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

Third Rail Projects: Then She Fell, Grand Paradise, Ghost Light

Then She Fell

Then She Fell, 2016n: 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

Ghost Light 2017 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 2016

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 2018

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

The Courtroom 2019 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.

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