Last week, I paid $250 online.
asserted
I → pay → 250
In return, I was kidnapped.
asserted
I → kidnap → return
I received a time slot, coordinates to a vacant dispensary in North Hollywood, and an invitation to “hunt aliens.”
asserted
I → receive → aliens
A week later, exactly at my allotted time, I knocked on the door.
asserted
I → allot → door
A man answered, hissing at me to not look anyone in the eyes.
asserted
man → answer → eyes
He smelled terrible.
asserted
He → smell → ?
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asserted
Sign → sign → California
Inside the dispensary, after the man taped my wrists and hands together, I pieced together what exactly was happening to me, and I decided to make a run for it.
asserted
I → tap → it
As I scrambled to my feet, the man began screaming at me.
asserted
man → scramble → me
A different, shirtless man tackled me to the ground, while a woman in a nurse’s outfit shoved fruit gel/pop rocks concoction into my mouth to render me “optimal for alien reproduction.”
Thirty minutes later, I was back home and working on a piece of writing I hadn’t touched in years.
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This is the untapped power of LA’s culture of immersive theater.
asserted
This → tackle → theater
It’s the cure to the city’s collective creative burnout.
asserted
It → ’ → burnout
Los Angeles is full of experiences and events to chose from.
asserted
Angeles → chose → experiences
You can play pickleball, take an improv class, go on a bar crawl, or stare at a wall and do nothing at all.
Me?
asserted
You → play → nothing
I’ve spent hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours on immersive theater events in one of the best cities for immersive theater.
asserted
I → spend → theater
I’ve gleefully let my imagination, my inner child, my sense of unencumbered play — whatever you call it — be monetized, co-opted by a succession of underpaying but fun creative day jobs.
asserted
you → let → jobs
But after the pandemic, I noticed that myself and many of my fellow creatives felt uninspired.
asserted
myself → notice → creatives
Maybe it was social media, maybe it was the glut of information we were constantly trying to consume.
asserted
we → try → information
Maybe it was how we’ve isolated ourselves in the separate spaces within our city, or the long commute in our cars.
asserted
we → isolate → cars
Whatever happened to us, it felt hard to escape; re-engaging in creativity as I once knew it seemed nearly impossible.
asserted
I → happen → it
But this was Los Angeles, I thought — the greatest city in the world!
asserted
I → think → world
Surely, it had an interesting answer to our collective creative malaise.
asserted
it → have → malaise
And, it did.
asserted
it → do → ?
I began noticing events around town … group activities and ticketed happenings known as “immersive theatre.”
asserted
I → begin → theatre
It sounds serious and intense and a little bit boring (and yes, it can be those things) but it also doesn’t have to be.
asserted
it → sound → ?
Immersive theater, I’ve learned, is just an obnoxious name for a type of performance that involves agency.
asserted
that → learn → agency
When you’re doing it, you can be passive; sit back, and experience what’s going on around you … or make choices, dictated by the experience itself.
asserted
what → do → experience
Most experiences involve at least one live actor, a time limit and narrative component — a beginning, a middle and an end.
asserted
experiences → involve → actor
The themes immersive theater tackles — like most pieces of art — are enduring (love, death, sex, and yes, even aliens).
asserted
theater → tackle → love
The most famous example of immersive theater is probably Sleep No More out of New York — a now retired, dance-heavy interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
asserted
example → retire → Macbeth
Many of LA’s immersive theater events take cues from Sleep No More, but push the experience even further: making it more intimate, more strange, even a bit dangerous.
Making your own choices within the immersive theatre event, you can make it completely your own.
asserted
it → take → event
Every choice you make produces a different outcome, that can slightly affect your experience or completely alter it, depending on the experience itself.
asserted
that → make → experience
And for me, it changed everything.
asserted
it → change → everything
Los Angeles has so many facets to explore, but this one is a perfect cross-section of what LA does best: narrative entertainment, drama and abject weirdness.
asserted
LA → have → entertainment
It’s been there, but I had been to closed off to fully exploring it.
asserted
I → close → it
I began attending immersive theatre events regularly, noticing myself becoming more engaged in my own work, and more open to creative thinking.
asserted
myself → begin → thinking
Even driving home from an immersive theater event, I observed my mind is working in a different way than usual: more playful, more excited, more attuned.
asserted
mind → drive → way
I also reconnected with past projects, and started new ones.
asserted
I → reconnecte → ones
I had more energy to do this, along with a surprising renewed interest.
asserted
I → have → interest
I’ll stand by the idea that immersive theater brought me my own, personal creative renaissance.
asserted
theater → stand → renaissance
I have done hundreds at this point, and have spared no expense.
asserted
I → do → expense
…and 4 more, not listed.
The Aporia
