The Grand Paradise

“a captivatingly sensual interactive adventure” – Time Out New York

"manages to summon romantic promise and regretful retrospection in a single, ocean-air breath."

– Ben Brantley, The New York Times

About The Grand Paradise

Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York (2016)

Set in those hazy and culturally liminal years of the late 1970s becoming the 1980s in the United States, The Grand Paradise was an immersive theater work that combined experiential theater, a late 1970s tropical resort, and a fountain of youth that promised to quench deepest longings. Greeted with a tropical drink and a garland of flowers, visitors encountered the resort’s resident population; characters who embodied the era’s shifting and blurring values. Audiences explored the resort and beaches, watched a floorshow, and followed performers into one-on-one encounters where faded ideals might be traded for shiny new illusions.

"A step beyond what other immersive shows usually offer...a disorienting, entertaining escape, one that playfully blurs the lines between performance and reality."

— Kavitha Surana, Bedford + Bowery

  • Katrina Reid, Jeff Sykes

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • Tori Sparks

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Roxanne Kidd

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Zach Martens

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Cast of The Grand Paradise

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Jeff Sykes, Benjamin Freedman

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • Madison Krekel

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • Tara O'Con

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Rebekah Morin

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • Elizabeth Carena

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Parker Murphy

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Cast of The Grand Paradise

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Jessy Smith

    Photo by Darial Sneed

  • Madison Krekel

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • Tori Sparks, Wil Petre, Sebastiani Romagnolo

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Carlton C. Ward, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Erik Abbott-Main, Jessy Smith

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Jessy Smith, Erik Abbott-Main, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Jessy Smith, Erik Abbott-Main

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Elizabeth Carena, Tori Sparks

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Edward Rice

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Joshua Dutton-Reaver

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Ashley Robicheaux, Niko Tsocanos

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Ashley Robicheaux

    Photo by Third Rail Projects

  • Julie Seal

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • Benjamin Freedman, Joseph Harris

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • Roxanne Kidd, Lauren Muraski, Katrina Reid

    Photo by The Pekoe Group

  • The Grand Paradise

    Image Courtesy of The Shipwreck Lounge

  • The Grand Paradise

    Image Courtesy of The Shipwreck Lounge

  • The Grand Paradise

    Image Courtesy of The Shipwreck Lounge

  • The Grand Paradise

    Image Courtesy of The Shipwreck Lounge

  • The Grand Paradise

    Image Courtesy of The Shipwreck Lounge

  • The Grand Paradise

    Image Courtesy of The Shipwreck Lounge

Credits

The Grand Paradise by Third Rail Projects

Creative Team

Written, Directed, Designed, and Choreographed by
Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett
in collaboration with The Company

Produced in Association with Bill Caleo and Zach Stern

Created in Collaboration with
Erik Abbott-Main, Elizabeth Carena, Alberto Denis, Ashley Handel, Roxanne Kidd, Jeff Lyon, Rebekah Morin, Lauren Muraski, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Tara O'Con, Wil Petre, Joshua Reaver, Katrina Reid, Edward Rice, Ashley Robicheaux, Sebastiani Romagnolo, Jessy Smith, Tori Sparks, Niko Tsocanos, Carlton Cyrus Ward

Production Staff

Production Design: Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett
Original Music & Sound Design: Sean Hagerty
Costume Design: Karen Young
Scenic Design: Elisabeth Svenningsen
Lighting Coordinator: The Dangerous Lady

Assistant Directors: Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Edward Rice
Stage Manager: Kristina Vnook
Construction Lead: Carlton Cyrus Ward
Production Manager: Brittany Crowell
Assosciate Production Managers: Jordan Schulze, Elisabeth Svenningsen
Rehearsal Directors: Jessy Smith, Niko Tsocanos

Assistant Stage Managers: Nick Auer, TJ Burleson, Dana Gal, Sarah Weinflash
Assistant Stage Manager Swings: Cameron Michael Burns, Samara Seligsohn
Production Assistants: Corinne Brenner, Heather Frew, Ange Lopilato, Michaela Whiting
Production Interns: Jake Ely, Johanna Hunter
Box Office Manager: Michael Bell
Box Office Associate: Joshua Gonzales
Box Office Staff: Dana Gal

Associate Sound Design: Isaiah Singer
Costume Design Assistant: Audrey Ketchell
Scenic Charge: Beth Svenningsen
Scenic Artists: Julia Bilbao, TJ Burleson, Emma McDonnell, Larissa Skye Van Rensselaer
Scenic Interns: James Barber, Greer Duckworth, Kalyani Priyadarsan, Brendan Sullivan
Illustrations and Graphic Design: Emma McDonnell
Props Coordinator: Kristina Vnook
Wardrobe Supervisor: TJ Burleson
Wardrobe Assistant: Mary Rubi
Stitchers: Anna Alisa Belous, Jin Ha Fan
Build Crew: Claire Bacon, Emma Hoette, Rebekah Morin, Parker Murphy,
Lily Ockwell, Sebastiani Romangnolo, Tristan Sylvester, Simon Thomas-Train
Light Crew: Where Huertas, Jeromy Hunt, Melissa Mizell
Sound Crew: Olivia Gemelli

Musicians

Sean Hagerty: electric mandolin, violin, banjo
Isaiah Singer: bass, electric piano, electric, acoustic, steel guitars, harmonica
Ben Magnuson: Rhodes piano, organ
Mike Lunoe: drums, percussion

"Echo (Drink till You Drown)"
& "Hourglass (If We Could Find…)"
Lyrics by Tom Pearson
Music by Sean Hagerty and Elizabeth Carena

In-Flight Video
Producer: Tori Sparks
Performers: Michael Bell, Einy Åm Sparks
Video Editor: Einy Åm Sparks
Director of Photography: Julio Florio
Technical Supervisor: Tyler Sparks

Project Support

PRODUCTION LEGAL COUNSEL
Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, P.C., Mark A. Merriman, Esq. and Helen Reeves, Esq.

ACCOUNTANT
Mark D’Ambrosi, Partner, Marks Paneth LLP

Thank you to the Third Rail Projects Producers Circle, visionary champions who helped make the development of The Grand Paradise possible.

Mark Baltazar, Christina Basch, Stephen Berenson, Beth Biegler, Ron Black, Christy Burke, John Callery, Lisa and Joe Carena, James Cavanaugh, Jae Day, Kelly DeAngelis, Mark Dobrow, Alice Doo, Ellen Elkins, Aron Estaver, Lawton Fitt and James McLaren, Dr. Peter C. Friedman, Carla Geisser, Judy and Steven Gluckstern and The Lucky Star Foundation, Daniel Gomez, Matthew Gratz, Harvey Guion, Rick Hamilton, David Held, Stephanie and Ron Kramer, Brett Kuehner, Lisa LaMattina, Adam Landry, Patty Laxton, Leonard Lee, Laura Leslie, Giorgio Manes, Tony Mansour, Karyn Margolis, Chris Michaud, Virginia and Timothy Millhiser, Maggie and Ken Morris, Mary Ellen Obias, Laureen Ojalvo and PJ Maglione, Maria Pacana, Thomas Palmer and Dominique Alfandre, Jennifer Pontius, Brette Popper and Paul Spraos, Sheila Raughter, Charles Read, Darcy Reaver, Marta Renzi, Susan and Tom Rice, Lynn and John Salmon, Tim and Anna Schumacher, Diego Segallini and Daria Masullo, Brad Seiler, Martha Sherman, Lindsi Shine, Jill Slater, Dr. Philip Sohn, Robert Stevens, James Stuart, Kimberly and Mark Tsocanos, and Julian Yap

Thanks also to our 2015 Kickstarter backers who helped make this work possible.

The development phase of The Grand Paradise was made possible, in part, with initial support from Governors Island, Materials for the Arts/New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and Department of Sanitation, The [QuA2D] Art Mill Residency in Jeffersonville, New York provided by Daniel Castellanos and John Wenk, Third Rail’s fiscal sponsor Fractured Atlas & Artful.ly; and support from individual and institutional donors and volunteers. Third Rail Projects also extends its sincerest gratitude to Arts Brookfield for its significant support throughout the development of The Grand Paradise.

Additional thanks: Tara O’Con, Bob Ocon - Federal Aviation Administration, New York Center, JetBlue Airways, John Martin - Manager Air Traffic Services for JetBlue Airways, Tamara Young - Manager Corporate Communications for JetBlue Airways, Hewn Bros., Infinite Scenic, NJ Agwuna, Anna Aschliman, Nick Auer, Erika Barbee, Julia Bilbao, Aidan Bose-Rosling, Giulia Carotenuto, Erin Cohen, Kirsten Cooper, Megan Correia, Brittany Crowell, Alberto Denis, Carina Don, Brendan Duggan, Caitlin Dutton, Desi Fisher, Jim Freeman, Gabriela Gowdie, Dana Gal, Abagail Greenbaum, Ashley Handel, Emma Hoette, Brian James, Meridith Jones, Julia Kelly, Roxanne Kidd, Annette Koehn, Kate Ladenheim, Valerie Light, Justin Lynch, Jeff Lyon, Zach Martens, Emma McDonnell, Zach McNally, Rebekah Morin, Parker Murphy, Christina Ng, Alannah O’Hagan, Lily Ockwell, Paul Olmer, Emily Padden, Eh-den Perlove, Carly Plagianakos, Aimee Plauche, Brendan Quigley, Becky Radway, Joshua Reaver, Kristina Reid, Max Robinson, Sebastiani Romagnolo, Kim Savarino, Alex Schell, Alison Schilling, Kelsey Schroth, Julie Seal, Samara Seligsohn, Jessy Smith, Shanyn Strüb, Sam Swanton, Simon Thomas-Train, Ava-Margeaux Tierney, Rebecca Vineyard, Kristina Vnook, Stewart Wagner, Erin Young.

Press Coverage

"Since Third Rail began creating site-specific and site-adaptive work in 2006, their productions have been inextricably tied to the spaces in which they are performed… [The artistic directors] and the rest of the creative team have been able to fine-tune every aspect of the experience."

– Darryn King, The Wall Street Journal

The New York Times | Review | February 1, 2016
Review: ‘The Grand Paradise’ Summons a ’70s Pleasure Palace
"Using the ’70s as a time frame turns out to have been an inspired idea... 'The Grand Paradise,' the latest and lushest of the many immersive theater spectacles to set up camp in New York in recent years, traffics in instant nostalgia. Created by Third Rail Projects, this interactive tour of an imaginary Floridian pleasure palace from the 1970s manages to summon romantic promise and regretful retrospection in a single, ocean-air breath." - Ben Brantley

Time Out New York | Review | February 2, 2016
The Grand Paradise
"… the piece is a captivatingly sensual interactive adventure… This escapist world is our oyster, where each grain of sand in an hourglass has a shot at becoming a pearl.” - Adam Feldman

FOX5 NY | Feature | November 17, 2016
The Grand Paradise
"At the Grand Paradise, you are the story and the storyteller, relying on instinct and intrigue to navigate a tangled web of distant memories and far-off fantasies." - Simone Boyce

American Theatre Magazine | Feature | February 24, 2016
Aroma-turgy: What’s Smell Got to Do With It?
"...The show is created to make audience members feel like protagonists, which is why everyone has the freedom to explore and interact with it on their own terms. That’s why we go through the trouble to find these things that trigger memory and trigger a personal response. There’s been a fascination with seeing if there’s a way to create some part of an emotion in a theatrical experience—if there’s some way to take you back to what you felt like in a particular moment. And smell is a big part of that.” – Mark Blankenship/Jennine Willett, American Theatre magazine

American Theatre Magazine | Feature | February 23, 2016
A Sense of the Space: Where Dance/Theatre Leads Us by Rob Weinert-Kendt

Asbury Park Press | Review | February 19, 2016
'The Grand Paradise' an essential, theatrical escape
"Every audience member's visit to The Grand Paradise" is different; as a work of immersive, dance-based theater, it requires the guests to make their own way, following characters and story threads that pique their interest. In the show's two hours, there are any number of sights to be seen, events to experience and interactions to be had — and it would take a few visits to get the full picture.” - Alex Biese

Manhattan Digest | Review | February 16, 2016
Transform Yourself With The Grand Paradise
"I realize I’ve only seen two Third Rail Productions, but I’ve come out of both feeling so incredibly connected and engaged with that I immediately wanted to turn around and go back in, just to recapture that feeling… The long and short of all this is, should you see The Grand Paradise? Very much yes. Go, and go with an open mind, and a readiness to engage and explore and flirt. If your night was anything like mine, it will be a highly rewarding and transformative experience.” - David Baxter

New York Live | Review | February 9, 2016
The Grand Paradise
“… A wild immersive theater experience, probably like nothing you’ve ever seen before… What happens at The Grand Paradise stays at The Grand Paradise” - New York Live

The Huffington Post | Review | February 8, 2016
You'll Have a Grand Old Time: 'The Grand Paradise'
"This was by far my favorite aspect of The Grand Paradise: the intimate scale of the performance, which allows for a deeper engagement and more communal experience… I know I'm likely to search for paradise again, and I can assure you that you'll have a grand time if you do the same. I also look forward to seeing what Third Rail Projects will do next, as it's high time someone took a more nuanced look at immersive theatre.” - Bess Rowen

Bedford + Bowery | Review | February 5, 2016
Shake Off the Winter Blahs and Jet to This Grand Paradise of Immersive Theater
"A step beyond what other immersive shows usually offer...a disorienting, entertaining escape, one that playfully blurs the lines between performance and reality.” - Kavitha Surana

TDF Stages | Review | February 2, 2016
A Virtual Vacation of Desire and Death
"Like the theatre company's long-running, Alice in Wonderland-inspired 'Then She Fell', its new interactive show takes place in a multilayered fantasyland where all of your senses are stimulated -- yes, even taste, touch, and smell. However, 'The Grand Paradise' is produced on a much grander scale, with 60 audience members and 20 performers frolicking in a late-'70s, hedonistic, tropical resort where adventures and awakenings await. And, in large part, you determine your own fate.” - Raven Snook

The Huffington Post | Review | February 1, 2016
Theater: Almost 'Paradise;' Awkward 'Affair'
“… it shows that whatever era you're living in, moments of true intimacy are rare and precious and best appreciated quietly, one on one, with the curtains drawn." - Michael Glitz

amNewYork | Review | January 31, 2016
‘The Grand Paradise’ the latest immersive theater experience
"extremely impressive in the scope of its detail.” - Matt Windman

NBC New York | Review | January 31, 2016
In Bushwick, Inhibitions (and Clothes) Fall Away
"Theatergoers are alternately voyeurs and participants in the family’s dark or erotic altercations.” - Robert Kahn

The Wall Street Journal | Feature | January 28, 2016
From Brooklyn Warehouse to ’70s Tropical Resort
"Since Third Rail began creating site-specific and site-adaptive work in 2006, their productions have been inextricably tied to the spaces in which they are performed… [The artistic directors] and the rest of the creative team have been able to fine-tune every aspect of the experience.” - Darryn King

The New York Times
Immersive Theater’s Next Stop: A Sexy ’70s Fantasy Island by Diep Tran | Feature | December 27, 2015
"Third Rail is leaving behind the Victorian era of 'Then She Fell' and transporting audiences to more recent times: a hedonistic Florida resort in the late 1970s that may or may not contain the Fountain of Youth. There they will be guided through the kind of curated one-on-one interactions that make 'Then She Fell' popular, while also having the freedom to choose their own scenarios."

Dance Magazine
Welcome to Paradise by Brian Schaffer | Feature | December 2015 Issue
"Though it feels spontaneous, it also always feels like you’re exactly where you should be. The Grand Paradise will maintain this strategic intentionality, but dials up the audience agency."

Commercial Observer | Feature | December 5, 2015
Interactive Theatre With Human-Sized Aquarium Coming to Bushwick
"Brooklyn-based experiential dance theater company Third Rail Projects is capitalizing on the current success of Then She Fell in Williamsburg, which allows the audience to be more involved in the show, and is bringing that concept to Bushwick with a new act." -  Liam La Guerre

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