel really calm and I don't know why. And then I'll kind of try and work out why I feel so serene. I feel really calm because if you ever want to embrace that in any of your creative ideas going forward, how do you get that feeling across? So then I think it's because I've just looked at this and it was brilliant. I've listened to this and it was the sound of birds and above and the leaves rustling together and you've got to absorb everything to be a creative. Mark Lofthouse: I think you've got to just take inspiration from every single place that you can possibly get it from. And I think that's what is about a pillar to being creative. It's not to be ignorant and just believe in your creativity. You can always learn something, you can always get inspiration from other places. And it's really key to remember that, to just remember to spend time to focus on why you feel a certain way. If you enjoyed something, why, what caused it, how long did it last for? Why are you wanting to feel that again? How can you do that for other people? And it's just about creative owning on that creative. Does that make sense? It's a little bit of a waffle book. Kelly Molson: No, it's brilliant advice. I totally get it. When you said about if you're putting yourself into a certain state, that level of calmness, understand what it is that's making that happen, because then you can apply that to the other experiences that you're designing. That summed it up perfectly for me. Mark Lofthouse: I think it truly is the only way you could do it. I think, as creatives admittedly, I'm the same. Sometimes I think, "oh, this is brilliant, I'm on a roll." Now step away and come back and read what you've just wrote, because I've done it a couple of times. I look at it and go, “I haven't even got a clue what I'm talking about here. What on earth? What is happening?” And then I've thought it's because it's got no feeling down. I've just been writing down an idea because it sounds good, but what would I feel like if I was stood there? What would I see? What would I do? What would I hear? What would I smell? And it's really key to think about all that because then you can go, right, fundamentally, this is why that creative idea did not work, because it didn't have any basis to work. Mark Lofthouse: You've got to come up with all of these little idiosms and little ideas to think of why things have got to work in the future. But it's so key as a creative, I think sometimes we can all rely on just our creative brains going, yeah, I know that works from the past and all this works from the past. Think of something fresh every time you do it. Think of a different approach and put that feeling in there as well. Kelly Molson: And then our final pillar is feedback. So you touched on this a little bit earlier about asking for feedback. I think being open to the feedback that you receive is quite important as well. Right. I think there's definitely well, I mean, maybe I don't know. I don't want to be generalist about this, but I think that there has been kind of two mindsets about graphic designers. You often come across some graphic designers and can be a bit precious about what they've done. Kelly Molson: Like, we've all met them, Mark, many of them are my friends, and you spend an awful lot of time on some of these things. Sometimes you can be a bit precious about what you've done and you get some negative feedback on it and it can be soul crushing at the time. But I think you've got to be open to the feedback that you're receiving because you can always make something better. Mark Lofthouse: Absolutely. And like I said before, you can always learn from people as well. And it's so kind of key to remember that. I think there's two things, especially as a designer, you either go down the art route, where actually a lot of the work that you're putting out there is just your personal work and you want to just share your creativity and your art. In that case, you've got to remember that everyone has an opinion and they will earn it. That's number one thing. And I think the second one, if you're working for a client and a client comes back with feedback that you do not agree with, you've got to remember they're paying you. At the end of the day, they're the client. You might not agree with their comments, but you've got to take them on board. Mark Lofthouse: And I think we've all been in that position doing commercial design, whether that is a themed attraction, themed experience, or whether that is a graphic design or art, whatever that may be, where we've got feedback and just looked at it and gone, “You don't know what you're talking about.” Which is fine. They're not meant to. They're showing their opinion and saying, this doesn't work for me because of this reason. And they might not have your background in graphic design, they might not have your background in themed attractions, that doesn't mean their opinion is less valid than yours. And I think it's so key. I went through a phase where any critical feedback I got, “I was like getting the hoof over it.” But you know what? It didn't do me any well because I lost clients over it. Mark Lofthouse: I have clients that I loved working with that wouldn't use me again because of that phase that I went through. But I needed to go through that phase to get into the phase that I'm in now, which is take any feedback on board. That's fine, take it on. Because everyone has an opinion. And actually, what some people bring back, even if they're not qualified, so to speak, in what you do, I bet they've got some good ideas that actually you go, yeah, that's really good to work with. I think one way I always work with clients to kind of assist from the feedback point of view. And I know the business creative do it really well. Is it a collaborative approach with working. Mark Lofthouse: So at the beginning of the process, you will speak with a client and get their ideas on board at the beginning of it. And I think it's really good because then you get the buy in from the client as well. They'll say, "We like this colour, we like this design, we want this feeling from it." But by doing that, you get the basis of the client working with you at the beginning and not you working for them. And it's really key. I think creativity and collaboration go hand in hand. You need to have that collaborative effort, otherwise it becomes a dictatorship of creative beliefs. And that's not what anything should be. You should be working with a client on a collaborative level to say, “Yes, I'm working for you, but we're working together to get this outcome and that's where you need to be.”Mark Lofthouse: Whether that's graphic design, whatever is themed attraction, immersive experience. But by getting on board at the beginning of that process, you alleviate any of the pressure issues with the feedback along the way because you're working with them to develop these concepts. And by doing that, you're eradicating anything really contrasting towards the end of the project or any sign off periods that you have. Kelly Molson: Yeah, great. Mark, great advice. I think we've all been in the position where we have taken some feedback from a client before and taken it away, probably pulled her hair out, felt like we wanted to argue, but then had a little word of ourselves and gone, “Okay, well, how can we work with that?” And it's about evaluating every situation that you're in where you're receiving the feedback. And like you say, there are going to be elements of the nuggets from that feedback that actually will be really positive and we should talk about. But I think there is what you said earlier is absolutely right. You do have to take a step back and go, the client is paying for this. Ultimately we are in a commercial contract here and so how far do you take it? Kelly Molson: But I do think that there is always scope to push back if you genuinely think that the feedback that we received is going to have a negative impact on the outcome and the objectives that the client wants to achieve. So I think it is worth stating that, but you are absolutely right. There has been times in the past where you kind of forget that actually someone is paying for this and we really need to do the right thing here. Mark Lofthouse: Like you said as well, I think that when I talk about the collaborative approach, obviously that isn't just the beginning of a project that's through it. And by collaboration that does mean pushing back on certain elements as well. And that is part of a collaborative team. You aren't just say yes to everything, or no, full stop. You work with a client to say, "Okay, I'll get your idea, but how about if we did it this way instead?" So you still get your creative position in right? You still get the extent of what you want from a creative delivery, but the clients getting the product that they want and it's so key to kind of work that way. I used to be kind of critical with feedback. Mark Lofthouse: I used to, like I said at the beginning, think, “You don't really know what you're talking about. I know as a designer, I know what I'm doing. I've done this countless numbers of times. I know what I'm doing.” But sometimes people just need explanation as well as why have you come up with that. And sometimes you'll read an email and emails are the devil's work. And I will always say that, because you read much more into an email than you should do. Everyone does it, but you'll get feedback. And instead of looking at that and going, "Oh, what do they mean by that? Or is there any way that I can explain myself that you start to type back furiously". Don't do it. Always walk away from an email. And it's only in probably the past year that I've started doing it more. Mark Lofthouse: I'll get an email, come through and I think, I don't like the tone of that. I don't like this, that the other. And then I got, right, walk away from it. I'll come back and then go, “Actually, the tone is absolutely fine, I was overreacting.” Because you're not prepared to get that email coming in. So you're always on the back foot, you're always expecting the worst because you can never read what anyone's going to say. So I think with that as well, if you get any sort of feedback along those lines, try and jump on a call, try and jump on a Zoom call, try and jump on a Team's call, whatever that may be. Because seeing people's facial reactions as well really helps in terms of understanding where they're coming from with things. Mark Lofthouse: And you can obviously explain it a lot better. But, yeah, in terms of feedback, make sure you're getting the feedback, but also feeding back on that feedback to yourself to think, "Should I respond? Do I need to respond that way?" No, always have feedback on the feedback. That's what I think. Kelly Molson: I love it. And such good advice. Right, great. We've covered the four pillars. Mark, we're coming towards the end of the podcast. I've got two more questions for you. One, other than email is the devil's work, what would be the one piece of advice that you would like to share with anyone who really wants to start their creative career in theme park industry? Mark Lofthouse: This one is a bit controversial, but never fall in love with an idea that you have. So I learned this a long time ago now, when I first started, especially Danny Scare Mazes and Halloween events, because it's what I love. I absolutely adore into these type of events. I really fell in love with the ideas that I was creating and I just put my whole self into it and I thought, this is a brilliant idea. And some of the clients that I was working with didn't think that. And it hit me hard, really hard. And I think you have to obviously believe in what you are putting forward. Mark Lofthouse: I'm not saying that you've got to believe in the product that you're positioning to a client, but do not fall in love with it where you can't take this criticism on board because it hits you very hard. It's. Like getting punched in your stomach, isn't it, when you fall in love with an idea and then someone comes back going, “I really don't like this.” And you've really got to assess yourself with it. You've got to position yourself in terms of, yes, I believe in the product, but also it might not be right for other people because other people have different opinions, they see things from a different perspective. So I think, yeah, never fall in love with your own idea is probably a key one for me. And it's something I've stuck with for years, since learning that lesson long time ago. Kelly Molson: Learn it the hard way, Mark, but a good lesson to learn. Great, thank you. Right, we always end the podcast with a book that you'd love to share. So something that you love that you're really happy to share with our audience. What have you got? Mark Lofthouse: Yeah, so I've actually got it. I've got it behind me. I'll move my head. But it's the Immersive Storytelling book and I think it's been covered by so many people, but it is brilliant. It's written by an ex imagineer. I think, actually, she's still a Disney imagineer named Margaret, and she walks you through her vision of how to tell a story correctly in terms of an immersive environment. And it's just so well done, because she doesn't just say, it isn't a case study, this is what I do, this is how I do it. Because you can't do that storytellers, all tell stories in a different way. But what she does is tells you her philosophy of how to think about storytelling in an immersive environment. I literally got through neenoff the full book in an evening. It just engrossed me straight away. Mark Lofthouse: It's brilliantly written, really friendly approach to it, but I can't recommend it enough. It's called Immersive Storytelling. And it's brilliant. I really recommend it to anyone. Kelly Molson: Amazing. Great book. We have not had that one recommended on. We have some really good book recommendations recently. Listeners, as ever, if you want to be in for a chance of winning that book, if you head over to our Twitter account and you retweet this episode announcement with the words, I want Mark's book, then we'll put you in the draw and maybe you could be the lucky recipient of it. Mark, it's been so good to chat today. Thank you. I feel like we've got a really similar background, so we should definitely chat again at some point about our horror stories of feedback and client feedback and falling in love with projects that clients should love and then they hate. Mark Lofthouse: Thank you so much for having me on as well. I think it's so good just to chat with people about what you do and about how you sort of think about things. I think we're all guilty, aren't we, of just going, “Oh, I work doing this and carrying on with it.” But it's really nice, actually, sometimes just to open up about where you started and hear other people's stories as well. So thank you so much for thinking of me and I really appreciate being on here as well. Kelly Molson: No, you're very welcome. It's been a great chat and we're going to put all of Mark's contact details in the show notes, so if you want to have a chat with him about any aspect of this, which he's really passionate to, talk about it. So if you're starting out or you happen to be a client that's looking for creative work, then you'll be able to contact Mark with all of these details in the show notes. So thank you. Mark Lofthouse: Thank you. Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast.

The Ferryman Collective were back at SXSW presenting another immersive theatre piece in virtual reality, but this time they were translating an adapted a piece called Find WiiLii that was originally produced in South Korea by GiiÖii Immersive Studio. Set in a far-future, science-fiction VRChat world, the creators wanted to invite participants to do more open world explorations this section of a nostalgic city that recreates architecture from a section of Seoul. This piece also explore staging of immersive characters that are much more dynamic in how they move through a space to the point where there are some literal chase scenes and elevation changes that mirror a building and culmination of dramatic tension. Overall, Find WiiLii is a synthesis of best practices from immersive theatre, but is also start to explore the types of interactive, participatory, and immersive qualities of a story that could only happen within VR. I had a chance to catch up with Whitton Frank, who is the director of the English-version of Find WiiLii, as well as an Immersive Producer, Performer, and member of Ferryman Collective. Also joining us were Jay Kim & Hyewon Lee, Executive Producers from GiiÖii Immersive Studio. We talk about the unique international collaboration between the Ferryman Collective and GiiÖii Immersive Studio as GiiÖii licensed Welcome to Respite as announced back on April 6, 2022. This lead to an international collaboration of translating immersive experiences across cultures, and then GiiÖii invited the Ferryman Collective to help translate Find WiiLii from it's original Korean version into English as it was accepted into SXSW. We talk about this unique collaboration, design process, and their further innovations of the immersive theatre format in VR in this discussion.

Genderful is a weekly talk show about Gender featuring nonbinary and trans guests hosted by GenderMeowster (they/them), a nonbinary Twitch streamer, YouTuber, Podcaster, and more! Topic: Immersive Theatre, Disability, Art, and TTRPGs Guest Speakers: Rook Feld (they/them) Rook (they/them) is a white, disabled, queer artist living on Lenape land. They are also a gender jester. Their work can be found here: https://wlo.link/@rookthegremlin https://www.instagram.com/boxen202/ https://twitter.com/boxen202 Originally streamed on Twitch: 9/26/22 Theme song by @Mattcherne at https://www.chernebeats.com/ Please contact Gender Meowster on Discord if you are nonbinary or trans and interested in being a guest on the show. Computerized (imperfect) transcript of this episode on Descript: https://share.descript.com/view/vhR2BmpVlen Please support independent queer content creators by signing up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GenderMeowster?fan_landing=true For all other links, please head over to Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/gendermeowster For simplified Podcast and video editing, please consider suporting our channel by using our affiliate link for Descript: https://www.descript.com/?lmref=NaoIoQ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/genderful/support

This episode of the North Coast Podcast was recorded during the Boom Chicago Comedy Festival, where we interviewed the two of the founders of the theater (Saskia Maas & Andrew Moskos) and artistic director (Stacey Smith) of Boom Chicago! The North Coast Podcast is a Musical Comedy podcast featuring interviews, improvised hip-hop songs, and long-form improv from New York City's long-running hip hop-improv team, North Coast. From conversations with comedians, hip-hop artists, and other exciting creatives, you can now bring the infectious energy of a North Coast show into your headphones with this brand new podcast. Produced by Anna Torzullo and Douglas WidickNorthcoastnyc.comBoomchicago.nl Stacey Smith - @Staceysmitchcomedy North Coast - @northcoastnycRj Williams - @rjron.williamsMichael Crisol - @TheDoctorBrickMel Rubin @melrubin2Billy Soco @bsocoDouglas Widick @douglaswidickLuke Miller @lukemillerfakeRalf Jean-Pierre -  @preciousgorgeousralf Anna Torzullo - @AtorzzWith a cast of improv comedy veterans in New York City, North Coast's explosive performances have been packing comedy venues, universities, and festivals nationwide since 2009. Built around a single suggestion from an audience member, the show's improvised scenes escalate into full-blown hip-hop songs, facilitated by resident beatboxer, Doctor Brick. With their seamless melding of comedic timing and freestyle rapping abilities, North Coast frequently blurs the line between comedy show and concert, drawing audiences from the comedy, hip-hop, and theater communities for an experience that has been hailed as “mind-blowing” and “next level” by critics and audiences alike.Named one of the “Top Ten Best Comedy Shows”  by Time Out New York, North Coast has been featured on Vh1, in Slate's Podcast The Gist, The Village Voice, and The New York Times Comedy Listings. Currently, you can catch them performing every Saturday night in New York City at The Peoples Improv Theater.0:00 - Start2:30 - Boom Chicago Comedy Fest6:40 - SONG: Studying the Dark Arts8:12 - Immersive Theatre at Boom Chicago 11:54 - Programming at Boom Chicago 15:38 - InterActing: Improv Comedy for Teens with Autism 18:46 - SONG: Pushing Boundaries and Giving Back 21:00 - The Beginnings of Boom Chicago 25:59 - SONG: Welcome to the Cash Disco 28:00 - Dutch Feedback 32:59 - Anybody Opener 34:09 - Stacey Smith's Artistic Direction @ BC38:22 - Comic Aspirations in Chicago v. Netherlands41:30 - Changes in Amsterdam Since ‘90s 44:35 - SONG: Fat Charlie

Greg Esplin: Director UK Tour of Trainspotting Live, the immersive theatre version of Irvine Welsh's hugely popular book...with TRE's Hannah Murray

Theatre First Episode 341Stream podcast episodes on demand from www.bitesz.com (mobile friendly).Savage In Limbo – (The Local Tap House, St Kilda Melbourne Australia)Breaking the rules of traditional theatre.Gone are the plush seats, spotlights and stage. Here is Immersive Theatre, where the audience is transported to the time and place of the play.For more information https://www.allsortsproductions.com.au For more Theatre reviews from Alex, visit https://www.bitesz.com/show/theatre-first/ Subscribe, rate and review Theatre First at all good podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, CastBox.FM, Podbean, Spreaker etc.If you're enjoying Theatre First podcast, please share and tell your friends. Your support would be appreciated...thank you.Theatre First RSS feed: https://www.spreaker.com/show/4988589/episodes/feed For more podcasts visit our HQ at https://bitesz.com #theatre #stage #reviews #melbourne #australia #savageinlimbo #savageinlimboreview

In this episode, Adam and Budi discuss Immersive Theatre and how the sensorial, haptic, and environmental nature leads to intimacy....or the worst theatre ever made. Mentioned in this episode:TOO MerchZips SneakersWaiting For GuffmanPia FurtadoSlung LowSlung Low's They Only Come at NightSlung Low at SIFAPrior OkolovichBarzakhBarzakh as Science ExperimentStar Wars Galactic StarcruiserMikhael Tara GarverBecome ImmersedTo submit a question, please visit http://www.speakpipe.com/theatreofothers for voice recording or submit an email to podcast@theatreofothers.com Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwiseIf you enjoyed this week´s podcast, we´d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest in it and make it even betterMusic credit: https://www.purple-planet.com and Jack BurmeisterSupport the show

Gender Euphoria, the Podcast, host Nicolas Shannon Savard sits down with storyteller, educator, and advocate for transgender rights, Rebecca Kling. Their conversation addresses Rebecca's work as a solo performer-turned-activist, the importance of consent in deciding to take on the trans educator role, and her radical and hilarious approach to the post-show talkback: the Strip Q and A.

Bertie Watkins is the founder of COLAB. A London based Immersive Theatre company comprising of different theatre companies working together to create the first home for Immersive Theatre. Bertie opens his diary here to talk about how he went from making a show on his own, to creating one of the most successful immersive companies in the industry who span different venues across London.

What exactly is an immersive experience and how can it elevate a classic text? That's the question we put to Beth Daly on today's podcast! Beth has been a part of the theatrical scene for years and crossed multiple mediums of performing, including street performance, television (All Saints, Water Rats), stage (Rules for Living, Jasper Jones, Away) and musical theatre (A New Brain, Fiddler on the Roof, Cry Baby, The Bridges of Madison County, Footloose). Now, Beth is directing a new Immersive Experience of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby which is set to inhabit the Wonderland Bar in Potts Point. We go through the history of The Great Gatsby from its humble origins, through to its literary acclaim and its many adaptations up to Viral Ventures newest immersive take on the text. The audience inhabits the character of Nick Carraway, as he tells a tragic love story. Midwest native Nick arrives in 1922 New York in search of the American dream. A would-be writer, he moves in next-door to millionaire Jay Gatsby and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering husband, Tom. Nick becomes drawn into the captivating world of the wealthy and, as he bears witness to their illusions and deceits, pens a tale of impossible love, dreams, and tragedy. A fable of the Jazz Age, of enchantment and illusion, of a world where love and dreams are pursued and betrayed, this immersive adaption of the much-loved story has been created to blur the boundaries of conventional theatre. It will allow audiences to explore and immerse themselves into the world of The Great Gatsby through a choose-your-own-adventure-style production that will make everyone's experience personal and unique. Led by an ensemble of brilliantly talented Australian actors, GREAT GATSBY will offer audiences the opportunity to experience the story of Gatsby as they have never seen it before. Expect secret rendezvous, dramatic confrontations, bootleg gin and a party that only Gatsby could throw. SEASON DETAILS Venue:  Wonderland Bar (formerly The World Bar), 24 Bayswater Road, Potts Point Season: 18 February – 26 June 2022 Performance times:  Tues-Fri 7pm, Sat-Sun 2pm and 7pm Duration: 2 hours 20 minutes Price: $75-85 Bookings: explorehidden.com ---------------------------- TELL US YOUR THOUGHTS ON THE PODCAST! We are asking our listeners to take part in a short survey to provide us feedback on our episodes so far! It would be SO APPRECIATED if you took the time to complete this survey honestly so we can improve our podcast for YOU! Without you, we have no podcast. We'd like to know what you have loved, what you think works, and what you feel doesn't. We'd also like to know what you'd like to hear on future episodes! Fill out the short survey HERE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guest for this episode is olivier award winning producer Brian hook, of Hartshorn-Hook productions who create live entertainment including traditional theatre and world-class immersive shows including, Amelie, Great Gatsby and their new show Doctor Who: Time Fracture. We chat through his journey into the arts, cutting his teeth at the edinburgh fringe, and his approach to the theatre industry. Hope you enjoy! https://www.hartshornhook.com Instagram: @hartshornhook

Per la stagione lirica 2022 Opera Australia inaugura un teatro di tremila posti a Cockatoo Island dove sarà messa in scena all'aperto la Carmen di Bizet, con tanto di inseguimento di camion, auto e moto per le strade dell'isola.

Il Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari è uno dei più antichi ed importanti d'Italia e pochi giorni fa, sotto la guida del sovrintendente Massimo Biscardi, ha concluso il ciclo di rappresentazioni del Don Giovanni di Mozart dove ha trionfato (ancora una volta) la superstar australiana Jessica Pratt.

ScareTrack - The Mansion / Immersive Theatre Production Electric Goldfish / Lee Conway Interview   Mikey interviews Lee Conway of Electric Goldfish about The Mansion, the brand new haunted immersive theatre experience coming this Halloween!   Follow Electric Goldfish Insta: @elec_goldfish Twitter: @EGimmersive FB: /electricgoldfish ...................................................................................................................... BUY THE EXPERIENCE HERE: http://www.electricgoldfish.online/ ......................................................................................................................   Visit our website here: https://scaretrack.co.uk Watch our latest ScareCam vlogs: https://youtube.com/scaretrack ScareTrack merchandise can be found here: https://smart-fx.co.uk/smart-artists/...   Social Media Facebook.com/ScareTrack Instagram- @scaretrack Twitter- @scaretrack Snapchat- scaretrack   *Logo/Photo property of ELECTRIC GOLDFISH *All views expressed are of the individual host/guest.

Welcome to Philosophy of Directing Podcast, a show in which the host, Natalie, considers various areas of directing and reflects on her own practice and the wider industry. This week she reflects on Immersive Performance, with a focus on the work of Punchdrunk and Blast Theory. This podcast has been created as part of Natalie's work on ALRAs directing course.

The cultures we originate from carry inspiration that never ends - in food, in dance, in singing, in writing, in symbols, you name it. With our guest, Lukas Cabalka - artistic director and founder of Creativiva, we talk about creating entertainment that’s memorable and meaningful. We explore the future of the entertainment world through mixing genres and coming out of the theaters and closed scenes back on the streets. We try to figure out where inspiration comes from and how cooking is a great expression of someone’s attitude towards art.LINKS“Flavor matrix” by James Briscione“Ever-changing seasons” by Joanne Baxter

Mark Trevorrow created Bob Downe in 1984 and the Prince of Polyester continues to reign — at this year's Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Bob Downe is bringing the classic variety television show Adelaide Tonight back to life on stage.Also, the Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore hit romantic comedy The Wedding Singer is now a stage musical and Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre have launched Because the Night — 'an immersive theatre adventure' — so, what does that mean?

Mark Trevorrow created Bob Downe in 1984 and the Prince of Polyester continues to reign — at this year's Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Bob Downe is bringing the classic variety television show Adelaide Tonight back to life on stage. Also, the Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore hit romantic comedy The Wedding Singer is now a stage musical and Melbourne's Malthouse Theatre have launched Because the Night — 'an immersive theatre adventure' — so, what does that mean?

Chris and correspondent **** dive into the rarely discussed, absurdly expensive Lord of The Rings The Musical , it's connection to the colossal flop Spiderman the Musical, and the welcome revelation of Immersive Theatre. Chris recalls a particularly hectic production of Frankenstein. Chris has been made aware that he misquoted Godot. vv Link of the Week!! vv https://linktr.ee/censoriouspodcast --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/censorious/support

This week, it's Disney minus the weird, dark and creepy stuff they left out of their animated adaptations. Before that however, our players will speculate on the birthing techniques of their favorite characters, and then try to name the common character from a list of three different actors who have played them. Then as promised, it's on to "Disney Minus," where players identify the differences between their favorite Disney classics and the less-wholesome stories that inspired them. Absentee fathers! Shootings! Death! Death! Death! As always, there's a Lightning Round, and a special challenge for the listeners at home! Support Us On Patreon

This week, it's Disney minus the weird, dark and creepy stuff they left out of their animated adaptations. Before that however, our players will speculate on the birthing techniques of their favorite characters, and then try to name the common character from a list of three different actors who have played them. Then as promised, it's on to "Disney Minus," where players identify the differences between their favorite Disney classics and the less-wholesome stories that inspired them. Absentee fathers! Shootings! Death! Death! Death! As always, there's a Lightning Round, and a special challenge for the listeners at home! NOTES ⚠️ Inline notes below may be truncated due to podcast feed character limits. Full notes are always on the episode page.

This week, it's Disney minus the weird, dark and creepy stuff they left out of their animated adaptations.Before that however, our players will speculate on the birthing techniques of their favorite characters, and then try to name the common character from a list of three different actors who have played them. Then as promised, it's on to "Disney Minus," where players identify the differences between their favorite Disney classics and the less-wholesome stories that inspired them. Absentee fathers! Shootings! Death! Death! Death! As always, there's a Lightning Round, and a special challenge for the listeners at home!Support Us On Patreon

This week I'm talking to Olivier award-winning live entertainment producer and entrepreneur, Louis Hartshorn. Louis was in the year above me at Manchester Grammar School and was always to be found in the drama and music departments. Since leaving school he's tracked a path that's not frequently followed by those who leave the grammar school system and one that even fewer have become successful upon. This conversation was an absolute delight to have - we actually recorded this sitting in Jay Gatsby's office on the set of the Immersive Theatre production of the Great Gatsby, so you might hear some goings-on in the background. -- If you'd like to support Sod's Law you can become a Sod's Law patron at patreon.com/sodspod from as little as £1 /$1 a month - there are different tiers including ad-free episodes, giveaways and more!

Lara Croft remains one of the most famous gaming characters ever. Now as the film franchise of the games gets a reboot staring Alicia Vikander, film critic Kate Muir and gamer Julia Hardy discuss whether Lara Croft is a feminist icon or an object of male fantasy and what she reveals about the portrayal of women in gaming and film. Debut novelist Lisa Halliday won the prestigious American Whiting Award for her fiction writing - previously won by Colson Whitehead and Jonathan Franzen. No surprise then that her first full length novel Asymmetry has been winning rave reviews. Lisa discusses the book which is in three parts, and reveals how the opening section is resonant with her own affair with Philip Roth.The close interaction between actors and audience in interactive or immersive theatre has been part of its rising attraction, but that appeal is in danger of becoming a problem. Alexander Wright, director of the immersive Great Gatsby show, Maureen Beattie of the actors' union Equity, and theatre critic Sarah Hemming discuss where the lines should be drawn.Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Harry Parker.