ROBOT FACE – CO-DIRECTOR – 2020
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence, neural networks, and deepfake algorithms mean that it’s no longer a question of if chatbots will be able to hold convincing conversations with humans — it’s a question of when. But if we’re not even sure what exactly we want from our human partners, then how are we supposed to know what to ask of our robot companions?
In this virtual interactive experience, audience contestants compete as they attempt to reprogram cutting-edge (but still buggy) AI chatbots to complete a series of reality-TV style challenges, with a winning prize for the “Most Human” bot on the show.
TimeOut New York raves :robot_face: is "a diverting experiment in intelligent artifice"
"The company has risen to the moment ingeniously with its highly amusing new online show :robot_face:, a mock reality-TV competition show centered on designing realistic artificial-intelligence chatbots. Instead of trying to ignore or work around the inherent limitations of online theater, Dacha cleverly puts technology front and center."
GHOST PARTY – DIRECTOR – 2018
GHOST PARTY: REMASTERED – DIRECTOR – 2019
In Ghost Party, audiences had free reign over an old movie studio where the ghosts of those involved in its terrible end appeared each night, reenacting the same 10 minutes of a fateful party over and over again. During each 10 minute loop audience members learned more about each ghosts’ story, memorizing their patterns and, with careful observation and some puzzle solving acumen, ultimately setting some of those ghosts free. Each of the 17 ghosts had their own unfinished business, and who was saved and how differed each night. Elements of an escape room appeared, however puzzles were always connected to the world – no random sudoku or locked boxes here. Instead, audiences persuaded and interrogated; they cooked hash browns in the kitchen and cheated actors at blackjack; they wrote and rewrote a screenwriter’s ending and saw it put onstage.
Due to show’s success, it was remounted with some changes the following year as Ghost Party: Remastered
WHO KILLED OTTER’S BABIES? – ASSISTANT DIRECTOR + CO-WRITER – 2018
In Who Killed Otter’s Babies, audiences traveled to a small tourist town populated by animals, theoretically as members of an impartial survey team collecting resident’s opinions on a proposed dog park. While audiences certainly could collect opinions on the park along their routes through the town, it quickly became clear that the recent death of Otto the otter had some suspicious elements, and everyone – from Professor Tarantula, to the wealthy Frog Sisters out in the marsh, to friendly Opus the Post Office Bear – seems to be hiding something. Audiences were able to freely interrogate these characters, come together to share what they’d learned, and, in the climactic finale, come together to determine the fate of the town and its residents.
AN AWFULLY BIG ADVENTURE – ASSISTANT DIRECTOR + WRITER - 2017
An Awfully Big Adventure was Dacha Theater’s immersive take on the story of Peter Pan. As soon as audiences entered Neverland, they were allowed to roam wherever they pleased. Whether that meant following the classic story of Peter Pan, trailing along behind Captain Hook, watching the routines of the Park Volunteers, or bouncing between whatever scenes seem interesting at the time, audiences became fully immersed in the magic of Neverland. The entire span of Fremont Peak Park was transformed, furthering the feeling of being in a separate world.