Is it Soup Season Yet?
Honestly, every season is soup season if you love soup enough. Which we do.
WHAT WE DID OVER OUR SUMMER VACATION
Summer was jam-packed with artistic adventure. Andy taught and spoke at the bustling hive of The Next Stage Immersive Summit, we participated in the sublime creative potluck that was Worlds in Play, and we survived a harrowing extreme haunt- MCing the Chicken Dance at our family reunion in Richmond, VA.
PRE-ORDER OUR MINI-FESTO!
We love talking to friends and colleagues, as creators or consultants, about interactive and experiential entertainment. Do we sometimes fantasize about becoming thought leaders and world renowned authors? Sure! Who doesn’t? We look great with tiny mics sitting on our cheeks. We’d be adorable at Barnes & Noble signing big chonky tomes.
But the truth is we’re usually slammed building projects and don’t really have time to break free and bang out a book. So we took a shortcut (give or take a combined 50+ years of experience) and grabbed our Sharpies, scissors, tape, and our laptops. Before we knew it, we’d put together a collection of ideas, thoughts, and activities that get to the core of how we create. We’re making work about making work— a super-cute ouroboros!
Infinite Right Answers is available for pre-order right now at this very moment. Newsletter folks get early access, so you can feel smug if that’s your thing.
QUA QUA QUA-SHINGTON POST
Well, well, well. Look who’s in The Washington Post! That’s right, it’s Keanu Reeves.
What a thrill to be included in this Waiting for Godot round-up amongst such an absurdly auspicious list of folks behind the bowlers. Thanks to Zachary Pincus-Roth for interviewing and including us.
Here’s a link to the article. You can access with a free Washington Post account when you input your email.
INTRODUCTIONS AND A GRATITUDE ATTITUDE
With new work and ongoing projects stacking up, we are growing! Please welcome Adrian Sheen, Associate Producer, to the Mister & Mischief crew. We are already completely in awe of/ debt to the incredible work Adrian has brought to the table this summer.
Adrian is a freelance producer, production designer and artist in Los Angeles.
Their creative ethos is a blend of silly and heartfelt. Through set design, collaging, directing, painting and pondering, they craft spaces for introspection and connection, inviting others to play alongside them.
Currently they work as a project manager and producer at Bob Baker Marionette Theater, and would like to make a puppet of their own very soon. A purveyor of strange ideas, Adrian's recent projects include a dark train ride that ends in a concert space in a foresty cove, a mixed media short film about mimicry and anxiety, and building a window that only ever sees a blue sky. They are a fan of aerial dance, kickboxing, rollercoasters, watching Paddington, existential horror, and any other generally intense activity. Catch them at a record store, boba shop, or buying cat food for their babies, Mochi and Foot.
And a grateful “see-you-soon” to our summer Production Intern Ghino Lee. We are so lucky to have gotten a chance to work with such a clear-headed and big-hearted collaborator. Get to know him at his website!
Ghino Lee (he/him) is a second-year theater student at Northwestern University. Curious about audience agency and interactivity, Ghino constantly explores new ways of storytelling through haunts, immersive, and escape rooms! Ghino is known for his producorial skills, bringing Husky Howl Fest to life, the first-ever immersive haunt event at his high school. Ghino recently finished producing his Hollywood Fringe Festival debut show, Escape! The Great Specific Garbage Catch, an interactive escape-show about climate change. He is now working on Mark of Han, an original immersive piece about the trauma of the Korean War set to open this Fall 2025 in Northwestern’s Shanley Pavilion. He hopes to use these skills to enter the Themed Entertainment industry.
OUT AND ABOUT
We love a chance to shout out Mister and Mischief alumni!
Tiffany Ogburn (40 Watts From Nowhere, Narrative Treatment Plant and the upcoming Again! Again!) is in the new piece from Third Rail Projects Sweet and Lucky: Echo at DCPA
40 Watts from everywhere! Sue Carpenter’s documentary about KBLT is on the road. Follow @40WattsFromNowhereKBLT to find out where the doc will be screening next.
Our friend and guide, Laura Hess, has put together a really special report that creates a framework to identify impactful parts of experience design. If you love beautiful data and immersive experiences, the Remarkable Report will knock your socks off. We’d say this even if we weren’t included in it.
Longtime collaborator Lisa Owaki Bierman (Escape from Godot, Builder and the Dove) is directing at the one and only Ars Nova this fall! If you are in New York, don’t miss Heaux Church. It promises to be weird, wild and wonderful.
EVEN MORE CREATIVE CONVERSATIONS
Here are a few places you can catch us from the last couple weeks:
COOL STUFF COMING SOON
SPEAKING— We’re giving an absurd and informative talk at the TEA SATE conference called Hiding in Plain Sight: Leveraging your Location for Powerful Play.
MAKING— We’ve got a new show, Again! Again! which we’ll be workshopping in November and premiering in December. We’ll share more info soon.
DEVELOPING— We’re honored to be part of the Speranza Foundation’s 2025 cohort of the Lincoln City Fellowship and we’ll be in NYC in October workshopping another project to premiere 2027.
IT IS SOUP SEASON
We made it to the end of the newsletter. Henceforth, it is now soup season. Do you have a favorite soup that you are really good at making, or one you’ve always wanted to try making? Go make a pot of soup and share it with some new people.
Don’t tell us about it, don’t post about it.
Just make some soup and hang out with friends.