{"id":169230,"date":"2026-02-25T22:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/169230\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T22:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T22:13:08","slug":"two-orlando-events-explore-what-being-immersed-truly-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/169230\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Orlando events explore what being ‘immersed’ truly means"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Immersed in the crowd downtown Credit: Seth Kubersky<\/p>\n

In recent years, \u201cimmersive\u201d has become the most overworked buzzword in the entertainment business, with producers aggressively integrating interactive multi-sensory elements into previously passive productions in an effort to wrest screen-addled audiences\u2019 atrophied attention spans away from their phones for more than five minutes. <\/p>\n

For better or worse, the trend that\u2019s taken over from Hollywood to Vegas to Broadway includes several threads that can be traced directly back to Central Florida\u2019s themed attractions, making Orlando the ideal city to serve as the emerging immersion industry\u2019s worldwide headquarters. Last weekend\u2019s events sealed that status, as Creative City Project\u2019s Immerse 2026 and the Association of Interactive Performance Professionals Summit simultaneously attracted artists and academics from across the country \u2014 along with enormous crowds \u2014 to our downtown for a celebration and examination of what being \u201cimmersed\u201d truly means.<\/p>\n

Last year, Immerse returned to downtown Orlando following a three-year absence with Broadway star Michael James Scott, Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group headlining the Seneff Arts Plaza mainstage. This year, those latter two anchors returned to present sizable slices of their stage shows, as founder Cole NeSmith told me neither company wanted to take a year off; Drawn to Life\u2019s Chloe Diane Polson (interviewed in Live Active Cultures Oct. 29, 2025<\/a>) danced beneath Saulo Sarmiento as he spun precariously from a crane-lofted pencil, and BMG previewed updated variations on their iconic tube-drumming and paint-splattering paint ahead of their May opening at Icon Park. They were joined by South Florida\u2019s Mesh: The Signal, a high-octane fusion of dance, BMX trick riding and flame effects that climaxed with a half-dozen people doing flips above the crowd as fireworks rained down; think theme park show meets EDC.<\/p>\n

Even more gratifying than the marquee names for me were the wealth of homegrown offerings that lined Orange Avenue and Church Street, where I sampled experiences from some of my favorite local companies like Quantum Leap Productions, Fahrenheit Foxes and Central Florida Vocal Arts (whose \u201cClassical Crashout\u201d looked hilariously cathartic). I was especially intrigued with Hawkmoon\u2019s Laudanum and Ink, a Frankenstein-inspired takeover of an abandoned bar with Gothic poetry and choreographed dancing that deserves further development. And CityArts kept the party rolling past closing time with Assemblage House, an authentic old-school house party re-created outdoors in the Ford Kiene alleyway.<\/p>\n

The overwhelming nature of Immerse and our community\u2019s embrace of it \u2014 as evidenced by the near-impossibility of finding parking anywhere downtown during the event \u2014 inspires mixed emotions in me. On the one hand, the sheer number of people wanting to participate in an arts event was wonderful to see; on the other, the multitude of competing venues and chaotic crowd flow through congested streets triggered both FOMO and enochlophobia. Neither emotion is especially conducive to experiencing the relaxation required for true immersion; instead of being aesthetically satiated, patrons could depart feeling like they\u2019d been trying to drink water from a firehose.<\/p>\n

At the same time on Sunday that Immerse\u2019s farewell daytime firework show was filling the gray skies above Lake Eola with puffs of colorful smoke, participants of the first-ever Interactive Performance Summit were a mile away on the opposite side of I-4 at UCF\u2019s Dr. Phillips Academic Commons, exploring immersive experiences of a different kind. Organized by AIPP president Ken Ingraham, the two-day event attracted local creatives including Phoenix Tears\u2019 Megan Markham, Eii\u2019s Janine Klein, Indigo Chameleon\u2019s William McCoy and Phantasmagoria\u2019s Dana Mott along with interactors from as far away as California. Presentations covered serious topics like standardized patients for medical training and TeachLive virtual education, as well as a pilot for Cloak of Fiction\u2019s InCharacter reality TV show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ultimate objective of immersive interactions should be more than mere entertainment, according to UCF PlayLab director Jeff Wirth. It should enable participants to \u201cwalk in other people\u2019s shoes without any kind of issue, so that they can have an empathetic relationship with another human being because they\u2019re embodying that human being without being judged for doing so.\u201d By giving ourselves permission to \u201cplay ferociously and fearlessly while still being safe\u201d in a structured environment (such as Wirth\u2019s holodeck-esque StoryBox), immersive interactions can help us explore scenarios that evoke emotional reactions on a deeper level than any proscenium-bound play.<\/p>\n

I hope that both Immerse and AIPP\u2019s Summit return and continue to expand exposure for Orlando\u2019s immersive entertainment scene for year\u2019s to come. At the same time, I\u2019d love to see Immerse decrease its density by expanding in time and duration, though I doubt City Hall would allow the event to disrupt downtown traffic any more than it already does. If Immerse can\u2019t monopolize the main drag, maybe there are vacant properties \u2014 I\u2019m looking at you, Plaza Cinema \u2014 that could be claimed via eminent domain and turned over to cultural groups for the benefit of the community. Because with all the talent that Orlando can produce, we need way more than a weekend to soak it all in.<\/p>\n

Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tCreative City Project\u2019s Immerse 2026 and the AIPP Summit simultaneously attracted artists and academics from across the country \t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Dolly\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSpecialty flight No. 925 takes Orlando 2 Tennessee this fall\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

This article appears in Feb. 25-March 3, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Immersed in the crowd downtown Credit: Seth Kubersky In recent years, \u201cimmersive\u201d has become the most overworked buzzword…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[80625,23385,2275,73291,80626,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-169230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-aipp","tag-creative-city-project","tag-downtown-orlando","tag-immerse","tag-interactive-performers","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}