Nathan Whitehouse
It was probably from growing up in the woods in Connecticut – there wasn’t much to do besides make things up. Putter around, pick up lots of interests. Play in bands, explore nature.
I was particularly drawn to video games, and the possibilities they offered for creating endless personal stories. I studied video game programming at Hampshire College and worked as a programmer in Unity 3D.
Programming, it turns out, isn’t the best way to realize stories. So I found myself pulled farther into my “side-hobby” of theater. I loved its immediacy, and I loved how few resources it took to get something amazing on its feet. From there I branched into film, and within a few years was co-running a production company, Honey Toad, as well as helping found and run a theater company, Dacha Theater.
Today, I am working primarily as as a freelance video editor. I love being given all the elements of a story out of order and finding ways to make those pieces far more than the sum of their parts. In a lot of ways, there is an empirical element to it – something that I loved about programming – but there is also room for creativity.
Beyond that, I continue to work with Dacha to write, direct, and act. My focus is specifically devised, immersive theater. It’s my way of chasing that promise of a truly interactive, living world – of creating a place where people can live a story and create their own narrative, unbound from the technological constraints of video games or the determinism of a linear script.
I remain close to the games industry and have excitedly watched that medium grow and evolve, and anticipate some day returning – or fusing it with my current work.
Currently I am based in Lisbon, Portugal.