Immersive play in Downtown Las Vegas is comedy, murder mystery | Arts & Culture

Calling all poised, patriotic and punctual ladies: You are cordially invited to dine with the lovely members of the Wycliff Falls Garden Club.

That is, of course, assuming that you are well-bred, have no ties to that abhorrent Communist party and can stomach keeping a secret or two.

Majestic Repertory Theatre’s newest immersive production, “The Garden Party” is equal parts comedic play and social gathering, with a simmering tension that comes to a head in the final act.

“The Garden Party” transforms a lush lawn in the Las Vegas Arts District into the setting of the Wycliff Falls Garden Club in 1960.

Audience members do not merely sit around and watch the action unfold. They interact with the characters, eat cucumber sandwiches and, if they so choose, uncover the secret political motivations and higher powers that guide some members’ motivations.

Starting a club

Theater owner Troy Heard had been thinking of an immersive garden party for a couple of years and finally started putting it together last fall.

“Usually a playwright sits down and writes a play,” he says. “With this, we identified certain people we wanted to work with. Who could fit into this tea-sipping, snobby elite? Who could have their nose in the air? Then we created characters around them.”

With the characters devised, Heard tracked down the owner of a small, uninhabited home with a front yard opposite the theater and was granted clearance to use the space. He settled on the year 1960, one that invited the threat of a red scare. Finally, he needed a reason for audience members to be there.

“The club is inducting new members,” he says. “And they’re breaking the rules tonight so men can come. Throughout the night, certain members may turn out to be recruiting for more personal reasons.”

Existing members include the president, Evelyn; the eager Pansy; Daffy, as the garden club’s only botanist; the righteous, Bible-thumping Reverend Dolor; and Rose, played by Natalie Senecal, who is also the show’s co-director.

“Natalie focuses on the psychology, while I do the structure,” Heard says. “I’ll do the mapping and ‘we can put this person here’ and ‘this is how it breaks out,’ but because her background is in psychology, she coaches the actors on how they engage.”

Creating immersion

From the moment guests enter the yard, actors determine who in each audience is more eager or more reserved, casting them for different breakout moments throughout the night, ensuring that every person gets a slightly different experience.

“It’s training them to read body language,” Senecal says. “You use customer-service skills in a way. In retail, you check to see if the customer wants to talk or get their items and go. You can gauge how much they want to play.”

Throughout the 70-minute experience, audience members are whisked away by characters one or two at a time to top off their tea or visit the greenhouse. Ultimately, they may learn secrets — and it’s up to them to determine how they use that information.

In December, Adriana Chavez saw “Krampus,” Majestic’s horror-themed immersive show.

“The audience gets to be a part of the story and interject elements that the actors play with,” Chavez said after Tuesday’s rehearsal for “The Garden Party.”

Another audience member, Breanna McCallum agreed, saying that she can feel sleepy when observing traditional theater, but interacting with the story was exciting and a little scary.

“My generation feels like, now that we’re making money, we want to invest in experiences,” says Senecal, 32. “We want to go to “Star Wars” land at Disneyland and “Harry Potter” world at Universal Studios. We want the immersive experience.”

Contact Janna Karel at jkarel@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3835. Follow @jannainprogress on Twitter.