If anyone is deserving of a Halloween party thrown by Strange Bird Immersive, it’s Harry and Bess Houdini. The famed escape artist and his wife are central figures in The Man from Beyond, the breathtaking escape room experience from the wildly creative minds there. The immersive entertainment company’s flagship production has drawn awards, accolades and audiences to its doors for 10 years now.
So, a party in the Houdinis’ honor seems in order and Strange Bird is eager to celebrate, choosing the perfect moment and the perfect site for such an esteemed event. Saturday marks the 100th anniversary of Harry’s mysterious death on Halloween and his biggest Houston fans are observing the moment with a new, ambitious, one-night-only immersive experience titled Death Defying.
Haley E. R. Cooper, co-artistic director for Strange Bird Immersive, said they’ll be leaving their Houston Design Center home to throw the party at Rockefeller’s. The Washington Avenue venue will be transformed into a Jazz Age nightclub complete with music and magic acts and, of course, immersive scenes inviting party-goers to delve deeper into the lore of the Houdinis. The lore is Harry promised Bess if there was a way to contact her from beyond the grave, he would find a way and she conducted seances for years after that 1926 Halloween to reconnect with her true love. That storyline is at the heart of The Man from Beyond and Death Defying will expand on it.
“We have always been interested in this concept of the immersive party, which is more than just a party. Of course, we’re going to have a wonderful live band. We’re going to have two bars with drinks and lots of people in costuming. Those are the basics that I think of when I think of a party, right?” Cooper said. “Then, what makes the party immersive is that there are these other events that are happening all around you throughout the evening. And sometimes they’re there and sometimes they’re not. So, the evening itself is very focused on discovery and it’s changing all around you.
“And that means, in our point of view, a lot of immersive activations with performers and also seeing if we couldn’t also tell a story over the course of an evening through those actors. So, we’re also kind of bringing in a bit of a stage show so that everybody can witness part of the narrative. And then, you know, if you if you play your hand right, if you get the luck of the draw, you’re also getting the narrative through other performers as well, in a more intimate fashion.”
Anyone familiar with Strange Bird knows some of its biggest strengths are its scriptwriting and the actors who bring those words and ideas to life. Kacie Adams and Brock Hatton will star as the Houdinis and they’ll be joined by special guests like Tianna Hall, one of Houston’s most notable singers and a Grammy-recognized artist. Amanda Marie Parker, Chaney Moore and Angela Pinina will join forces as The Floral Sisters, a song and dance act that was key to the Houdinis’ love story. Bay Area-based magician Michael Feldman, who has appeared on Penn & Teller: Fool Us and has performed off-Broadway, will perform his intriguing brand of magic. Even the party space is integral to the vision Strange Bird Immersive had for Death Defying.
“We always had a vision for this party, that it would be a large party. We’re used to eight people at a time maximum over at Man from Beyond. With The ENDings, it was like one person every five minutes, you know, very small. But a party, you want a lot of people, right? So, we always knew that we were going to do a venue rental,” Cooper said.
“Rockefeller’s was actually one of the first places that we went to. I mean, that building was made in 1925. It’s perfect for a Houdini 100-year celebration of 1926. And I love how that venue has a lot of spaces where you can kind of explore and have different spots and areas, but at the same time, there is that communal space, where even the balcony overlooking the second floor can look down and see what is happening so that there can be a parting of people as they’re experiencing different things, and then also a coming together as well. I’m interested in this question of creating communal events that everybody witnesses in the party. So, that was just a really wonderful layout for us.
“And then, of course, you have the Houston history, right? You know, I love that people are saying, ‘You’re at Rockefeller’s, that’s so cool. I used to go there all the time.’ So creating that additional excuse to activate that space with something new, I’m excited about.”
Cooper said Death Defying has been in the works since just before last Halloween. In the time since, Strange Bird did its venue search, added music and magic and casted 21 actors for the show. Cooper said the time it takes to create these immersive experiences varies, which allowed us to ask about some of their non-Death Defying programs. She said The Man from Beyond – which features eye-popping, custom-designed, handmade props – took about 18 months to produce. We’re excited to hear a new immersive theater escape room, Lucidity, is just months from opening. It is expected to be a permanent, flagship experience, like The Man from Beyond. Cooper said it has been in build for at least four years and “it has taken longer than we expected, but that’s because it’s probably four times as complex as The Man from Beyond in its ambition.”
The Houston Press recognized The ENDings as Best Immersive Art Exhibit in last year’s Best Of Houston® honors. It was so strong, from storyline to acting and in offering audiences something unlike any other escape room experience, we were surprised to learn that show came together in just five weeks.
“We’re actually really proud of how fast we moved on that. And, that’s in part because we know our strengths really well now,” Cooper said.
She partners with fellow co-artistic director J. Cameron Cooper, her spouse, to bring Strange Bird productions to life. After all the acclaim, they do have an eye on expanding the company to create more visibility and more opportunity for fellow Houston creatives. She said Death Defying has been a good first step to that new era of Strange Bird Immersive.
“(We’re) married 15 years and running this business together and we somehow really, really love it. It’s really wonderful. We are expanding our team, though, and one of the things that we’re doing with Death Defying is bringing on a producing team of six people working on the party outside of the other artists and individuals that we are contracting with. So, we’re really finding out ways to grow this company into a real entertainment – what do you call it? I don’t want to say juggernaut. You know, it’s maybe setting the bar a little bit too high. But, I’m very interested in introducing more things as often as we can.”
Whatever is to come after this Halloween, it will have a Strange Bird hallmark, Cooper assured.
“I think the thing that unifies Strange Bird’s particular vision, I mean, we are an immersive theater company and by that we mean that the audience and the actor are always on the same plane, participating in the same story. That’s kind of what makes our genre interesting, but within that genre, what we are excited about the most is connection. And I want our audiences to always feel connected to the performers and also to the story that is unfolding around them, that there is some ownership there.
“So that ultimately is what I’m hoping is going to end up happening at Death Defying, is that you increase that sense of person-to-person connection. I just feel like we’re living too much in silos these days, in our own little houses, siloed off in our own little calendars, where it’s way too hard to get together and meet. And especially when it comes to meeting strangers, right? And that’s part of what immersive theater is, you’re meeting people that you’ve never met before. And then you add on the wonder of imaginary circumstances. And it’s like you can become a new person. And that’s what I always hope that people take away from all of our shows. It’s the sense of, ‘I behaved differently than I usually do. And that person that I just was in that experience was really cool. Can I bring that more into my real life?’ That’s always what I want to be doing.
“So that’s the vision that we have for the evening. I don’t know if anybody has actually ever really done this. We have a couple sources of inspiration, but this exact thing is becoming very, very Strange Bird,” Cooper said. “It just seemed like Halloween, Saturday, 100 years, this is the chance. This is the stars aligning and saying, Strange Bird, do that dream of putting on the party and see what happens. It really was a situation of we are artistically obligated to take this shot right now.”
Strange Bird Immersive Escape Rooms presents Death Defying, 8 p.m. Saturday, October 31 at Rockefeller’s, 3620 Washington. Sold out.
