Imagine your typical ghost tour. Now subtract a significant number of historical factos and add some real ghosts, or at least some tricks of light and convincing actors.
That is the launch of the great image for “People in the Dark”, a new interactive theatrical production of Drownedout Productions, a young company that creates a little buzzing in the local immersive theater scene. The leading guests Through a dark and windy store in the city center, the show is a strong wink to the 1950 movie “Sunset Boulevard” in the way its goal is to explore the old Hollywood.
Jackson Mancuso, on the right, and Josiah Evaristo de Drownedout Productions. The two have daily jobs in the theme park industry.
(William Liang / for the Times)
Drownedout is Jackson Mancuso and Josiah Evaristo, two friends from the middle of the 20 years who, day for the day, work for design firms at the local scene of the theme park: Mancuso for Universal Studios Hollywood and Evaristo for Walt Disney Imagineing. His goal in his personal work is to combine art direction in the form of a theme park with an immersive economic and economic theater, a term that generally denotes a certain level of active participation by the guest.
With “People in the Dark”, opening on Friday and running through Halloween, the couple infused lessons from their daily work.
“What is the independent cinematographic version of making a walk? It is an immersive theater,” says Mancuso. Like many of an immersive theater production, in which people move through a space to hide revelations and develop tension, “People in the Dark” will have attendees following an actor through support rooms, makeup counters and in some creepy surprises.
“People in the dark” are intimate. Each performance is limited to seven guests, who are encouraged to dress with vintage clothing. That allows each ticket buyer to have a kind of personal interaction with the small cast of production.
“I feel that it is really a moment for things like this to shine and take off,” says Mancuso, pointing to the successful parks as Universal Studios have had with theatrical events such as Halloween Horror Nights or their relatively new fan fest nights. “It is so tactile and real. It doesn't matter how good robots are in a theme park, they will never replace the interaction it has with an actor.”
“People in the Dark” aims to connect Yore's Hollywood with today's film industry.
(William Liang / for the Times)
Throughout the production of one hour, attendees will meet three different actors. “People in the Dark” will be aimed at establishing connections between Hollywood today and the film industry of yesteryear, their themes focus largely on the exploitation of artists. While Mancuso and Evaristo say they wanted to create an experience related to Halloween, that theme was chosen in part due to finding an affordable place to rent in the center and its proximity to historical theaters.
“The hunting of places is probably the biggest obstacle to taking off these things,” says Mancuso. “So we still have a lot of concepts. It was like, ok, if we get a retail location, this is something we can do there. If we get an office location, this is something we can do there. If we get a location in the house, this is something we can do there. And the idea of a real Gone ghost tour is definitely something we could do in a retail location.”
It is the second suitable show for Drownedout. The couple created their first last year in “Limos”, a limited career production with the theme of a tarot reading that goes crazy. Organized in a dark Gothic space in the center, “Limos” was designed to put the guests to the limit, with limited lighting and at least a jump scare at a shutdown. What he learned, says Evaristo, was that the minimum design with bad simple addresses can contribute greatly to create his fear.
“People in the Dark” will roll up the guests through a center store, playing artistic exploitation issues while exploring a ghost story.
(William Liang / for the Times)
“With 'Limos' we had very few lights in the room, and we continue to receive compliments,” says Evaristo. “I have a friend who illuminates for Universal, and she said: 'The lighting' silt 'was great.” But he didn't even screw half of the lights.
“Limus” received positive reviews, with an immersive destination online that there is no proscenium that declared it “impressively polished.” Experience gave them confidence to aim at something a little longer and more ambitious.
But there will still be a DIY atmosphere for “people in the dark.” Much of the accessories came from the hunting of second -hand stores, for example, and the 25 -year -old mancuso indicates that his mother is helping with the budget. The objective is to reach the equilibrium point, and with the sales of tickets prior to the launch so far there are approximately a quarter of the road.
Ultimately, its objective is to create a show along with the stain and the acclamation of its main influence, “The Willows”, by JFI Productions. The latter was organized for the first time in 2017 and returned this year, once again a history of family dysfunction set in a historical mansion. “The Willows” is a basic element of the spooky season of Los Angeles and has exhausted their tickets for October, although there are limited points for November and December.
Mancuso says that seeing the program was a revelation, describing it as “Disneyland for adults.”
“They just found a house, they threw a group of actors and wrote a good story,” says Mancuso. “That changed my perspective. You can create the same type of feelings that you feel in great projects in a much more intimate and adult way.”
Mancuso and Evaristo believe that it doesn't matter how realistic are robots, they will never replace the interaction that people can have with live actors.
(William Liang / for the Times)
And that reveals another motivation for Mancuso and Evaristo. A program like “People in the Dark” is a way of perfecting their skills of their daily work, while we hope to learn some new tricks.
“Here is a place where we can Sandbox, play with ideas and see how we can push the public so that it does not wait,” says Evaristo.
