North Texas Performing Arts to Launch NTPA Immersive Theatre Season

North Texas Performing Arts is launching NTPA Immersive Theatre. This new theatrical experience erases the boundary between audience and performance, and transforms the audience into participants. Using dynamic sets, interactive characters, and environmental storytelling, the story unfolds around guests through sight, sound, touch, and atmosphere.

"This will offer an unforgettable audience experience and an incredible learning opportunity for our students," says NTPA CEO Darrell Rodenbagh. "With the explosion of theme parks in our area and around the country, we will be providing our youth valuable skills in this fast growing art form."

With its first-ever immersive production, Black Hollow: The Final Verdict, NTPA invites audiences to step inside the story, where every choice matters, every whisper holds weight, and every shadow may conceal a secret.

Unlike traditional theater, where audiences remain passive spectators, NTPA Immersive Theatre will allow the audience to transform into participants. Using dynamic sets, interactive characters, and environmental storytelling, guests will experience the world of Black Hollow. This fusion of live performance and multi-sensory engagement will create an unforgettable, deeply personal experience. Whether they are facing accusations in Black Hollow's 17th-century courtroom, stepping through fog-drenched forests, or awaiting their fate at the gallows, visitors will find themselves at the heart of the action.

Leading the charge into this innovative form of performance is Melissa Winton, an industry professional with extensive experience in immersive storytelling within the Haunted Attractions Industry. Known for designing emotionally charged, full-sensory experiences that place audiences inside the narrative, Winton brings years of expertise in practical effects, scenic design, costume and makeup design, and interactive performance to NTPA's debut immersive show. Her work has spanned haunted attractions and large-scale experiential storytelling through interactive escape room experiences, making Black Hollow: The Final Verdict a truly one-of-a-kind event for the region.

"This is a chance for audiences to experience theater in a way they never have before," says Winton. "We're not just telling a story-we're making people feel like they've stepped into another world. Whether it's a ghost story, a children's fairy tale, or an interactive adventure, immersive theater has the power to connect audiences emotionally in a way that traditional performances can't and in a much shorter time, allowing the participant to return the same night if desired and create an entirely different experience for themselves."

Beyond redefining how audiences experience live performance, this program will serve as an unparalleled learning opportunity for NTPA's student actors and TechTrack participants. Performers will develop advanced improvisational skills, heightened spatial awareness, and deeper emotional engagement as they interact with audiences in a non-traditional performance setting. Meanwhile, TechTrack students will gain hands-on experience with practical effects, atmospheric sound design, immersive lighting techniques, and environmental storytelling. This program will equip students with real-world skills applicable to theater, film, themed entertainment, and haunted attractions, continuing NTPA's leadership role in cutting-edge theatrical education.

This offering marks another first as NTPA expands into the new and challenging theatrical frontier of immersive theatre with five productions planned this year offering family-friendly interactive adventures, cultural explorations, literary adaptations, and more mature psychological narratives, ensuring that theatergoers of all ages have the opportunity to engage. This exciting offering comes on the heels of NTPA's most recent innovations including its accessible theatre initiatives with its NTPA Deaf Theatre, its NTPA Starcatchers Theatre for disabled participants, and new NTPA Film Studios programs.

NTPA Immersive Theatre 2025 Season:

• April 17-20: Black Hollow: The Final Verdict - Step into the Trial. Speak Carefully. Trust No One.

• August 14-17: Ever After: A Grimm Fairy Tale - Once Upon a Time is Just the Beginning

• October 16-19: Monstrous: Terror in Black and White - The Classic Monsters of Filmland Have Left the Screen- And They're Coming After You!

• December 12-14, 18-20: Once Upon a Winter's Night: The Legends of Midwinter - Journey through the Magic and Mystery of the Season Celebrated Around the World

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