Imagine your typical ghost tour. Now subtract a significant number of historical factoids and add in some real ghosts — or at least a few tricks of the light and convincing actors.
That’s the big-picture pitch for “People in the Dark,” a new interactive theatrical production from DrownedOut Productions, a young troupe creating a bit of buzz on the local immersive theater scene. Leading guests through a darkened, windy downtown storefront, the show is a heavy nod to 1950 noir film “Sunset Boulevard” in the way it aims to explore old Hollywood.
Jackson Mancuso, right, and Josiah Evaristo of DrownedOut Productions. The two have day jobs in the theme park industry.
(William Liang / For The Times)
DrownedOut is Jackson Mancuso and Josiah Evaristo, two friends in their mid-20s who by day work for competing design firms on the local theme park scene — Mancuso for Universal Studios Hollywood and Evaristo for Walt Disney Imagineering. Their goal in their personal work is to combine theme park-like art direction with scrappy, budget-friendly immersive theater, a term that typically denotes some level of active participation on the part of the guest.
With “People in the Dark,” opening Friday and running through Halloween, the pair infuse lessons learned from their day jobs.
“What is the indie film version of making a ride? It’s immersive theater,” Mancuso says. Like many an immersive theater production, in which people are moved through a space to hide reveals and build tension, “People in the Dark” will have attendees following an actor through prop rooms, makeup counters and into a few spooky surprises.
“People in the Dark” is intimate. Each performance is limited to seven guests, who are encouraged to dress in vintage attire. That allows every ticket buyer to have something of a personal interaction with the production’s small cast.
“I feel like it’s really a time for stuff like this to shine and take off,” Mancuso says, pointing to success parks like Universal Studios have had with theatrical events like Halloween Horror Nights or its relatively new Fan Fest Nights. “It’s so tactile and real. No matter how good robots get at a theme park, they’ll never replace the interaction you have with an actor.”
“People in the Dark” aims to connect the Hollywood of yore with the film industry of today.
(William Liang / For The Times)
Throughout the hourlong production, attendees will encounter three different actors. “People in the Dark” will aim to draw connections between the Hollywood of today and the film industry of yesteryear, its themes heavily focusing on the exploitation of artists. While Mancuso and Evaristo say they have long wanted to create a Halloween-related experience, that theme was chosen in part due to finding an affordable place to rent downtown and its proximity to historic theaters.
“Venue hunting is probably the biggest hurdle to getting these things off the ground,” Mancuso says. “So we still have a bunch 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 house location, this is something we can do there. And the idea of a ghost tour gone real was definitely something we could do in a retail location.”
It’s the second proper show for DrownedOut. The pair created their first last year in “Limos,” a limited-run production themed around a tarot reading that goes haywire. Staged in a darkened Gothic downtown space, “Limos” was designed to put guests on edge, with limited lighting and at least one jump scare in a blackout moment. What DrownedOut learned, says Evaristo, was that minimal design with simple misdirections can go a long way in creating frights.
“People in the Dark” will wind guests through a downtown storefront, touching on themes of artistic exploitation as it explores a ghost story.
(William Liang / For The Times)
“With ‘Limos’ we had very few lights in the room, and we kept getting compliments on it,” Evaristo says. “I have a friend who does lighting for Universal, and she was like, ‘The ‘Limos’ lighting was great.’ But I didn’t even screw in half the lights for it. They were just sitting behind a cupboard. But everything in the room was built toward giving you a unique experience.”
“Limos” received positive reviews, with online immersive destination No Proscenium declaring it “impressively polished.” The experience gave them the confidence to aim for something slightly longer and more ambitious.
But there will still be something of a do-it-yourself vibe to “People in the Dark.” Much of the props came from thrift store hunting, for instance, and the 25 year-old Mancuso notes his mom is helping with the budget. The goal is to break even, and with pre-release ticket sales thus far they’re about a quarter of the way there.
Ultimately, their goal is to create a show on par with the slickness and the acclaim of their main influence, “The Willows,” from JFI Productions. The latter was first staged in 2017 and has returned this year, once again a tale of family dysfunction set in a historic mansion. “The Willows” is a Los Angeles spooky season staple and has sold out its tickets for October, although limited spots remain for November and December.
Mancuso says seeing the show was a revelation, describing it as “Disneyland for adults.”
“They just found a house, threw a bunch of actors in it and wrote a good story,” Mancuso says. “That shifted my perspective. You can create the same sort of feelings you feel on huge projects in a much more intimate and adult way.”
Mancuso and Evaristo believe that no matter how realistic robots become, they’ll never replace the interaction people can have with live actors.
(William Liang / For The Times)
And that reveals another motivation for Mancuso and Evaristo. A show like “People in the Dark” is a way to hone their skills from their day jobs, while also hopefully learning a few new tricks.
“Here’s a place we can sandbox, and play with ideas, and see how we can push audiences in ways that aren’t expected,” says Evaristo.