So many theater companies label their shows “immersive” these days that the term can feel like little more than a synonym for “hip.” But five adventurous and meticulous companies consistently produce work that incorporates all (or most) of the six elements that define the immersive genre at its best, as I explain in my article for TDF Stages, 5 Theatres You Need to Know: Immersive Companies in NYC
Below is a list of those companies, with photographs from their shows, past or present, and links to some of my reviews or features.
Punchdrunk: Sleep No More
Nicholas Bruder as Macbeth and Sophie Bortolussi as Lady Macbeth with audience member
Sleep No More
(l-r) Nicholas Bruder and Sophie Bortolussi with audience members wearing the required masks
Then She Fell
Third Rail Projects: Then She Fell, Grand Paradise, Ghost Light
Then She Fell
Then She Fell: Rachel I. Berman (as Alice)
Then She Fell, mirror Alices: Marissa Neilson-Pincus and Tara O’Con
Wil Petre and Sebastian Iromagnolo in Third Rail Projects’ Grand Paradise
Roxanne Kidd
Rebekah Morin in Ghost Light
Jessy Smith in Ghost Light
En Garde Arts: Stonewall, J.P. Morgan Saves the Nation, Red Hills
Stonewall by En Gade Arts
JP Morgan Saves the Nation 1995 Music by Jonathan Larsen. In front of the Federal Building
Red Hills 2018 Singer Sifiso Mabena walks amid the ruins of the Rwandan countryside on the 9th floor of the office building
Woodshed Collective: KPOP, Empire Travel Agency
Katie Lee Hill, Deborah Kim, Sun Hye Park, Julia Abueva, Cathy Ang, Susannah Kim
Ashley Park as MwE in KPOP
Empire Travel Agency — one of the car rides
Empire Travel Agency in hidden public park
Empire Travel Agency at Fulton subway station
This is Not A Theater Company: Pool Play, Cafe Play, Versailles
A scene from Pool Play
Jonathan Matthews in Cafe Play
Cafe Play
Versailles 2015 bathtub dance
More articles on immersive theater
Mile Long Opera
Rakel Aroyo as the girl and Amar Biamonte as the boy in Hidden Ones
End of the World Bar and Bathtub
Marisol Rosa-Shapiro as Pizza Rat in Up Close Festival
Ruthie Ann Miles as Immigration Judge Craig Zerbe presided over The Courtroom, a re-enactment by Waterwell theater company of actual deportation proceedings, using the transcript. What made this an especially memorable moment was that it marked the Miles first performance in New York after a reckless driver last year killed her four-year-old daughter and caused the loss of her unborn baby.
Blue Print Specials
