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The Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theatre Company have worked together to create The Tempest: An Immersive Experience, a fully reimagined immersive performance based on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The director is Ben Donenberg, Shakespeare Center LA Artistic Director; Graham Wetterhahn is the Producing Artistic Director at After Hours Theatre Company.
In this performance, immersive from beginning to end, the audience is cast ashore on a mysterious island, to experience a fully realized telling of what is thought to have been Shakespeare’s final play. Guests will begin the experience by finding themselves shipwrecked onto the shifting sands of an island under the spell of supernatural powers. Upon arrival to the seating area, guests will have the opportunity to excavate clues and solve puzzles, while indulging in themed artisan elixirs and island vibrations.
The intention behind the interactive puzzles and stories is for the audience to learn more about the characters and the story before the performance begins. Guests can explore Caliban’s Cave, Ariel’s Hollow, Prospero’s Home, and Miranda’s Sandbox. There’s even a special secret room at the end for those who complete the quest!
Shakespeare Center LA and After Hours Theater Company have created a direct audience engagement built in with Shakespeare’s work of The Tempest. SCLA artistic director Ben Donenberg explained its origins as “During Elizabethan times and at the original Globe Theatre, audiences were viscerally engaged with the players. They would throw tomatoes at the actors, boo, and hiss. This production is aiming to create a riveting interaction and make Shakespeare immersive in the modern sense as a natural evolution of the craft that has been lost in the traditions of current theatrical presentations.”
The Tempest: An Immersive Experience runs through April 16 at Shakespeare Center LA, 1238 West First Street, Los Angeles CA 90026.
